culture

A girl left the South Hwanghae Provincial General Hospital, receiving the blessings and send-off of many people on June 30.

She could not walk and speak properly though she was ten years old. But she became an ordinary person after 100-odd days of medical treatment at the hospital.

With maternal love

In March, Kim Ye Rim, a ten-year old living in Haeju City, was taken to the South Hwanghae Provincial General Hospital, on her mother’s back.

She was suffering from the disorder in half of her body caused by cerebral palsy, serious muscular atrophy in arms and legs, speech impediment and others.

The small girl was standing, leaning on her mother with her back bent and tried to hide her crippled hand behind her back. Her look stung the medical workers of the hospital.

It was the aftereffect of a sudden illness she had experienced when she was ten months old.

Her mother almost sobbed when she asked for the treatment of her daughter, saying she would not mind it even if they failed to cure her illnesses.

At that time, the doctor who volunteered to take charge of Ye Rim’s treatment was Ki Su Ryon of the Koryo internal medicine department.

“I have a son of Ye Rim’s age. As a doctor, I could not turn a blind eye to the mother and her crippled daughter,” said Su Ryon.

She studied data carefully and discussed repeatedly with paediatricians to find out a suitable treatment method.

She proposed a treatment method combining the knife thrust therapy, a Koryo therapy, with acupuncture and various other drug therapies and received support at a consultative meeting of the hospital.

Dozens of days after starting her medical treatment, toes of a paralyzed leg of the patient began to move and a little while later, her bent backbone was gradually straightened and the shape of her legs began to change.

At last, Ye Rim stood up on her own feet.

Her mother O Mi Hyang could hardly control tears of joy welling up in her eyes, tightly holding in her arms her daughter who stood on her feet with straightened back for the first time in 10 years.

Facing new challenges in succession

Rehabilitation, which needs the strong will of both the patient and the doctor, was another new challenge.

As the patient had a very weak muscle in a leg, it took over an hour for her to perform such a simple movement as lifting legs or straightening the body. But the doctor always stayed there with Ye Rim until the treatment finished.

Whenever Ye Rim fell at the extreme point of rehabilitation, Su Ryon gave strength and encouragement to her, saying she would not rise up again if she yielded there.

One day in May, Ye Rim celebrated her birthday.

Su Ryon and other medical workers of the Koryo internal medicine department and many other patients showered her with bouquets of fragrant flowers and birthday gifts. Ye Rim could not speak properly at the time and so she shed tears of gratitude only.

That day, Su Ryon took it as another duty she had to discharge to treat her speech impediment.

On the basis of an analysis of the rule on pronunciation of Korean language, she mapped out a phased plan and started the treatment by combining kinesitherapy and acupuncture. Over a dozen days later, a faint sound of singing came from Ye Rim’s sickroom.

She was singing the song “We Are the Happiest in the World”. 

The treatment method discovered with intense devotion and painstaking research worked a miracle.

Hugging her exuberantly, Su Ryon burst into tears of joy.

“The passion and selfless devotion of Doctor Su Ryon who continuously challenged the limits of medicine and developed the Korean-style treatment method have produced today’s miracle,” said the director of the hospital.

Now Ye Rim is leading a happy life, singing songs, doing running and swimming to her heart’s content with her friends.