Episode 82: Isn't It Too Much to Do? [2]
“This is really amazing…”
I was shocked, but the others were astonished, confused, and simply lost in the mysterious fire. Honestly, if I hadn’t noticed, I probably would have been mesmerized too. I had only scratched the match, and fire broke out. As soon as I transferred it to the firewood…
“So white… This is my first time seeing white smoke.”
Burning brightly wasn’t enough, huh? White smoke billowed out like crazy, as if to show why this was called white phosphorus. The moment I thought I had seen it before, I remembered something from my industrial medicine class. This was also possible because our hospital had an acute poisoning center. Poisoning from it might seem rare in modern society, but surprisingly, it happened quite often in industrial settings.
“Oh, wait a minute! Just a moment!”
No, even if I hadn’t learned that, it would have been natural to think that smoke constantly pouring out like that was harmful.
I remembered. I remembered! Damn… “The Little Match Girl”…
Some professors would make you think, Wow, they teach it like this? There were teachers who tried to make lessons fun so you would clearly recall the content decades later. Among them, the industrial medicine professor was definitely in that group. He was a great communicator, especially skilled at explaining things with examples. One of those examples was Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Match Girl.”
“This is actually a fairy tale that criticizes society. White phosphorus matches… People sold these ridiculous products for over ten years just because they were cheap and convenient. How about that, white phosphorus matches?”
Wasn’t it a fairy tale everyone knew? It was so famous that I wondered if there was anyone who hadn’t read it at least once as a child, so it stuck with me.
“There, the match girl lights a match and sees various visions in the light. Things like a fireplace, a fancy dinner, or a Christmas tree. What does that mean from a medical perspective?”
Still, even though it was a children’s fairy tale, I thought the interpretation was too bleak, which made it even more striking. Now that I thought about it, it was definitely a lecture on the destruction of innocence…
“It’s a delusion or hallucination. Many things can cause this, but let’s consider the match girl’s situation. First of all, it was cold, right? Even her shoes were taken away by local bullies. If I were in that situation, I would get hypothermia… Some symptoms of hypothermia include visual or auditory hallucinations.”
Hallucinations from such a warm story? But in the end, I was a medical student and, after further training, a doctor who could think calmly at any time, so I couldn’t help but nod. Yes, it was possible. Probably. That was a reasonable judgment and inference…
“But there is something that causes these symptoms much more readily than hypothermia… white phosphorus. Eating it can cause similar symptoms. In fact, poisoning from ingestion usually causes liver failure. Inhaling the smoke, on the other hand, mainly causes visual and auditory hallucinations. This is a fairly common side effect.”
When we thought of white phosphorus, we tended to think of its low ignition point, around sixty degrees Celsius, and a flame that wouldn’t go out easily. It was so terrifying that no one who had seen it once could forget it. People had no choice but to avoid it. I mean, if you used it recklessly, you could be punished for war crimes… In fact, focusing on the poisoning rather than the bomb, smoke inhalation was truly frightening.
“Besides, if you read the fairy tale carefully, at the end, the girl sees a vision of her grandmother after burning all the remaining matches, right? If you burn white phosphorus matches that intensely, a huge amount of smoke is inhaled all at once… In that case, fatal side effects such as vomiting and bloody stool may occur. It was said to lead to death by respiratory failure. In our country’s workplaces, the Serious Accident Act applies strictly to white phosphorus, so it’s probably well controlled in most cases. Anyway, keep it in mind. A doctor’s life means never knowing what kind of patient you’ll meet at any time.”
Really… wasn’t he a true teacher? Until the very last sentence, there wasn’t a phrase that didn’t touch my heart. A doctor’s life meant never knowing what kind of patient you would face.
“Why are you doing this? Your face is pale.”
Anyway, after recalling everything, I quickly ran over and pushed the people back. Fortunately, it was only a lot of smoke, and since only one white phosphorus match had been used, not many harmful substances seemed to be spreading.
“Come out first!”
“Why? People usually get a little scared when doctors do things like this.”
I grabbed the person who had been wandering around in the smoke earlier, thinking it was amazing. Then, to my surprise, Liston stopped me. That made me think it could be scary. Liston, who made so much money by cutting off people’s limbs, said something almost absurd… But instead of saying that, I sold him medicine.
“The first person to discover this was Hennig Brandt, a seventeenth-century alchemist. While collecting urine and evaporating it, he found a luminescent substance: phosphorus. I wonder why he did that… Anyway, it was a great discovery, right? Of course, even before then, people knew that lighting bones on fire sometimes produced a strange glow.”
Selling medicine required some background knowledge. Of course, that alone wasn’t enough. I was Korean. Kim Tae-pyeong, a genius doctor from Joseon, the mysterious land of quiet mornings.
“Brother, this… this light. I heard I saw it somewhere…”
“Where did you see something like this?”
“Collect human urine, evaporate it, set it on fire, and it burns like this.”
“Ugh…?”
“But if you breathe in too much of that smoke, you’ll die!”
“Huh?”
Liston looked like he didn’t understand what was going on. So did the others. It must have sounded absurd. To be honest, if I had listened without knowing anything, I wouldn’t have understood what this man was talking about either. I understood it, but I couldn’t just expect them to believe it. It sounded like someone was going to die!
“Come here first!”
“Uh oh. Yes.”
Fortunately, the person inhaling the smoke was dragged out under my guidance. It wasn’t that I was nothing now. I had become a famous doctor everyone knew. What I said meant something.
“I feel…”
Damn. That wasn’t good. It seemed like this man was already showing symptoms.
“Oops.”
He was nauseous. Was there a cure? Even if there was, would it make a difference? Should he stay here?
There’s no antidote…
To make matters worse, no medicine came to mind. I guessed there probably wasn’t one. In that case, the only thing to do was get the person some fresh air. The priority was to lower the concentration.
“Come this way! Lie down here.”
With Joseph Lister’s help, I dragged the patient outside and laid him down. When I looked around, it was all forest. Fortunately, the fresh air seemed to help.
Whew… start the fire again with something else… no, these crazy people.
When I returned after administering first aid, I saw Liston leading the way and grilling meat. Even though he had just seen someone collapse… could he do that? Wasn’t there a limit to being insensitive?
“Oh, come here. The smoke color is better now. Well, since there’s a fire, we have to eat. That friend will get better somehow.”
No, that wasn’t it. After listening to what I said, I saw that the smoke color had definitely changed to normal. The amount had also decreased significantly. Well, it was a bit ridiculous to worry everyone would be poisoned by just one match. Still, the meat here…
“Look at the cuts first. I heard these are really delicious.”
Liston handed me the meat, and I was clearly embarrassed. The meat seemed good quality from the start, with slick fat. Even in the British Empire, it wouldn’t be easy to get meat this high quality…
“Yes, brother.”
I ate it not because I was hungry but because I felt grateful. Really… it wasn’t like I had just fallen for meat…
“How are you feeling?”
Of course, I also visited the patient from time to time to check his condition. Fortunately, perhaps because the amount inhaled wasn’t large, the symptoms didn’t worsen beyond nausea. Still, it was too early to relax. First of all, I didn’t know much about acute white phosphorus poisoning…
I just want to see a disease that can be solved by cutting it with a knife…
How dare I think that? However, I wasn’t a crazy doctor who would think about other things when a patient was already sick, so I took care of the patient first and then returned to the ward. While I was there, I stopped by the amputation ward with my patient, and the screaming had definitely decreased. It wasn’t completely gone, though. It couldn’t be.
“Huh!”
“Aaaaaaa!”
First of all, pain this severe could make you nauseous, right? Moreover, since it wasn’t aspirin but an earlier preparation, the pain relief would have been poor. Nevertheless, both patients and staff were very satisfied, and I saw a fairly large welcoming crowd.
“You are truly a treasure to our hospital!”
Among them was the director. If you thought about it, today was during work hours… no, wasn’t that because I was still a student? Anyway, he didn’t seem to mind that I had ended up eating some grilled meat. He was just grinning with his thumbs up. It was obvious what he was thinking: after all, this meant money. It was hard to simply curse him. Wasn’t this also a situation where I could provide treatment?
To do research… you need a lot of money.
It would be nice if I had all this knowledge, but unfortunately, the only knowledge I had was a bit of medical knowledge. As a result, people from all walks of life, especially chemists, were needed. If they wanted to seduce me with something like a condom, they would have to pay me with something else.
“Yes, yes. I will work harder.”
“Haha. Good, good!”
“So, what I’m saying is…”
“Say anything.”
The director seemed to be envisioning a rosy future, wondering how many amputation surgeries a hospital with a monopoly on anesthesia and painkillers could perform in the future. So he couldn’t ignore what I said. After all, I had already hit two home runs in a row.
“I saw something called a white phosphorus match today… That’s a very dangerous item. Director, can you possibly do something about that?”
“Uh…?”
“Please go to the factory and at least warn them. It’s dangerous. Or you can come with me…”
“Ah… What… Yes, sure. It’s not that difficult.”
Footnote 1 — Translator’s Notes
White phosphorus — Highly flammable and toxic form of phosphorus used historically in early matches and later associated with incendiary weapons.
Industrial medicine — Medical field focused on workplace-related illness, poisoning, and occupational hazards.
Acute poisoning center — Hospital unit or center that handles sudden toxic exposures and poisoning cases.
“The Little Match Girl” — Nineteenth-century fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The narrator links it to the history of white phosphorus matches.
Hypothermia — Dangerous drop in body temperature that can cause confusion, hallucinations, and death.
Visual / auditory hallucinations — Seeing or hearing things that are not present.
Liver failure — Severe loss of liver function, which can be fatal.
Bloody stool — Stool containing blood, a possible sign of serious internal injury or poisoning.
Respiratory failure — Failure of the lungs to provide enough oxygen or remove enough carbon dioxide.
Serious Accident Act — Modern Korean workplace-safety law referenced by the narrator when thinking about white phosphorus exposure.
Hennig Brandt — Seventeenth-century alchemist credited with discovering phosphorus.
Phosphorus — Chemical element that can glow and burn under certain conditions.
Antidote — Substance used to counteract a poison.
First aid — Immediate basic care given after injury or poisoning before full treatment is available.