Ilchi Lee

One ordinary afternoon, while sitting in the laboratory, someone peeked in through the open door. It was a woman with eyes that were squinted congenitally. She looked very nervous.

“How can I help you?” I asked softly, trying to make her feel comfortable. “Please come in.” She came in very carefully, followed by her two sons. They were in rags and looked very poor. The children’s faces were very yellow and pale. They were quite thin with big bellies. I got a strong feeling that they had something very wrong with their liver.

“What made you come here?” I asked.

“My children are sick,” she replied.

“If they’re sick, you have to go to a doctor.”

She explained to me that they had already seen a doctor and were told they needed laboratory tests. But the fee was about $40, which she could not afford. She had asked desperately for a discount, but the hospital didn’t want to give it to her. She kept asking persistently, so a hospital employee recommended that she come see me.

I think the employee did that because I used to work for the hospital. While I worked there, I donated my blood three times in one night in the emergency room because they couldn’t find blood donators for emergency patients. Because of that night he or she might have thought I would help this woman.

I gave the children a checkup, even though it was already obvious to me that they were seriously jaundiced. The tests results confirmed my assessment that they had to be hospitalized immediately.

“How did you let this happen to your children?” I asked her. The woman explained their father had left them a long time ago, and she had had to raise the two children alone. She had no job and had to depend on irregular labor work. So the children had had to eat cheap instant noodles for more than six months.

When I told her that the children had to be hospitalized she said, “Oh my God, I absolutely can’t afford that!” I was very worried. I wanted to pay the hospital bill but I could not afford it at that time either. “I am sorry. I can only do a checkup, which is not medical cure. You should go to a hospital.” Murmuring, “I can’t afford to go to a hospital,” she stood up to leave with the children, which made me very concerned. On her way out she took a note from her coat, which looked like 5,000 won or 10,000 won (an equivalent of $5 or $10). I could not take her money at all. She kept insisting on paying the money while I tried to refuse it. I couldn’t just refuse to accept it so I came up with an idea.

“Okay, I will take the money. But wait a moment.”

I made a phone call to a close friend who was a pharmacist, who I knew was also a generous person. I asked him, “Hey, don’t you want to earn my money? I gave a checkup and earned some just now.”

“What happened?”

I briefly explained the situation and added, “A woman will come to you bringing two children, with my money. That’s my money so take it without questioning. Please prescribe 10 days worth of the medicine they need.” He said he would do it. (At that time in Korea, pharmacists could prescribe medicine by themselves.)

Ending the call, I turned back to the woman and said, “Fine, I will accept your money. But I will buy these children medicine with it. Please don’t say anything about how I choose to spend my money.” I handed the bill back to her and said, “Please go to the drug store with this. I am not 100% sure if their symptoms will improve only with medicine, but let’s try our best.”

After giving her directions to the drug store, I gave the children an energy massage with all of my love and sincerity. After that, I saw them to the entrance. I cannot remember how many times the woman turned back and bowed to me saying, “Thank you.” After they turned the corner, I came back to my desk and returned to my routine work, completely forgetting about the incident.

Read the rest of this story here.