Episode 69: Mirror Therapy [3]
Things were going smoothly until we decided to use a mirror.
Dr. Liston, though known to be somewhat cautious, was still a practical man who acted on what needed to be done. That was probably why the so-called “head experts” got involved in the first place. The problem was that these head experts were a little too… enthusiastic. Their methods were bold, even reckless. Some of them were clearly attempting treatments they had no business attempting. Especially that damned electrotherapy doctor. I really should have stopped him before he fried the patient.
“First, we need to decide on a design and place an order.”
“Yeah, true. But is there anything we can get quickly? Isn’t the rubber hand treatment we’re doing now already working to some extent?”
No, man. That’s not the point. We weren’t the problem. They were. The other lunatics might try something stupid. If everyone else were around, I wouldn’t have said anything, but it was just the two of us now. At least Liston treated me like a real brother, so I decided to speak up. Someone had to. Especially while we were still in the city. Once I went back inside, I wasn’t coming out for a while.
“That other guy… I mean, they. I’m a bit uneasy about the treatments those head experts are trying.”
“Uneasy? Why?”
“Is there really a need to pass electricity through someone for no reason?”
“Ah, haha. That’s a rather unfamiliar thought. I don’t like it much either, but it’s not entirely baseless.”
Oh, come on! Electrotherapy might help with depression, but no one was using electric eels for it! I couldn’t help thinking of that YouTube video I once saw, where a crocodile got electrocuted trying to catch an eel. That image kept playing in my mind. Of course, I couldn’t explain that to Liston, so I pressed on.
“Still… one of the reasons patients are coming to us now is because our treatment is painless, right? I think we should take pain management more seriously going forward.”
“Ah… Hmm. That…”
A treatment that didn’t hurt the patient. Was that really such a strange idea? Maybe to them. Liston looked genuinely shocked. After all, this was an era where not just hospitals, but society itself was numb to suffering. Just look at the laborers. Though I didn’t know the details, even the basics made me want to cry.
“But… anesthesia is only used for surgery. Still, it would be nice if it didn’t hurt.”
Thankfully, Liston was far more open-minded than some of the butchers around here. So we reached a kind of dramatic agreement. We both thought: let’s figure something out, and fast.
Of course, I was the one who had to put my brain to work. Liston might have had a few concerns, but I was the only one who understood the concept of tricking the brain.
The most important thing is for the patient to see their hand… to convince themselves that it doesn’t hurt. So to do that, first… Hmm…
Honestly, I usually thought I was pretty smart, so I expected to come up with something quickly. But had the nineteenth century dulled my mind? I couldn’t come up with a single good solution. Not even a decent simulation of how a mirror might work.
“Shall we head to a mirror shop and see if anything comes to mind, Professor?”
“Uh… Is that so? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
So we headed off to a mirror shop. In Korea, the idea of a store that only sold mirrors felt odd, but at this time, mirrors were considered a kind of decorative furniture. There were places that sold only that.
The shop we visited had a huge variety. Liston and I split up and began inspecting the different mirrors.
Yes. I think the gears are starting to turn again.
I was confident. This time, I would definitely figure something out.
“Ah… Hey, Dr. Pyeong.”
Liston suddenly called out. At first, I thought a shop assistant had been rude to me. Liston was the kind of guy who blew up if someone disrespected one of his own, so I hurried over to stop him, only to find he was alone. The one shop assistant was way off in the corner, barely noticeable.
“What’s going on?”
I asked, not expecting much. But Liston’s face was flushed with excitement.
“Look at this.”
Of course I had to pay attention. You couldn’t just ignore someone like that when he was clearly onto something. It would be rude. And you never acted rudely toward someone like Liston.
“Watch carefully. Imagine someone missing their right hand.”
“Okay.”
“Now, they look at their left hand in the mirror. What does it look like?”
“Oh… It looks like the right hand.”
“But just leaving it like this is a bit awkward, right? Wouldn’t it feel more convincing if you hid the left hand entirely?”
“Ah… Wait a second. Oh…”
Oh… Liston… Wasn’t this the man who left his name in history? The best doctor in London?
Even if people back then didn’t know much, he was the best they had. The man had a good head on his shoulders.
He understood that instantly and came up with a working idea?
I thought, That’s a real professor. The era may be brutal, but intelligence survives.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“No, no. This is so clever. What if we made the left hand invisible, like hiding it in a box, and just showed the mirror image? Wouldn’t that be enough? That could really work.”
“Aha. Yeah. Put it in a box… Nice. That’s even easier to make than a rubber hand!”
“Yes. Really… You’re amazing.”
I’m the type who flatters easily. Years of hospital politics trained me well. I could even flatter people while mentally checking out of the conversation. But this time… this wasn’t flattery. I was genuinely impressed.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve seen such a brilliant idea.”
“Heh, you really think so?”
“No doubt. Professor, from today forward, you’re going to be remembered as the father of the treatment that cured phantom pain.”
“But weren’t you the one who first suggested using a mirror…?”
“Sure, but without you, it would have just been another discarded idea. Professor, you’re a shining light in the world of medicine.”
“Ha ha ha! This is good! I feel great!”
He was so flattered he couldn’t even think straight anymore. Even Liston, the ever-stoic, was cracking up by now.
“Ha ha ha!”
As we left the shop laughing, the employee approached us cautiously, face pale. I guess it was because I was Asian and looked out of place, and Liston, well, he didn’t look like a doctor. He looked like someone who ran a pirate ship. Honestly, in any era or culture, he would be mistaken for a mob boss. No wonder the employee was so nervous.
Liston smiled brightly.
“Now, bring me a mirror.”
“Um… Money?”
The employee looked completely confused.
“Money? Of course I’ll pay.”
“Ah… Yes, yes.”
Liston wasn’t offended. He just said what needed saying. That seemed to clear the misunderstanding. The employee ran inside and brought out several mirrors shaped exactly as Liston had requested.
“Ha, I’ll give you a discount.”
Clearly, the misunderstanding wasn’t entirely cleared, but hey, we benefited from it.
“Sometimes misunderstandings work out.”
Liston grinned as he climbed into the carriage, mirrors in hand. I smiled back, though I figured he benefited like this more often than not.
“All right then! Let’s build it. Bring me a hammer and saw!”
Back at the University College London Medical School, Liston wasted no time. He requested tools, and the assistants answered enthusiastically.
“Yes, sir! Where’s the patient?”
“Who do we need to catch?”
“Whose leg are we cutting off today?”
At first glance, they sounded like thugs, not medical staff. But truth be told, they were good people. Even though no one had told them to, they brought everything we needed.
Liston got to work. His hands were so skilled and practiced that it felt surreal. Every piece he made was exactly the same size, as if he had measured it by eye. The man had golden hands.
“And… done.”
“Seriously, Professor. You’re amazing.”
“Ha ha ha! You little flatterer!”
After hyping him up a bit more, I called over the patients we had been treating. Some still had rubber hands strapped on; others were new arrivals. Phantom pain had become a kind of epidemic in London. No other doctor in the world had a patient pool this large for that condition. Honestly, I could write a paper about it. Had the NEJM, the New England Journal of Medicine, been founded yet? Probably… maybe…
Well, it’s not like the stuff getting published now is that great anyway.
It was time to imitate a proper scientist.
So I started Mirror Therapy, which looked far more realistic than anything we had done before. I wanted to call in the head experts and show them, but the problem with self-proclaimed scientists was that they demanded evidence the moment you suggested something, even while spewing unproven nonsense themselves.
All right, let’s see what happens…
Maybe I just really wanted it to work, but the patients’ reactions were better than ever before. Actually, no. This was real.
“Did you see that just now?”
“Yes. I saw it too.”
“It’s definitely working.”
“Yeah, it really is.”
Liston nodded as we watched. When we moved the patient’s left hand and he looked at it in the mirror, it felt like the missing right hand was moving. When I suddenly pretended to strike the hand, he yanked it out of the box even though it wasn’t there.
At that moment, I was sure.
It might not be a 100% guaranteed cure, but compared to everything else we had?
This was the best treatment available.
Translator’s Notes:
Electrotherapy — Treatment using electrical stimulation. In this chapter, it is presented as one of the questionable methods proposed by nineteenth-century “head experts.”
Pain Management — Medical care aimed at reducing or controlling a patient’s pain.
Anesthesia — Medical use of drugs or gases to block pain or awareness during surgery.
Mirror Therapy — Treatment using a mirror reflection to create the illusion that a missing or affected limb is present and moving normally.
Phantom Pain — Pain felt in a missing limb or body part after Amputation. It comes from the nervous system and brain rather than the missing limb itself.
NEJM / New England Journal of Medicine — A major medical journal. The narrator references it while thinking about publishing a paper.