Episode 94: Antibiotics [2]
The discussion did not take long because fungal infection was intentionally excluded. I felt a little guilty, but…
It’s much better than making a patient suffer like that.
Wouldn’t it be better to do nothing than to have a patient tremble in pain and die from meaningless treatment? Really… that was murder. And a very cruel kind at that.
Ah.
Without realizing it, I found myself looking back at the people scattered around the torture room. Liston wore the same expression.
“Look. Is this treatment? I’m asking whether making people tremble in pain like this counts as treatment.”
To be honest, it was a bit much for Liston to say that, since he was the one who pushed patients’ suffering to the extreme. He was a truly frightening person…
“Stop this senseless thing. Come with me.”
Of course, it was more effective coming from someone like him. He looked as if he might wield his infamous knife at any moment. No, even if he only swung his fist… Anyway, Jémel was dragged away helplessly by Liston’s hand. The assistants followed. The patients, whose faces now looked alive again, were left behind. I patted one of them on the shoulder and stepped outside.
“Okay, thank you.”
He thanked me. I had to wait and see whether that gratitude would last until the end.
Would I be able to do that even knowing I’d have to eat some stale bread?
Wouldn’t I curse nonstop?
Well, I did not think it was excessive. It was rotten bread. No matter how bad the treatment of London workers was in this period, they were not fed rotten food.
“Look. These are all syphilis patients. They were sent from prison, and all of them were in bad condition.”
“Uh, but now…?”
“Only scars remain, right? Everything has healed.”
“Um, who is that person?”
“Oh, he’s dying from something else.”
When Liston arrived at our treatment room, he quietly used his huge body to shield the patient who was literally being eaten away by fungi and dying. Then he spoke to me quietly.
“Take him away.”
What? Telling me to remove a patient? But it was unavoidable. I really hated sacrificing one for the greater good…
Now… there’s no other way.
Until science advanced and a purification method was developed, shouldn’t we do this for now?
Do not dissect him.
Still, it did not feel right. What kind of life was this, thinking about cutting people open with knives as soon as they died? I shook my head and took the patient outside. His condition worsened almost instantly. I put on gloves and checked inside his mouth. The roof of his mouth was already black. I could not look inside his nose without an endoscope or light, but it was obvious even without seeing it. It was probably rotting away.
“Stop, Teacher.”
As I clicked my tongue, the patient called me. When I looked back, his gaze was strange. He was not looking at me. Why? I thought I knew, and that made me feel terrible.
“Snow… My eyes are strange…”
Since it had invaded his nose, wouldn’t it spread to his eyes too? It probably had not invaded the eyeball itself, but it seemed to have destroyed the muscles that moved the eyes. The direction of both eyes was different, which meant he was seeing double.
“It could be. It can happen. Does it hurt?”
“It hurts… badly.”
Joseph, who stood beside me, opened his mouth at the patient’s words.
“What happens now?”
Even though the signs of death were clear, I did not fully understand what was going on. That was the norm here. This world took ignorance for granted. No, maybe not knowing what you did not know was taken for granted. Anyway, I shook my head again and said,
“First… let me pray.”
Prayer may have been excellent for believers, but for doctors, it was also a sign of helplessness. This was not only true in the nineteenth century. We had seen enough inevitable deaths even in the twenty-first. Humanity still died. Every time, my teacher looked up at the sky for a moment. As a materialist, what exactly did he see? I did not know.
“Okay, let’s pray.”
“Everyone, close your eyes.”
Everyone except me probably thought of God. Before being doctors, these believers began to pray sincerely for their patient. In fact, doctors of this period were not purely bad people. Their will to save was strong. Their knowledge and experience simply did not match that will.
“Lord, Your lamb now returns to Your bosom.”
I said nothing. We surrounded the patient and prayed. The patient had lost focus long ago. Was he even conscious?
I could not tell. He had already convulsed twice on the way here. It showed how frightening fungi were once they invaded.
They say hearing remains until the end.
This was not just a story, but a fact revealed by neuroscience. That was why hospice wards told people to speak their last words into the ears of the dying. So I whispered a blessing into the patient’s ear. Looking at the sign around his neck, he was a murderer without room for mercy, but I was a doctor, not a judge.
It’s not up to us to judge human value. Save lives first.
That was my teacher’s teaching. I was not sure if he was respectable otherwise, but as a doctor, he was admirable. I learned all my medical skills from him.
“Amen.”
So I ended my prayer with words meant to comfort the dying patient’s heart. When I turned around, I saw a patient in a state where it was hard to tell whether he was alive or dead. The occasional spasms subsided, and the rise and fall of his ribcage stopped. A faint breath might have escaped, but it was meaningless.
I’m so sad.
If this were the twenty-first century… it was not that he would not have had to die, but he could have lived longer without issues.
It doesn’t mean much.
Wasn’t this nineteenth-century London, where I now stood? I shook my head, told the attendant I knew to send him to the cemetery, then returned to Liston.
“This is medicine?”
“Yes!”
“Did this man named Killian eat that too?”
“Yes. He did. That’s why he got better! Not because of your shitty treatment!”
“Uh… Surely… seeing how much he improved…”
“So shouldn’t we present this to academia?”
“Hmm… Right. Okay… got it. I understand. So why don’t you put down that fist first?”
“Hahaha! I thought you’d understand! Good!”
“Hey.”
Although not much time had passed, Jémel had already fallen for the rotten bread medicine theory. Honestly, I was not sure if he had been persuaded by the fist or the words. What mattered was that this rotten bread antibiotic theory would be presented academically.
What… Not everyone will accept it immediately, but…
How long did it take to build trust in academia?
Because scholars were suspicious, they tended to think others were suspicious too.
Wasn’t it true that to trust others, you had to be trustworthy yourself? A fraudster could never trust others. For the same reason, trust in academic journals was at its lowest then. Setting aside data manipulation, I heard some people even wrote papers based on imagination. How dare anyone write a medical paper based on imagination? You might wonder if that made sense, but look at hospitals. They gave nonsensical treatments to real patients. So it was not unreasonable.
Nevertheless… First, it’s important to announce it.
Wouldn’t it help to convince people close to me? Especially since syphilis needed only one treatment. This would not eradicate it, but far more people would survive than before.
“Okay. Good. Doctor Pyeong!”
Liston called me over, his eyes glowing faintly. I was a little scared, but there was no way he would harm me now, so I approached confidently.
“Why were you so scared? This bread. Let’s grow as much of it as possible. Alfred, please make a sacrifice. Let’s use one room as a bread-rotting chamber.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Yes, that’s right. Let’s do it that way.”
I started groveling together with Alfred.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Suddenly, a scream came from somewhere. They had stopped mercury treatment, so they must have been doing something else strange.
What?
I looked confused, then turned toward the source of the scream. Everyone else did the same. Especially Liston, the so-called master of medicine, who was usually lazy when it came to patients’ feet. He was already moving. I grinned at the thought of him cutting off someone’s leg. Crazy guy.
“Uh, are you coming too?”
Of course, being crazy myself, I followed him. No, that was an awkward way to put it. My purpose was to stop him before he did another insane thing. Most doctors then were quacks, but they were also very courageous. I was scared because, whatever the disease was, they would try something strange.
“Ugh, quickly! Do something quickly!”
Anyway, I ran as fast as I could and found a patient thrashing wildly. Since this was an emergency room with no modern facilities, it felt like running around inside my own room. Well, it was not very useful. Without even telling Liston’s assistants, it looked like the situation would soon be resolved. The medical staff here were half gangsters.
“Ugh! Stay still!”
“Tie him up!”
Look at that. He was already tied up. Uh, uh… Gagging him was crossing the line…
“It looks like he was bitten by a rabid dog.”
Liston, the first to intervene, muttered sadly.
“Rabies…?”
“Is this your first time seeing this?”
“That…”
I was seeing it for the first time too. Dog bite accidents were very rare, and rabies had almost disappeared in Korea. It seemed different here.
“Isn’t that dog caught over there foaming at the mouth? I suppose I should try what I can.”
Compared to me, he seemed more skilled than a professional.
How did they treat it?
While I tried to remember, the hospital staff worked frantically. In other words, they were making a fuss.
“Hey, iron?”
I tried to support someone.
Translator’s Notes
Fungal infection — An infection caused by fungi. Severe invasive fungal infections can destroy tissue and are difficult to treat, especially without antifungal drugs.
Endoscope — A medical instrument used to look inside the body. The narrator notes that he cannot examine the patient’s nasal cavity properly without one.
Double vision — A condition where a person sees two images of one object, often caused by problems with the eye muscles or nerves.
Convulsions — Involuntary muscle contractions or seizure-like movements, often seen in severe illness or neurological distress.
Hospice ward — A medical care setting for patients near the end of life, focused on comfort rather than cure.
Academic journal — A formal publication where medical or scientific findings are reported.
Rabies — A viral disease usually transmitted through animal bites. Once symptoms appear, it is almost always fatal without modern preventive treatment.