Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Young-Eun sat at a desk wearing a medical doctor’s white coat. A stethoscope was hanging around her neck. On the desk, there were disinfectants, ointment, adhesive plasters, etc.

Gun-Ho was sitting next to Young-Eun holding a list of the children’s names that the instructor gave to him.

“Oppa, you just check if each child who I will be examining is on the list. Also, hand me things when I ask, okay?”

“Got it.”

The children made a long line in front of Young-Eun, and each child sat in front of her one at a time.

“Can you tell me your name?”

Gun-Ho said to the first child sitting at the desk facing Young-Eun while holding the children’s name list along with a pen.

“My name is Byeong-Gab Oh.”

The child was smiling. He looked playful.

“Are you feeling uncomfortable on any part of your body?”

“No.”

“Oh, my gosh. Look at the back of your hand. You have a cut there!”

Young-Eun applied the ointment on the child’s hand after disinfecting it. Minor injuries were common among children while doing their recreational activities, and the children in the facility were not an exception. Young-Eun examined the children by listening to their heart and lungs through the stethoscope.

“What can you learn with the stethoscope?”

“I’m listening to their lungs mostly to see if any children here got pneumonia.”

Young-Eun then examined the children’s teeth. Some of them had cavities being developed.

Young-Eun tried to warn the children by emphasizing the importance to keep their teeth clean.

“If you have cavities, you can no longer eat delicious food.”

Gun-Ho marked the names on the list whenever Young-Eun said a child had a cavity problem. The examination was completed around noon.

The instructor thanked Young-Eun and Gun-Ho.

“Thank you so much.”

“I will give you the exam result after lunch.”

“Do you have any restaurant in mind for lunch today? Or you can eat with us.”

“Sure. We want to have lunch here with the children.”

“Are you two a married couple?”

“Yes, we are.”

“I was so surprised when you told me that you were here as a male nurse.”

“Do you work here by yourself? It seems that there are several children with serious conditions, which must require constant attention.”

“We get help from social workers from the community welfare center, and also from volunteer workers.”

“But still, it should be hard to be in charge to take care of everyone here.”

“If you found the children who need hospital care, please let me know. The community welfare center will help us take the children to the hospital by car.”

“Okay.”

After washing their hands with disinfectants, Gun-Ho and Young-Eun followed the instructor to a cafeteria. There was a cooking lady, who looked like she was in her 50s, cooking in the kitchen.

The instructor introduced them to the cooking lady.

“This is the medical doctor who came to examine the children.”

“Oh, really? That’s very nice. Can you measure my blood pressure later?”

Gun-Ho looked at Young-Eun’s face because he knew she didn’t bring a blood pressure gauge today.

“Sure. Come and see me later.”

The lady cook placed a piece of grilled meat on each plate of Gun-Ho’s and Young-Eun’s. It seemed that the cooking lady cooked only rice and soup in the kitchen, and most of the dishes were bought from outside. The cafeteria was filled with noise. Several children with severe conditions seemed to have a lot of difficulties having their lunch by themselves, and the instructor helped them while having lunch. It didn’t feel like he was in a cafeteria for a meal, but it looked more like a battlefield.

“I don’t think that the people, who work here like the instructor and the social workers, come here to make money, but rather they are here to help these children because they care about them.”

“You’re right. They are hidden heroes in our society.”

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun took their time to have their lunch and walked up to the office after leaving their plates in a container where all the plates to be washed were being collected. The instructor brought them coffee in paper cups.

“The coffee is very tasty.”

“Well, this coffee is from a vending machine. I think it tastes good because you have done a good job helping others today.”

“Maybe it is so.”

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun went outside the building to look for a quiet place. While they were watching the fish in the pond that was peacefully swimming there, they didn’t feel like they wanted to go home at all.

“Oh, we’d better get back. the lady cook wanted my help to measure her blood pressure.”

Gun-Ho and Young-Eun went back to the recreational room.

Once Young-Eun received the children’s name list with marks that was made by Gun-Ho during the brief medical examination earlier, Young-Eun started explaining about each child’s condition to the instructor.

“There are three children who require dental treatment. When you can, please have their teeth checked by a dentist. One child showed a symptom of pneumonia, and I gave the child medicine. If the child persistently coughs even after two or three days, you will need to take the child to a hospital. And one child is found with eye problems. I recommend applying an eye inflammation medicine. You can buy it from a pharmacy. If the condition doesn’t improve, the child will need to see an eye doctor.”

“Thank you.”

Young-Eun took out a large box from her bag. Inside the box, there were many black plastic containers that were about the size of a paper cup. Each container had a name label to be filled in. They were the containers to hold the children’s stool.

Young-Eun handed the box to the instructor and said, “I want to conduct a stool test for the children. Each child will need to fill the box with their stool around Friday. The size of the stool should be about the size of a candy. I will come back on Saturday to conduct the test.

The instructor frowned as Young-Eun was talking about stools.

“When you collect their stools, make sure that you wear gloves. Once the children bring the containers to you, please write each child’s name on each container. And you can store them in this box until I come to collect them.”

“Is it for a worm test?”

“Yes, I want to conduct every possible worm test on them.”

At that moment, the cooking lady opened the window and asked, “Are you done here?”

“Yes, I’m done.”

Young-Eun then pulled out a blood pressure gauge from her bag. Gun-Ho asked, “When did you put that in your bag? I didn’t see it before.”

“It was already in the bag from the moment I left my condo.”

Gun-Ho didn’t see her putting the blood gauge in her bag because it was already there.

Young-Eun measured the cooking lady’s blood pressure with the device.

“Hmm. Your blood pressure is a bit high. Are you currently taking pills for your blood pressure?”

“I do sometimes, not regularly though.”

“It’s not serious yet, but it’s higher than 160. You should avoid high-sodium foods.”

“Understood, hahaha. Thank you.”

The cooking lady looked satisfied and went out of the recreational room.