Watching Taeho run toward the collapsed man, Gihwan made a call.
“Is this 119? A man in his twenties has collapsed in front of Geumsan Clinic!”
Taeho immediately took off his coat and placed it under the man’s head to protect it. He cleared away dangerous objects nearby and turned the man’s head to the side so his airway wouldn’t be blocked.
Gihwan got out of the car and approached, looking at the man convulsing on the snow.
“Director, what should we do?”
“It’s all right. Usually, it stops within two or three minutes.”
Taeho glanced at his watch and spoke in a calm voice. He checked the man’s pulse and examined his breathing.
Rema quickly analyzed his vital signs.
-Heart rate 110 BPM (elevated)
-Respiratory rate 22/min
-Oxygen saturation 95% (slightly decreased)
-Body temperature 36.8℃
After two minutes and thirty seconds, the convulsions gradually began to weaken. The tension left the man’s body, and the seizure stopped.
“He’s regaining consciousness.”
Taeho said, examining the man’s eyelids.
“Ugh…… Where am I……?”
The man slowly opened his eyes. But his gaze was still unfocused, and he didn’t seem to understand where he was.
“It’s all right. I’m a doctor. You just had a seizure.”
Taeho spoke in a gentle voice.
At the word seizure, the man closed his eyes and opened them again as if in resignation. It was as though he were thinking, Not again.
“Does this happen often?”
“Yes. For over a year now.”
The man answered weakly. He looked at the sketchbook and pencil that had fallen onto the snow.
Just then, Gihwan’s cell phone rang.
“Director, they say the roads are blocked by the heavy snow, so it’ll be difficult for the ambulance to get here. What should we do?”
“His condition is stable for now, so let’s take him to the clinic and observe him there first. The clinic is right over there. Will you come with us?”
“Ah…… Yes.”
The man said with a dazed expression.
They informed 119 that the patient’s condition was stable, so they would go to Geumsan Clinic for the time being and arrange a transfer if necessary.
“Mr. Gihwan, please carry his bag. Let’s go to the clinic.”
The two of them supported the man and entered Geumsan Clinic. As they stepped inside, warm air greeted them.
“Come to this bed. Slowly.”
Taeho first laid the man down on the bed and checked his vital signs.
“What’s your name?”
“Ryan…… No, Lee Junho.”
“How old are you, Mr. Lee Junho?”
“Um, twenty-eight.”
“Have you ever been diagnosed with epilepsy?”
“Epilepsy……? Epilepsy? Ah, yes. These seizures started two years ago.”
Deep fatigue clung to Lee Junho’s voice.
“Are you taking medication?”
“Right now, I’m taking levetiracetam and lamotrigine.”
The medications Lee Junho was taking were all anticonvulsants.
Taeho nodded and asked.
“Is there a doctor in your family, Mr. Junho?”
Lee Junho looked at Taeho for a moment in surprise.
“How did you know?”
“Because of your way of speaking and your attitude. Most patients get at least a little nervous when they come into a clinic. But you seem more at ease instead. You also seem to feel more familiar with me as a doctor than ordinary patients would.”
Taeho didn’t say it, but his improved intuition had also played a part in guessing the truth.
Lee Junho nodded.
“My father is a doctor at Mount Sinai.”
This time, Taeho was the one who was surprised.
Mount Sinai was one of the leading general hospitals in the United States, located in Manhattan, New York.
A hospital with a reputation as one of the very best in the world.
“What diagnosis did you receive at Mount Sinai?”
Taeho had a feeling that Lee Junho’s condition was somehow different from ordinary epilepsy.
“Cryptogenic focal epilepsy.”
Cryptogenic. It meant the cause seemed like it might be identifiable, but could not currently be found.
Just then, Gihwan cautiously interjected.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Lee Junho’s phone is ringing like crazy right now.”
Inside Lee Junho’s bag, which Gihwan was holding, the phone set to vibrate had been buzzing nonstop.
“Ah, the watch probably sent an alert to my father. It should be four in the morning in New York……”
Lee Junho said, glancing at the watch on his wrist. He took the phone that Gihwan pulled out for him.
When the screen connected, a middle-aged man in pajamas appeared. His hair was disheveled, but his eyes were clear.
-Oh, thank you. Thank you.
When Lee Junho answered the call, his father let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Dad.”
-I got an alert from your watch. Are you all right? It said a fall was detected ten minutes ago……
His father asked worriedly in English.
“I had a seizure. But I’m okay now.”
-Where are you right now? Are you indoors? It looks like a hospital. Tell me honestly. Are you in the ER?
“It’s not the ER. A Korean doctor here saw me and helped me.”
-Oh, I’m truly grateful. Did you collapse on the street, while you were alone?
“I’m really okay, Dad. I’m stable now.”
-You really do make my heart stop. I’ll contact my friend at Seyoung Seoul Hospital right away, so go there.
“No, Dad. That’s too far. This hospital is very good too.”
As Lee Junho looked around the inside of Geumsan Clinic and said that, Taeho glanced away for a moment.
-All right. I just got a call from the hospital, so I have to go in. I’ll contact you again once my surgery is over. Send me the contact information for that place.
“Okay, Dad.”
After the call ended, Lee Junho spoke with an awkward expression.
“My dad worries a lot……”
“Of course he does. His sick child is far away on his own.”
Taeho nodded as if he understood.
“My dad opposed it from the moment I left New York. He said it would be hard to get proper treatment in Korea……”
“Then why did you come to Korea alone?”
Lee Junho hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Because I couldn’t keep watching my dad despair because of me.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of despair a doctor father, working at a hospital with the world’s highest level of medical care, would feel at being unable to cure his own child’s illness.
For Lee Junho, watching his father suffer had been harder than his own illness getting worse.
For a moment, silence flowed through the examination room.
“But this is what you were drawing earlier, right? It’s really amazing. You’re incredibly skilled.”
Gihwan said in admiration.
Gihwan was holding the sketchbook Lee Junho had been drawing in earlier. On the paper, damp from falling onto the snow, the scenery of Geumsan-ri had been beautifully depicted. The mood of a snowy afternoon felt vividly alive.
“I’m a painter.”
Perhaps because he was inside the warm clinic, color was gradually returning to Lee Junho’s face.
Taeho scanned Lee Junho with Rema. His coordination and language functions appeared normal.
-Neurological scan initiated.
-Analyzing EEG patterns……
-Checking residual postictal activity.
Complex data began appearing as holograms in front of his glasses.
In the meantime, Taeho asked Lee Junho again.
“You’re a painter?”
“Yes. I worked in New York. I had my own gallery in Chelsea.”
Lee Junho slowly opened his mouth.
Gihwan, who had been listening beside them, exclaimed.
“That’s incredible at such a young age!”
Because Gihwan had lived in the United States, he knew to some extent what that meant.
Separate from the fact that Lee Junho’s father was a doctor at Mount Sinai in New York, working as a painter in New York was an extraordinary thing.
New York, along with London, was one of the two pillars of the global art market.
For a young painter in his twenties to emerge in New York meant he had broken through an extremely high barrier to entry and survived competition at the highest level in the world. It also meant his artistic talent had been recognized as something the entire world would one day watch.
“You really were someone remarkable. To work in New York, even the studio rent alone must have been no joke.”
“Everyone assumes I must have depended on my father, but I managed it all on my own ability. I may not earn as much as my dad, but my income wasn’t bad at all. I participated in the Whitney Biennial, and The New York Times introduced me as an ‘emerging Asian artist to watch.’”
Lee Junho said with a proud smile.
Even as Taeho continued the examination, he listened closely to what Lee Junho was saying.
“I was preparing for a solo exhibition last year. The theme was human solitude within the metropolis……”
Lee Junho stopped speaking. The gap between past glory and his present reality was too great.
Gihwan spoke carefully.
“And then the seizures started.”
“Yes. I kept collapsing while working, and my physical condition got to the point where I couldn’t paint.”
Lee Junho’s voice trembled. Pain flashed through his eyes.
Taeho nodded.
“The side effects of the medication you’re taking must be part of it too.”
“That’s right. Dizziness, sleepiness, no concentration…… My hands shook when I painted too.”
Despair was buried in Lee Junho’s voice.
“My work became almost impossible.”
“Of course, the hospital must have run every test.”
“They did EEG tests several times, but they were all normal. Even the brain waves recorded during a seizure didn’t show anything like epileptic discharge. I had three MRIs too, but they said they were fine.”
“What about blood tests?”
“Ah, blood tests. Inflammation levels, autoimmune antibodies, toxic substances…… Everything was normal.”
Taeho checked Rema’s analysis results.
-Scan complete
-Diagnosis: Cryptogenic focal epilepsy
-EEG abnormalities: Mild nonspecific changes.
-Structural abnormalities: None.
-Recommended treatment: Continue current anticonvulsants.
Taeho tilted his head.
‘There’s no major difference from the existing diagnosis.’
But what was this strange feeling?
There was definitely something……
It felt as though something were tickling inside his brain. If he could clearly reveal the name of the disease, it seemed like this frustration would disappear.
Taeho looked at Lee Junho and said.
“Our home is on the third floor. How about resting there for today? It’s gotten dark too……”
“Thank you. Then I’ll impose on you.”
Just then, Taeho’s brow suddenly furrowed.
“Wait a moment. Since when has that been happening?”
“What has?”
“Didn’t your shoulder just shake?”
“Mine?”
Lee Junho tilted his head.
Lee Junho’s shoulder had definitely twitched just now. It bothered Taeho.
There was something there, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
Perhaps it was because his intuition was still only at 10%.
***
The next afternoon, Sunday, Lee Junho sat idly in the living room, watching Hayul draw.
‘Is it autism?’
The way the child concentrated, her attitude of not noticing her surroundings, and the repetitive movements of her wrist were different from ordinary children.
At first, he thought what the child was drawing was nothing more than simple scribbling. But after watching for a few more minutes, Lee Junho’s eyes gradually widened.
“Wait……”
Lee Junho rose from his seat and carefully approached the child. Hayul was still focused only on the drawing.
On the paper was a complex geometric pattern. But it wasn’t a simple pattern. Lee Junho’s artistic sense reacted immediately. This was on a completely different level from the drawings children commonly made.
“Huh, this is?”
The pattern Hayul had drawn was a complex structure with self-similarity. Smaller patterns repeated within the larger pattern, and still smaller patterns existed within those smaller patterns. It was hard to believe it had been drawn by hand.
What was even more astonishing was the use of color. Hayul began with red and freely mixed orange, yellow, green, and blue as she colored, and the shifts in color formed a perfect spectrum. Lee Junho felt an energy purer and more intense than any work he had ever seen.
“How can such a young child do something like this……!”