Around eight years old, a rapid growth spurt, a tall and thin build, an energetic personality, and the season······
When all of these overlapped, there was a very rare but dangerous disease.
“It’s GIFA. A growth-related fascial allergic reaction.”
Taeho’s eyes were already analyzing the symptoms unfolding in the child’s body.
Catherine asked urgently, her eyes wide with shock.
“What does that mean?”
“This isn’t simple shock. The rapidly grown fascial tissue couldn’t withstand external stimulation and the level of activity, causing an abnormal inflammatory response.”
Before Taeho had even finished explaining, Emily’s lips turned blue, and her entire body began to stiffen. Her small body trembled as she slowly lost consciousness.
Taeho carefully laid the child down on the grass and shouted.
“You there! Please notify the hospital! The child is in shock!”
At Taeho’s shout, a young woman ran toward the hospital. Around them, startled people began gathering one by one, murmuring among themselves.
Just then, Lema sounded an urgent warning in Taeho’s ear.
-Oxygen saturation: estimated below 85%
-Heart rate: 140 beats/min (risk of tachycardia)
-Blood pressure: rapidly dropping
-Immediate treatment required
“What—what should we do?”
Catherine’s voice was desperate. Taeho looked around. Estimating the distance to the emergency room, even if he ran while carrying the child, it would take at least three minutes. He had to stop the heart muscle from stiffening right now.
“Does anyone here have something like a hand warmer?”
Taeho shouted as he took off his coat. He immediately wrapped Emily’s body warmly in it.
Someone held out an electric hand warmer.
“We need to minimize stimulation to the fascia and gradually raise her body temperature. It’s especially important to induce lymphatic circulation around the joints of her limbs.”
Taeho carefully placed the hand warmer under Emily’s armpit. Then he placed his own hand between Emily’s chest and abdomen.
His hand moved busily along the lymph nodes.
Controlling the pressure, Taeho massaged the child’s body without stopping. He had to loosen the muscle rigidity before it reached the heart.
The edge of Emily’s lips, which had been stiff and blue, moved faintly. And at last, an unstable but unmistakable sound of breathing came.
“Haa······.”
Taeho let out a sigh of relief. Emily’s body slowly began to loosen, and her rigid muscles gradually relaxed.
Catherine sobbed as she gripped the child’s hand tightly.
“Emily! Baby!”
The child’s eyes slowly opened.
“Grandma?”
“Emily! Oh, my God, baby!”
Catherine burst into tears and pulled her granddaughter into her arms.
Taeho checked her pulse again. It was still fast, but she was recovering.
At that moment, the hospital emergency responders came running.
“Where is the patient?”
“Here!”
Taeho shouted, raising his hand.
The paramedics arrived and quickly examined Emily.
“Heart rate stabilizing, breathing restored. What treatment did you administer?”
“It was GIFA syndrome. Growth-related autoimmune fascial allergy. I performed circulatory temperature response treatment on-site.”
“You recognized that immediately?”
“Yes. I’m a doctor.”
The paramedic looked at Taeho with admiration and laid the child on a stretcher.
“Please move aside, patient coming through!”
Watching Emily being rushed to the emergency room, Catherine sank down where she stood as if her legs had given out. The reality that she had nearly lost her granddaughter had struck her body belatedly.
Taeho supported Catherine and said,
“Catherine, don’t worry. Emily is safe now.”
Taeho helped Catherine into the hospital emergency room. Soon, Emily was moved to an isolated ICU bed, and specialists from emergency medicine, immunology, and pediatrics began examining her one after another.
A short while later, the head of pediatric immunology approached Catherine. In his hands were the results of emergency blood tests and thermal imaging-based tissue response scans.
“GIFA. Growth-related Fascial Allergy Syndrome. It’s such a rare disease that it may occur in one out of a million people, so it isn’t easy to diagnose, but he assessed it accurately on-site.”
“Is our Emily all right now?”
When Catherine asked, the doctor nodded gently.
“Fortunately, the emergency treatment was extremely appropriate. Stabilizing circulation before the excessive fascial contraction could affect the heart and breathing was decisive.”
“Thank you so much. Thank you.”
“You shouldn’t thank me, but the doctor who gave her emergency treatment. She was truly lucky to have a doctor who could do that by her side at that moment.”
“Dr. Kang?”
Catherine turned around to look for Taeho.
But Taeho had not been able to remain there, having received an urgent summons.
It was a summons from the ethics committee.
***
Mount Sinai Hospital IRB (Ethics Committee Room).
Taeho sat at the end of a large conference table. Across from him, the members of the ethics committee, composed of medical and legal experts, sat in a semicircle.
Dr. Foster, the chair of the IRB, rose from her seat and announced the beginning.
“We will now begin the hearing.”
Dr. Foster had first seen Taeho at dawn that day. Her first impression had been favorable—a bright young man from Korea—but now she was angry. No, not only she, but the entire IRB was appalled. Something unprecedented in Mount Sinai’s history had occurred.
“Dr. Kang Taeho, we have received a serious report that during an MRgFUS procedure early this morning, you pushed aside radiology staff and operated medical equipment without authorization.”
Since the act itself was true, Taeho merely sat in silence without showing any other reaction.
“First, we will hear testimony from those involved. Dr. Chen, please speak.”
Dr. Chen slowly rose from his chair. He asserted in a firm voice.
“Madam Chair, I strongly support Dr. Kang’s actions.”
The committee stirred for a moment.
“That day, the patient’s brain temperature was rising rapidly. While we hesitated, the patient was hovering between life and death. Dr. Kang made a decisive judgment solely to save the patient. Without his intervention, the patient would now be in the morgue, not the intensive care unit. To be honest, a complete cure will be difficult. However······.”
He paused for a moment and looked around at the committee members.
“An improvement of this degree is unprecedented in the entire history of SSPE treatment.”
Dr. Patel continued after him.
“I also agree with Professor Chen. This will become the first case proving that blood-brain barrier opening using MRgFUS is not limited to treating brain tumors, but is also effective in neurological infectious diseases.”
Dr. Kim from radiology spoke.
“This is a paradigm shift. It has opened up new possibilities for all brain diseases where the blood-brain barrier has been an obstacle to treatment.”
Next, Department Head Lee Junbeom rose from his seat. As if overcome with emotion, he was unable to continue for a moment.
“Honorable Chair and wise committee members. I stand here today as a father.”
Department Head Lee Junbeom looked at each of them and drew in a deep breath. Before long, his eyes were moist.
“It is true that Dr. Kang broke the rules. But thanks to that violation, my son is alive. This morning, in the hospital room, my son smiled and held my hand. That would have been impossible without Dr. Kang. He is not simply someone who broke the rules. To me, as a father, he is a hero.”
It was an appeal not as a doctor, but as a father.
Silence filled the conference room.
But soon, Dr. Johnson broke that stillness. He spoke in a sharp voice.
“This is an ethics committee. We must set aside emotions for the moment and look at this objectively.”
He glared straight at Taeho with cold eyes.
“Dr. Kang, you are neither an official member of this hospital’s medical staff nor do you hold a medical license in the United States. Your actions were clearly illegal and fundamentally undermined this hospital’s regulations. A good outcome cannot justify breaking the rules.”
Dr. Johnson appealed to the committee members.
“The moment we acknowledge what Dr. Kang did, we are effectively accepting the collapse of medical ethics and the system. Please remember that our system has been able to remain firmly protected for many years because we have allowed not even the slightest loophole and have judged matters dispassionately.”
Dr. Johnson’s words were grounded in principle, and many ethics committee members nodded.
Dr. Kim raised his hand and was given the floor.
“To be honest, I am conflicted. Dr. Kang undoubtedly saw what our medical staff failed to see, and he saved the patient. But it is also undeniable that in the process, he pushed aside medical staff and acted on his own authority. In the conflict between regulations and life, I still have not found the answer as to which side should be chosen.”
Dr. Foster looked at Taeho again.
“Dr. Kang, now please state your position yourself.”
The committee members looked at Taeho with cold gazes.
Taeho calmly opened his mouth.
“Madam Chair, I do not regret what I did in the slightest.”
At Taeho’s resolute words, the committee members’ reactions varied. Some narrowed their eyes and glared at Taeho, while others shook their heads as if in pity.
“Of course, I violated procedure and ignored the hospital’s regulations. But at that moment, what was before my eyes was a dying patient. I am a doctor. And a doctor’s first mission is to save lives. At that moment, there were no regulations for me. There was only the patient’s life.”
“Wait a moment, Dr. Kang.”
Dr. Foster, the chair, stopped Taeho.
“We can imagine how urgent the situation was at the time. We also always consider situations where one faces a dilemma in order to save a patient’s life. But please be careful with your statement here. It could be applied very unfavorably against you. If the same situation arose again, would you act that way again?”
Dr. Foster seemed to feel sorry for Taeho and tried to redirect the course of his statement.
Taeho looked straight at each of the committee members’ faces and said,
“I will willingly accept whatever punishment you decide. But if the same situation comes again, I will not hesitate to act exactly the same way.”
Because of this incident, Taeho had thought a great deal.
That decisive incident in his third year as a resident, when he had been driven out of Seyoung Seoul Hospital. Back then, Taeho had acted in a similar way. Because of it, he had lost his resident qualification and even ended up saddled with two billion won in private debt.
Ever since that day, he had always agonized over what choice he should make when a patient’s life and ethical regulations conflicted. And through this incident, he had realized it clearly. Even if a similar situation arose again, he would save the patient’s life.
A heavy silence settled over the conference room. Complex emotions crossed the committee members’ eyes.
Dr. Foster briefly exchanged glances with the committee members, then rose from her seat with a grave expression.
“Dr. Kang, the dedication and courage you showed as a medical professional are truly worthy of respect. However······.”
She paused for a moment and stared at Taeho with a firm expression.
“For the sake of our hospital’s system and the safety of patients, compliance with regulations is essential. No matter how good your intentions were, medical practice by an unqualified individual and unauthorized operation of equipment cannot be tolerated.”
Dr. Foster continued quietly, as if sighing.
“And regrettably, this matter has already left the hands of our ethics committee. The New York State Attorney General’s Office has already begun investigating this incident. We have been notified that they may launch a full-scale investigation on charges of practicing medicine without a license.”
Department Head Lee Junbeom’s face turned pale.
“Then does that mean Dr. Kang could go to prison?”
Dr. Foster nodded with a sorrowful expression.
“That possibility is high. In addition, charges of unauthorized operation of medical equipment and unauthorized entry into a restricted hospital security area may be added.”
Just then, the conference room door suddenly opened. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the doorway.
“Excuse me. I’m a little late.”
Wearing a gray suit, her white hair elegantly pinned up, Catherine strode confidently into the conference room. At her unexpected appearance, the committee members all rose from their seats at once.
“Senator Catherine Tisch?”