The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 363

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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 363

I asked with delight.

[Oh, Clinic Director Seon. Is there something going on?]

Originally, guardians accompanying pediatric patients tend to be sensitive.

Seon Nayeon maintained an excellent reputation by responding with a typical gentle exterior and strong interior approach.

This would also help in creating standard response methods.

[Well, if it’s a difficult patient, it is a difficult patient… but there was a problem with a slightly different nature.]

[Ah?]

[I couldn’t bring it up during the celebratory atmosphere… but it seems like an accident happened.]

I, who had been typing messages with a grin, paused at the word accident.

The story Seon Nayeon brought up was different from what I had thought.

It wasn’t simply reporting a finished matter, but a problem that needed to be resolved right now had occurred.

[No. To be precise, I’m not sure if it’s really an accident or not.]

[You’re not sure?]

[Yes, yes. A child who received moxibustion treatment 3 weeks ago came back today with their guardian saying they got burned… I think I handled the response poorly.]

The bright atmosphere suddenly turned cold.

Was there really a burn accident?

If so, we needed to help them receive the best treatment and provide compensation.

But at Seon Nayeon’s ambiguous words, several directors and I thought of another possibility.

[Did you use direct moxibustion?]

[Smokeless mini moxibustion.]

When we say moxibustion, it basically means burning mugwort with fire.

If you clump mugwort and place it directly on the skin, it becomes direct moxibustion, and if you put anything in between and place mugwort on top, it’s all indirect moxibustion.

Smokeless mini moxibustion is produced as a product that doesn’t produce smoke, reduces burn risk, and is convenient to attach.

It’s widely used both in oriental medicine clinics and by people who personally obtain moxibustion for self-treatment.

While the possibility of burns doesn’t converge to zero like electronic moxibustion, the risk of burns wasn’t particularly high if you just followed the usage time.

[First, in your opinion, Clinic Director, is it really a burn from moxibustion?]

If they really had an accident, it would be wrong to suspect them carelessly.

But there’s a term called ‘moxibustion scammers’ in the industry, referring to those who try to make a quick buck from naive directors in their early practice days.

We needed to clarify this part and decide on the response direction.

[At first, I definitely thought so and apologized, but after sending them away and thinking about it… honestly, I don’t think it is.]

[Please tell me in detail from the very first meeting, not just when you first apologized.]

[What reason you used moxibustion for, at which location, how many pieces for how many minutes, and whether you were beside them during the procedure.]

[As detailed as possible from what you remember.]

* * *

Thinking back, it was a patient who gave off a cold feeling from the moment we first met.

Roi. 6-year-old male.

He visited the oriental medicine clinic complaining of pain in both knees and ankles, but there was no apparent trigger.

“Roi, can you point to where it hurts?”

“Here.”

“Does it hurt when I press like this?”

“It’s okay.”

“How about when I move it in and out like this?”

“It’s okay.”

Everything was fine upon palpation.

There were no tender points, and there was no particular pain when moved in any direction.

“Hmm, I don’t see any inflammation.”

Even with ultrasound, there were no abnormal parts.

Visually, there was naturally no swelling or anything like that.

“You haven’t overexerted yourself during exercise, right?”

“No.”

“When is it most severe?”

“It’s uncomfortable when I try to sleep at night.”

“Even when I put pain relief patches on him, he keeps saying it hurts. We went to orthopedics and got X-rays, but they said everything was fine.”

Roi’s Guardian sighed irritably.

She said he doesn’t say a word when playing games, but whenever she tells him to turn it off and sleep, he always makes a fuss about pain.

She seemed to somewhat suspect that her son was faking illness.

Seon Nayeon synthesized the situation and reached a conclusion.

“It seems like growing pains. Nothing to worry about much, let’s control the pain with acupuncture treatment. I’ll help you get through this period without difficulty.”

Usually a child and mother would be convinced at this point.

But Roi’s Guardian asked strange questions and consulted for over 30 more minutes.

What causes growing pains, whether eliminating them would prevent growth, whether eating too many snacks caused the pain, etc.

“But our child can’t receive acupuncture.”

After draining Seon Nayeon’s energy for a long time like that, they even refused acupuncture treatment.

“I’ll treat you painlessly. When it goes in, it’s just a light poke, about like being poked with a ballpoint pen.”

Many children dislike acupuncture, but when Seon Nayeon coaxed them to try it once, most children received acupuncture without much fear.

So Seon Nayeon tried to make eye contact with the child and persuade him as she always did.

“This kid can’t even get shots. Please treat him with moxibustion.”

Before the child could express any opinion, Mother cut in and specifically demanded moxibustion treatment.

Of course, the child was also shaking his head, so he didn’t seem to want acupuncture either.

“We’ll also do moxibustion treatment, but acupuncture is more advantageous for pain control. You’ll see better results with physical therapy combined with acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping.”

“Both my son and I can’t stand pain. When I had knee pain, moxibustion alone worked well. Let’s try it first, and if it doesn’t get better, I’ll think about it.”

She was dealing with someone who wouldn’t listen to reason.

Seon Nayeon briefly contemplated whether to persuade once more for the child’s pain control, or to simply do moxibustion alone.

Well, maybe moxibustion alone could help.

If it doesn’t work, next time, she’d rather try persuading when the child comes alone without the mother.

“Understood. Let’s start with moxibustion treatment first.”

Having reached that conclusion, Seon Nayeon decided to try moxibustion first.

“Yes, should we go this way?”

As she was about to send the child to the treatment room, the guardian accompanied them.

Some 6-year-olds receive treatment well on their own, but quite a few children need their mothers to comfort them, so Seon Nayeon didn’t think it strange.

“Now, this is moxibustion. As it burns, warm energy will be transmitted to your knee and ankle. It’ll be fine at first, but after a while it might get hot. If you can’t stand it, tell me right away.”

“Yes.”

Since it was mild growing pains, there was no need to use direct moxibustion to make him feel the heat.

But using electronic moxibustion would have minimal effect, and wouldn’t look satisfactory to the guardian’s eyes either.

Seon Nayeon placed mini moxibustion that looked like typical moxibustion and transmitted a moderate amount of heat to the local area.

When she picked up the fingernail-sized cylindrical moxibustion with tweezers and placed it on the acupoints of the ankle and knee, the adhesive part worked like a sticker, immediately sticking even to uneven positions like the ankle.

After attaching the moxibustion to the acupoints, Seon Nayeon lit them with a torch and instructed the nursing assistant to watch from the side.

Mini moxibustion could feel hot to some people, and since it was a child, there was a possibility he might immediately ask to have it removed.

“Call me if he says it’s hot. If I’m doing acupuncture, just remove it first.”

“Yes, Clinic Director.”

“Mother, please watch carefully to see if he finds it too hot.”

But contrary to her concerns, Roi didn’t complain of heat until the set alarm rang and Seon Nayeon returned.

“Was it okay?”

“Yes. It was just warm and nice.”

At the positive response, Seon Nayeon smiled gently.

“Let’s do this three times a week. Come the day after tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

Thus the first day’s treatment ended.

She was secretly curious whether this alone would have been effective.

But this mother and son didn’t come two days later.

She thought they might be busy and their visit delayed by a day or two, but they didn’t come the next day or the day after that either.

Maybe the effect was so good that they were completely healed and didn’t need to come.

Or maybe there was no effect at all and they went to another hospital thinking continued treatment wouldn’t help, but Seon Nayeon had no way of knowing.

Since such patients weren’t rare, Seon Nayeon soon forgot about this mother and son.

However, three weeks later.

The two appeared again.

“After that moxibustion treatment, our Roi got burns on the top of his foot. When we went to the dermatologist later, they said it was a second-degree burn! They said it might leave permanent scars!”

“What…?”

The child’s mother was very angry.

Roi kept his mouth tightly shut and held back tears.

“Wasn’t it fine until we removed the moxibustion that day? What happened?”

“How can you ask me that! I heard that with low-temperature burns, you might not feel it at that moment? He started saying it was hot after we got home, and when I looked a few days later, blisters had formed!”

“You should have called right away then…”

“You said growing pains would be fine if left alone. I thought it would heal if we waited!”

Roi’s guardian shouted angrily.

Seon Nayeon tried to maintain her composure while checking the affected area.

“Let me take a look at the condition.”

There really was a burn about the width of a finger joint.

The blister had just burst and thin scabs were starting to form from the outside, but it hadn’t properly healed yet.

Seon Nayeon took photos and asked Roi.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?”

“It hurts…”

“How are you going to take responsibility? For growing pains that would have been fine if left alone, you unnecessarily treated him and now there might be permanent scars. How will you compensate?”

Her mind went blank.

She had a bad feeling from the start.

She should have refused treatment if they wouldn’t accept acupuncture and sent them away.

She should have stayed and watched the moxibustion continuously.

Seeing the whitish pus made her dizzy.

How much must it have hurt?

If scars really remain, how much compensation would she have to pay?

Could it be resolved with money? What if bad rumors spread?

“I’m truly sorry. For compensation, I think we’ll need to contact the liability insurance to discuss it.”

“Ah… you have insurance?”

When Seon Nayeon brought up compensation, the guardian finally stopped being angry.

Her expression became subtle, as if she couldn’t tell whether she felt good or bad about it.

“First, since quick treatment and preventing scars is the priority, please receive the best treatment at the dermatologist. I’ll naturally cover the burn treatment costs.”

Seon Nayeon fell into complete panic and bowed her head apologetically.

* * *

[But looking at the photo you took, I’m not sure if it’s really a burn from moxibustion. I definitely only placed moxa on the foot at Guheo, Sinmaek, Johai, Taechung, and Jokimeup points, but the burn area is about 2cm below the Taechung point and is somewhat larger than the moxa.]

Seon Nayeon explained while immediately sending the photo she had taken.

Even from my perspective, this was definitely strange.

Getting burns slightly larger than the moxa isn’t completely impossible if heat penetrates deeply from prolonged use.

But honestly, getting second-degree burns from applying mini moxa for just over 10 minutes was suspicious from the start.

Even considering that children have delicate skin, wouldn’t it just turn slightly red and subside after a few days?

[That’s nonsense. Burns are injuries that show symptoms immediately. The child would have made a fuss about pain during treatment, and you would have seen the damage when you removed it.]

Kim Chunsik spoke decisively.

[I think so too. Blisters would have formed within a few hours at the latest, but they didn’t call the clinic and showed up 3 weeks later? The photo doesn’t look like it’s from 3 weeks ago either.]

The photo looked stranger the more I looked at it.

Not only did it not look like a moxibustion burn at all, but it seemed like the burn was less than a week old.

[Ah… I was so flustered that I apologized. What should I do? If I call the liability insurance, will they investigate the truth?]

[A staff member was there the whole time, and you told them to speak up if it got hot, so wouldn’t that provide at least minimal defense that you fulfilled your responsibility?]

Kim Chunsik mentioned the matter of responsibility.

But I thought differently.

That was a last resort.

If we called liability insurance and said burns occurred despite fulfilling our responsibility, it would be like acknowledging the causal relationship itself.

[It would be good if we could prove that everything was fine right after treatment. You don’t have any photos taken then, do you?]

[No… Maybe I should take some from now on. Ah.]

[Where are the CCTVs located?]

[Not at the beds. Only in the chuna room, waiting room, and front gate.]

There usually aren’t any at the beds since patients need to change clothes too.

But that’s fine.

[For now, find the CCTV footage from the waiting room and front gate and try enlarging it. It’s likely covered by socks, but you never know.]

[Yes.]

We had to use every possible method available.

While this wasn’t a common type of troublemaker case, it was definitely worth including in the manual given that various situations can arise.

And limited to this particular case, there was one more method we could try because it was Seon Nayeon.

[Whether you visit them or call them back, meet with them and somehow try talking to the child. Get the truth to come out of the child’s mouth.]

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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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