The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 138

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 138

‘An Italian person is coming.’

Italy. What comes to mind is pizza, pasta, Rome, soccer…

I think I studied European history in social studies class decades ago.

All I can recall is the vague boot-shaped territory at the bottom of the European map.

Not just Italy specifically,

but I only saw Western patients about ten times a year.

Patients from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia come several times a week though.

“Everyone, an Italian patient is coming the week after next.”

I informed the staff of the situation as I was leaving work.

There wasn’t anything special to prepare, but it would be better for them to know.

“What?”

“So suddenly?”

“They’re coming through Nam Hyeonjeong’s referral, and it’s a pediatric tic patient. For medication consultation.”

The staff also seemed quite surprised.

“Wow, what language do they speak in Italy?”

“There’s Italian.”

“Oh, really?”

Gong Nari, who had asked casually in response to Seo Inae’s answer, scratched her head.

“Then what do we do? Do you directors know Italian?”

“Whenever foreigners came before, we just used hand gestures. Nothing new. And in Europe, the languages are similar to each other, so everyone speaks English well.”

Hwang Sanghun, who had changed clothes and come out, joined their conversation.

“European countries are all different. There are countries where you can ask anyone and English works, but Italy isn’t really like that.”

“Oh, Director Hwang has been to Italy? I want to go to Rome! Vatican! So badly!”

Right. Gong Nari seems like she’d enjoy traveling, but she’s never taken long vacation days.

I should talk to her next time about taking a vacation.

“But didn’t the director just say Nam Hyeonjeong referred them? Then they probably speak English well.”

Well, that’s one thing.

As Seo Inae said, it didn’t seem likely that Nam Hyeonjeong and the new patient communicated in Italian or Korean.

“I can’t speak a word of English.”

But wouldn’t it be even worse if I tried to tackle communication in English?

“Oh come on, don’t be modest. Don’t you have to be good at Korean, English, math, and science to get into oriental medicine school?”

Gong Nari pouted, but my being good at Korean, English, math, and science… that was almost decades ago?

I got perfect scores on the college entrance exam English, but when was that.

Even in the martial arts world, I occasionally met foreigners, but they spoke Chinese well.

“I’ve forgotten it all. Even back then I couldn’t do free talking, but now I really can only say Hello? How are you? I’m fine thank you!”

Those phrases are so memorable I remember them even after years, but daily conversation is impossible, let alone medical consultation.

I’d rather say I somewhat reviewed muscle names while studying for the national exam, but medication consultation would be impossible.

“I don’t even know what tic disorder is in English.”

“Tic is English… tic disorder.”

So this is my level.

But Hwang Sanghun’s pronunciation of “tic disorder” was quite beautiful.

“Ah, oppa was good at English? If needed, you can interpret for us!”

With Hwang Sanghun next to me, no, upstairs, I was worrying for nothing.

“Oppa studied abroad, right? I think you interpreted at some school event before too!”

“That was when the professor forced me to go. I studied abroad when I was young too…”

“I’m counting on you, oppa!”

When I gave a thumbs up, Hwang Sanghun’s eyes trembled.

“No, if it’s Nam Hyeonjeong’s referral, won’t they bring an interpreter? Whether an acquaintance or hired.”

Of course, that seemed likely.

I didn’t hear details about what the new patient does, but if Nam Hyeonjeong had to go out and meet them directly, they must be someone influential in their country.

If they’re planning to tour Busan while in Korea and brought their son, they’re probably at least a business owner’s family?

“Well, of course. But if an unexpected situation arises!”

“No… I’m really not confident. It’d be better to ask Director Lee Ahreum or Teacher Seol Yuhui…”

Hwang Sanghun clutched his head.

And I left work with peace of mind.

No matter how unconfident he is, he’d be better than me.

* * *

Two weeks later, 4th floor of the Oriental Medicine Clinic.

“An↗nyeong↘ha↘sei↗yo!”

A well-built white man appeared, shouting greetings in fluent(?) Korean.

A man with blonde hair slicked back and wearing a suit.

Just by appearance, he looked like someone who’d smoke a pipe and count money in movies, but his actions were incredibly cheerful.

I was slightly nervous about the story of a foreigner coming on the day Seol Yuhui happened to be in charge of the desk, but he was a very hearty person.

“Hello~ Is this your first visit?”

Two people were with the middle-aged man.

A Western boy who was handsome like a sculpture was probably the patient.

The Asian woman was probably a guide or interpreter.

Seeing that person, Seol Yuhui felt relieved and responded with basic Korean phrases.

“adji! jfei! pqjh! kdksl!”

“ejhdskjfowjk!! elsfddsf! jkdsls! bravo!”

But then, the middle-aged man became greatly excited upon seeing the painting hanging on the clinic wall.

The painting that the director had bought from Grandmother Heo Sunnam’s gallery.

He seemed to like it very much.

“Yu Hee, do you happen to know Italian…?”

“I can’t even speak Russian. I was born and raised in Korea!”

Teacher Seo Inae asked hopefully in her confusion, but Seol Yuhui could only shake her head.

What should we do? Should I try speaking in English at least?

“Hello?”

Just then, Director Hwang Sanghun, who had heard the commotion, came out of the examination room.

In his hand was a book called “English Treatment Guidelines.”

He seemed to have unconsciously brought it out while reading it.

“Hello, are you by any chance an interpreter?”

Director Hwang Sanghun calmly spoke to the woman.

If not, that guideline would come in handy.

“Yes, that’s right. Are you the director?”

Fortunately, she seemed to be an interpreter.

“I’m the vice director, and Director Hanyewon who will be conducting the examination is downstairs. I told her to come up, but could you please register first?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll register. Sorry for the commotion. The patient’s name is Paolo Ricci, 9 years old. He came for consultation about tic symptoms.”

Seol Yuhui hurriedly took out the registration form.

“Yes, could you write it here?”

Paolo RICCI

The moment the name and age were entered into the chart, Director Hanyewon also came up to the 4th floor.

“akjfpioqwejfwepiofko!”

Even seeing the middle-aged man continuing to exclaim in alien language, Director Hwang Sanghun remained calm.

“Is he saying the painting is wonderful?”

“At first he said he could feel the Oriental beauty, and now he’s exclaiming that he’s in the heart of Oriental medicine’s essence.”

“…I see. Tell him thank you, no wait. Just leave it. Director Hanyewon’s examination room is downstairs, and there are even more wonderful paintings in the waiting room there, so please wait downstairs for a moment.”

Thanks to that, we safely sent the new patients downstairs.

Though we only dealt with them briefly, they were quite chaotic people.

Director Hanyewon would handle it well though.

* * *

As soon as they entered the examination room, the guardian was amazed by the bronze figure (a doll with acupuncture points marked).

Although we couldn’t communicate verbally, his non-verbal expressions were so clear that I could tell the guardian was in a very good mood.

Come to think of it, when I first fell into the martial arts world, I somehow managed to communicate with my limited Chinese character skills.

“Please have the patient sit over here.”

“…?”

“You are the interpreter, right? Please relay this. The patient here, and the guardian in the chair next to him.”

I had roughly heard about the situation upstairs through messenger, and whether she was someone hastily hired in Korea, communication wasn’t going smoothly.

Anyway, when I asked her to relay it, the two people sat down as I wanted.

I checked the name written on the chart and asked.

“Should I call you Paolo? Nice to meet you.”

“Buongiorno.”

The patient spoke for the first time.

Oh, buongiorno. I had studied this.

Unlike his father who made big gestures, the son was very well-behaved.

Even considering it was a foreign country and a hospital environment, he seemed to be on the quiet side among 9-year-olds.

“Mr. Ricci said that he brought his son to Korea to show him the wider world, and he would be very happy if he could also get his tics treated.”

“I see.”

The interpreter added an explanation that he owned several hotels in Europe and had brought his family for tourism purposes while stopping by Korea on business.

And that he was usually very interested in Oriental things.

Hmm, should I have sent him to the Jeju branch instead?

“Could you tell me about the uncomfortable symptoms the patient is experiencing?”

After Mr. Ricci and I had a brief introduction, we moved into the examination.

I asked Paolo directly and gestured to the interpreter.

Soon the symptoms were conveyed to me through one step.

“He scrunches his nose and keeps blinking his eyes. Recently, he’s been nodding his head too. His father and teachers tell him not to do it, but he keeps doing it anyway, which is troubling.”

“Please check if there are any spasms. If we tell him he must stop, can he stop for 1 minute, 5 minutes like that?”

“Yes.”

“Is it correct that he’s constantly tormented by the urge to do it and does it unconsciously?”

“That’s what he says.”

Then there’s no disagreement with the diagnosis of tics.

“When did it start?”

“It’s been about 3 months.”

This time the interpreter answered first, then asked the guardian again.

“Mr. Ricci noticed it 3 months ago and scolded him not to do it, but the school teacher contacted them saying it might be tics, so they took him to the hospital.”

“I see. Have you tried any other treatments so far?”

He explained his son’s situation at considerable length.

“The hospital said they could prescribe medication like dopamine blockers. But they said they don’t recommend it because children this age often have tic symptoms appear temporarily and then disappear, so they were observing the progress.”

“Ah.”

Right. It would be quite burdensome to immediately use psychotropic drugs.

As he said, pediatric tics often improve naturally within a few months.

“They told him to avoid stress triggers and try exercising, so they stopped scolding him and enrolled him in swimming, but he seems to be more stressed and the symptoms actually got worse. Meanwhile, at a meeting, the CEO’s younger sibling said they had the same symptoms as a child and recovered after taking herbal medicine, which is how they came here.”

The interpreter is incredibly good with languages, but is this their first time doing this job?

Despite it being an extremely long statement, it was conveyed accurately.

“You’ve come to the right place.”

“He says please take good care of him.”

“First, let me ask you a few things. You said the symptoms started with nose scrunching, so I’m wondering – did he happen to catch a cold around that time?”

When I checked with Paolo and Mr. Ricci, Mr. Ricci looked surprised as if wondering how I knew.

“That’s right. Something like that did happen!”

It was just as I suspected.

“3 months ago he had a severe cold and his nose was blocked, so they thought he was sniffling because of that, but even after the cold got better in 2 weeks, the symptoms continued and similar symptoms appeared too!”

Not only Mr. Ricci but also the interpreter’s eyes widened.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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