The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 195

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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 195

On the first day of hospitalization, Kim Juhyeok completed various tests and received his diagnosis.

“It’s cervical sprain. The headaches and dizziness will subside after the first few days, so don’t worry too much. Let’s focus on treating your neck properly.”

After submitting the medical certificate to the police station and filing the case, the at-fault car owner quickly gave up and processed the personal injury claim.

As the insurance company employee said, there seemed to be no major issues with the procedures.

Now he just needed to recover.

“Your neck and head hurt.”

“Ah, yes. When I tilt my neck back, there’s pain along the cervical spine in the middle of the back of my neck, and I have dizziness and nausea…”

“I see.”

The hospital seemed a bit strange though.

Before Kim Juhyeok could even finish speaking, the Korean medicine doctor began inserting acupuncture needles.

“I have pain in the middle of my neck here.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll put needles there too. Ah! Don’t turn your head.”

When he slightly turned his head to look, it was indeed a different person.

“You’re not the clinic director I saw yesterday?”

“No. The clinic director will make rounds once in the morning, and there’s a separate attending physician for the ward.”

A resident… I see.

He understood that a large hospital would assign different doctors, but unfortunately the person assigned to him was very perfunctory.

Including the additional spots, there were only 12 acupuncture needles.

Would this actually help him recover?

“I’ll do chuna therapy. Lie face down~.”

At least the acupuncture was placed on his neck and head, but the chuna therapy was even worse.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

He lay face down on a machine that delivered impacts to his lower back for about 20 seconds.

“My back is fine, could you focus on my neck…”

“The spine is all connected, so we need to treat everything.”

“This is making me feel more dizzy.”

My neck hurts, so why are you doing this?

When he spoke up, the Korean medicine doctor looked at him with a clearly annoyed expression.

“…Yes, let’s just do the neck.”

What’s this? Am I being treated like a difficult patient?

The neck chuna therapy was nothing special either. There was no correction or even massage. He just touched a few spots briefly and finished.

“Hey, is this how treatment is normally done?”

Lying in the hospital bed, he called his friend who had strongly recommended Korean medicine treatment in the past, and received a very puzzled response.

– Not at all? I received really refreshing chuna therapy. Once they did that cracking sound, it was so refreshing that even after I recovered and settled, I continued getting turtle neck correction.

As expected, something was wrong.

Had he been admitted to the wrong hospital?

“Doctor, is this medicine really helpful for dizziness?”

“Yes, ah… yes.”

Even when he asked the nurses because he felt awkward asking the Korean medicine doctor, it wasn’t much different.

“Excuse me, sorry, but could I take a look at your medicine?”

“Huh? I didn’t want to take it anyway, so you can have it all.”

When he spoke to the person in the next bed, they readily handed over their prescribed medicine.

‘As expected, it’s the same.’

His neck pain had improved very slightly, but there was no change in his dizziness at all.

‘I’ve been fooled!’

Now he finally realized for certain.

This place was a factory.

The clinic director who saw him for the initial consultation and the manager who provided counseling were extremely kind and enthusiastic.

Perhaps their incentives were determined by whether they admitted patients or not.

And once admitted, Korean medicine doctors with dead eyes repeated the same treatments.

“It’s so nice to rest comfortably. The bedding is better than at home? I never knew hospital food could be this delicious!”

Of course, there were patients who were satisfied, but Kim Juhyeok had to massage his own neck the entire time.

But it was already the fourth day.

With discharge the next day, and since he hadn’t spent his own money.

Kim Juhyeok wasn’t the type to pick fights with the hospital.

He refused the discharge medication, ignored the manager’s words about coming regularly for outpatient treatment, and headed to the orthopedic clinic.

“Ah… why were you hospitalized at an oriental medicine hospital? What could acupuncture possibly cure?”

“Your current condition has barely improved.”

When he brought up the poor treatment at the oriental medicine hospital, the doctor smiled broadly.

“There’s not much we can do with auto insurance. Do you have medical expense insurance? Just settle and let’s do nerve injections, extracorporeal shock wave therapy, and manual therapy. Our physical therapist is really good at manual therapy. They’ll properly work out your muscles for 30 minutes each session.”

However, the proposed treatment far exceeded what Kim Juhyeok had in mind.

“You’re saying it won’t be covered by auto insurance?”

“Yes. Just receive the settlement money as settlement money, and if you file a claim with health insurance for actual expenses, your personal burden is only 10%~”

“…I don’t know how long I’ll need treatment, so that’s a bit problematic.”

The accident perpetrators should rightfully pay for the treatment costs, so why were they telling him to use his own actual expense insurance?

Kim Juhyeok wasn’t someone who worried about health insurance premiums or the finances of actual expense insurance companies, but he didn’t like his insurance premiums going up even slightly.

Moreover, even though the personal burden was said to be 10%, if he repeated treatments, it might exceed the settlement money.

“Then let’s give you medicine first and start with physical therapy. Nerve block procedures are possible from 2 weeks after the injury, so please wait a little.”

Nerve block procedure?

Startled by the ominous name, I came out and searched it up – it was an injection.

Getting an injection containing steroids in the neck…

“Oh, the supervisor is totally a golden goblin.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just looking at it, you’re only recommending treatments that make money~”

When he came to work at the company, people added their comments one by one.

“It’s also fine to just settle and get manual therapy. I found manual therapy good.”

“If you want to get the maximum settlement money, wouldn’t it be better to just keep going to Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital?”

“I’m saying it really hurts!”

I’m saying it hurts like hell, but what are these people going on about?

“Uh, well, shouldn’t it heal naturally? It’s been almost a week, isn’t there some problem? Why don’t you go to a big hospital once?”

“Right, right! I know a good hospital!”

This advice seemed reasonable, so Kim Juhyeok requested an MRI referral from the orthopedic clinic he was attending.

“I’ll give it to you, but even if you take it, nothing much will show up.”

Whether something shows up or not, you have to take it to know!

So he took the referral and went to Sowon General Hospital that an acquaintance had recommended.

“Hmm, if it were me, I probably wouldn’t bother taking it.”

This doctor explained much more calmly, but.

“If you take an MRI and findings come out, the insurance company will cover the examination fee, but if there’s nothing wrong, it becomes your personal burden.”

In the end, the gist was the same.

‘What’s so complicated about this?’

The doctor who carefully listened to the medical history felt very sorry for Kim Juhyeok and said.

“There were many crazy hospitals that took advantage when things were lax before… so it’s become quite strict. What we can do itself isn’t much different from other hospitals. We prescribe medicine, do physical therapy, observe the progress, and if necessary, perform nerve block procedures.”

“…How about combining it with traditional Korean medicine treatment?”

The doctor’s expression became slightly strange.

“Hmm, there have been cases where patients who weren’t getting better improved a lot after combining treatments, so I don’t view it negatively. However, Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital is a bit…”

“Ah, is it famous for being bad?”

“It’s not to that extent.”

He held back his words.

“If you’re going to go to an oriental medicine clinic, I recommend this place.”

Instead, he recommended another oriental medicine clinic, saying he would write a simple referral.

“I understand. I’ll try going there.”

How many times is this now?

I should really go one last time, considering it the final time I’ll be fooled.

– How many times are you going to change hospitals? The settlement money won’t go up just because you do this!

Leaving behind the unpleasant phone call from the opposing insurance company, Kim Juhyeok headed to Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.

* * *

Kim Juhyeok explained the situation clearly even with eyes full of suspicion.

“You must have had a hard time going around here and there.”

I first comforted the patient.

Wow, how did it get so tangled up like this?

If the first Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital he went to had just treated him properly, there would have been no need to go around.

‘How many fake patients were there that they mistook a really sick person for a fake?’

Kim Juhyeok’s symptoms weren’t difficult at all.

Though not very typical, there’s no way a Korean medicine hospital that sees many traffic accident patients couldn’t treat it due to lack of skill.

In other words, it was a matter of sincerity – they didn’t even properly examine the patient.

“I thought I was going crazy. I don’t even know why our insurance company employee recommended that hospital.”

Kim Juhyeok beat his chest.

“Ah, you went there through an insurance company employee’s introduction?”

“Yes.”

…There was collusion.

Since the car was fine, the insurance company employee had initially mistaken Kim Juhyeok for a fake patient.

Probably that employee receives money from Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital every time they send a patient?

People who come through that route are either all fake patients, or the insurance company employee gave them a hint…

“The attending physician in charge must have been careless.”

But this was merely speculation.

And even if that were the case, the attending physician’s responsibility was clear.

If they had properly listened to Kim Juhyeok’s words, they would have known he was in pain, and could have treated him adequately even in that environment.

There must be Korean medicine doctors at that hospital who do their best in treatment as well.

“Yes. Anyway, what’s most important to me is getting better. I want to stop going around to different places now.”

Kim Juhyeok let out a deep sigh.

“That’s right. You should focus on treatment. What’s bothering you the most right now? The dizziness?”

“Both. My neck hurts, and the dizziness is severe too. They said the dizziness would improve in the first few days, but it’s still the same. Fortunately, I heard there’s no brain hemorrhage… but I’m going crazy thinking I might have to live like this forever.”

“It’s really fortunate there’s no hemorrhage. Let’s treat this step by step, starting with the dizziness. Right after the accident, did you experience any symptoms like loss of consciousness, blurred vision, or weakness in your hands?”

I approached this from the beginning.

While tests confirmed there was no brain hemorrhage, the expression “dizzy” bothered me.

This doesn’t seem like cervicogenic headache?

“Ah, immediately after, I have no memory for just a brief moment. About 5 seconds? Probably from shock, right?”

“…Yes. That’s possible.”

“My vision was fine… ah, but things did shake before my eyes for a moment. It wasn’t really a vision problem, more like I couldn’t keep my balance. I got out to vomit but nothing came up. I didn’t lose strength either.”

Kim Juhyeok seemed very satisfied just to be able to describe his symptoms thoroughly, and described the situation at that time in even greater detail.

“Headaches from traffic accidents are common in themselves. But there are headaches caused by nerve compression due to cervical sprain, and there are cases where concussion occurs from hitting or severely shaking the head.”

If there was dizziness and nausea, the brainstem, vestibular system, and autonomic nervous system would have been involved, and if there was vague but short-term memory loss, the hippocampus and temporal lobe would have been briefly impacted as well.

“Concussion?”

Kim Juhyeok was startled.

“Even though the name sounds scary, it’s different from brain hemorrhage or cerebral infarction. Think of it as the brain being shocked or shaken from impact, rather than being organically damaged.”

I reassured him first.

There was no organic damage, and it was true that natural improvement occurred in over 80% of cases.

The problem was the 20%, though.

“For the dizziness symptoms, we need to use herbal medicine. Did you receive discharge medication from Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital?”

“No. I took it during the 5 days I was hospitalized, but it was all the same medicine and seemed to only make my stomach worse, so I refused the discharge medication.”

“…I see. I’ll prescribe something tailored to your symptoms, so please take it properly this time.”

They used blood stasis medicine just because it was a traffic accident, without proper examination?

It was rather fortunate that there were remaining prescription days.

I calmly took his pulse while gauging the appropriate prescription.

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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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