Chapter 195
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Hospital Hopping Ordeal
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On his first day in the hospital, Kim Juhyuk finished up a battery of tests and got his diagnosis.
"It's a cervical sprain. The headaches and dizziness should settle down after the first few days, so don't worry too much. Let's focus on treating that neck properly first."
After submitting the diagnosis to the police station and filing the report, the at-fault driver's insurance company quickly gave up and approved the personal injury claim.
Just as the insurance rep had said, there didn't seem to be any major issues with the process.
Now all he had to do was get better.
"Your neck and head hurt, right?"
"Yes. When I tilt my head back, there's pain along the cervical spine right in the center of the back of my neck, plus dizziness and nausea..."
"Got it."
But the hospital felt a bit off from the start.
Before Kim Juhyuk could even finish explaining, the Korean medicine doctor started inserting acupuncture needles.
"It hurts right here in the center of my neck."
"Yes, yes. I'll put one there too. Oh! Don't turn your head."
When he casually turned his head to look, sure enough, it was a different person.
"You're not the director I met yesterday?"
"No. The director does rounds once in the morning, but there's a separate attending physician for the ward."
A resident...
He understood that a big hospital would assign different doctors, but the one handling his case was incredibly perfunctory.
Including the extras, that made twelve needles.
Was he really going to get better like this?
"Time for some chiropractic manipulation. Lie face down~."
The acupuncture was at least on his neck and head, but the chuna treatment took it to another level.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
He lay face down on the machine as it delivered shocks to his lower back for about twenty seconds.
"My lower back is fine, though... Could you focus on my neck?"
"The spine is all connected, so we have to treat everything."
"This is actually making me more dizzy."
His neck hurt, so why were they doing this?
The moment he spoke up, the doctor gave him a look that screamed annoyance.
"...Alright, just the neck then."
What was with this 'difficult customer' treatment?
The neck manipulation wasn't much either. No real adjustments or even kneading—just a few light presses and done.
"Hey, is treatment supposed to be like this?"
Lying in his hospital bed, he called his friend who had strongly recommended Korean medicine treatment in the past. The response was one of utter bewilderment.
-Not at all? I got chuna that felt amazing. One good crack and it was so refreshing—I kept going for turtle neck correction even after settling.
Something really was wrong.
Had he checked into the wrong hospital?
"Doctor, is this medicine supposed to help with the dizziness?"
"Yes... uh, yes."
Even grabbing a nurse because he felt awkward asking the doctor directly didn't help much.
"Excuse me, sorry, but could I see your meds for a sec?"
"Huh? I didn't want to take them anyway. You can have mine."
When he asked the guy in the next bed, the man cheerfully handed over his prescribed pills.
Same ones exactly.
His neck pain had improved just a tiny bit, but the dizziness hadn't budged.
I got scammed!
Now he was certain.
This place was a factory.
The director who did the initial consult and the manager who handled admissions had been extremely kind and enthusiastic.
Were they getting incentives based on admissions?
Once you were in, dead-eyed Korean medicine doctors repeated the exact same treatments.
"Resting like this feels great. The bedding here's better than at home? Who knew hospital food could be this good!"
Of course, some patients were satisfied, but Kim Juhyuk spent the whole time massaging his own neck.
But it was already day four.
With discharge tomorrow and no out-of-pocket costs, he wasn't the type to pick a fight with the hospital.
He refused the discharge meds, ignored the manager's advice to keep coming for outpatient visits, and headed straight to orthopedics.
"Ah... Why'd you admit yourself to a Korean medicine hospital? Like acupuncture's gonna fix anything?"
"My condition hasn't improved much at all."
When he shared his bad experience at the Korean medicine hospital, the orthopedic doctor just grinned.
"There's not much you can do with auto insurance. Got supplemental health insurance? Just settle, then do nerve blocks, extracorporeal shockwave, and manual therapy. Our PT does manual therapy really well—thirty minutes of proper, satisfying relief."
But the suggested treatments went way beyond what Kim Juhyuk had in mind.
"Not covered by auto insurance?"
"Right. Take the settlement as settlement, bill supplemental insurance under health coverage, and your copay's just 10%~."
"...I don't even know how long I'll need treatment. That's not ideal."
The at-fault party should foot the bill, so why use his own supplemental?
Kim Juhyuk wasn't worried about health insurance premiums or the insurer's finances, but he hated even a small hike in his own rates.
Plus, even at 10% copay, repeated treatments could exceed the settlement.
"Then let's start with meds and physical therapy. Nerve blocks can start two weeks post-accident, so hang in there a bit."
Nerve block?
Shocked by the ominous name, he looked it up later and found it was just an injection.
Steroids into the neck...
"Oh, team leader, you're a total golden goblin."
"What're you talking about?"
"You can tell—they're only recommending profitable treatments~."
Back at the office, coworkers chimed in with their two cents.
"Settling and just doing manual therapy's fine. I liked it."
"To max out settlement, isn't sticking with Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital better?"
"I'm really hurting here!"
I'm dying of pain, and these people...
"Uh, won't it heal naturally anyway? It's been almost a week—maybe there's an issue? Go to a big hospital."
"Yeah! I know a good one!"
Finally, something sensible. Kim Juhyuk asked his regular ortho for an MRI referral.
"I can give you one, but it probably won't show anything."
We'll see if it shows or not once it's done!
With the referral in hand, he went to Sowan General Hospital, recommended by an acquaintance.
"Hmm, I wouldn't bother with an MRI myself."
This doctor explained much more calmly.
"If the MRI shows something, insurance covers it. If it's normal, you pay out of pocket."
Same story in the end.
Why is everything so damn complicated?
After taking a thorough history, the doctor looked at Kim Juhyuk with pity.
"Back when things were lax, a bunch of crazy hospitals gamed the system... Now it's stricter. What we can do here isn't much different—prescribe meds, do PT, and if needed, nerve block based on progress."
"...What about combining with Korean medicine treatment?"
The doctor's expression turned a bit odd.
"Hmm, some patients who weren't improving did better combining it, so I'm not against it. But Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital is... a bit..."
"Ah, is it notoriously bad?"
"Not that bad."
He held back.
"If you're going to a Korean medicine clinic, I recommend this one."
Instead, he wrote a simple referral for another clinic.
"Got it. I'll check it out."
How many was this now?
Fine, last one—assume I'll get burned again and go.
-How many times are you switching hospitals? This won't increase your settlement!
Ignoring the irritated call from the other insurer, Kim Juhyuk headed to Seongsu Clinic.
* * *
Even with eyes full of suspicion, Kim Juhyuk explained his situation clearly and concisely.
"You've been through a lot hopping around like that."
I comforted the patient first.
Wow, how did it get this messed up?
If Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital had just treated him properly from the start, he wouldn't have needed to shop around.
How many nylon patients must they have seen to mistake a real one?
Kim Juhyuk's symptoms weren't tricky at all.
Not the most textbook case, but any competent Korean medicine hospital seeing lots of traffic accident patients should handle it fine.
In other words, it was a lack of sincerity—they hadn't even properly assessed him.
"I thought I was going insane. No idea why my insurance rep recommended that place."
Kim Juhyuk pounded his chest.
"Ah, it was an insurance rep referral?"
"Yes."
...Collusion, huh.
With the car barely damaged, the rep probably pegged him as nylon from the get-go.
Maybe they got kickbacks from Hwangje for every patient sent their way.
Anyone coming that route was either nylon or tipped off by the rep...
"Guess your attending was just super half-assed."
But that was just speculation.
And even if true, the attending bore the blame.
If they'd just listened properly, they'd have known he was in real pain—and treatable even in that environment.
Surely some doctors there gave their all.
"Yeah. Anyway, the most important thing for me is getting better. I just want to stop bouncing around."
Kim Juhyuk let out a deep sigh.
"Exactly. Focus on treatment. What's bothering you most right now? Dizziness?"
"Both. Neck still hurts, dizziness is bad too. They said it'd improve in the first few days, but it's the same. Good news is no brain bleed... But going on like this is driving me crazy."
"No bleed is a huge relief. Let's treat step by step, starting with the dizziness. Right after the accident—any loss of consciousness, blurry vision, weakness in your hands?"
I approached it from the beginning.
No bleed confirmed by tests, but "dizzy" caught my attention.
Didn't seem like cervicogenic headache?
"Ah, right after, I blacked out for a bit. Like five seconds? Probably shock."
"...Yes, that can happen."
"Vision was okay... Well, everything shook for a moment. More balance than vision. Got out to puke but didn't. No weakness."
Kim Juhyuk seemed thrilled he could describe symptoms so precisely, adding even more details from the scene.
"Headaches from car accidents are common. Some from cervical sprain pinching nerves, others from head impact or shaking causing concussion."
Dizziness and nausea pointed to brainstem, vestibular, autonomic involvement; vague short-term memory loss suggested hippocampus and temporal lobe jolt.
"Concussion?"
Kim Juhyuk looked shocked.
"Scary name, but not like bleed or stroke. Not structural damage—just the brain rattled from impact. Think of it as shaken up."
I reassured him first.
No permanent damage, and over 80% resolved naturally.
The issue was the 20%.
"For dizziness, we need herbal meds. Did you get discharge herbs from Hwangje?"
"No. Took the same ones during the five-day stay, but they made my stomach worse, so I refused discharge."
"...I see. I'll prescribe properly for your symptoms this time—take them diligently."
Stuck him on standard blood stasis herbs without proper exam just because traffic accident?
Lucky prescription days remained.
I calmly took his pulse, gauging the right formula.