"My arm's not moving." "I thought I was having a stroke.""I can't walk". Everyone has flu symptoms.When the fever goes down, walk and move.

[News FM Lee Ik-seon Choi Soo-young Issue & People]

□ Broadcast date and time: January 14, 2025 (Tue)
□ Host: Lee Ik-seon, Choi Soo-young
□ Performers: Nam Goong-in, professor of emergency medicine at Ewha Womans University Mok-dong Hospital, author

<Professor of Emergency Medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital>
- The number of patients visiting the emergency room due to the flu epidemic has increased by 20% in previous years
- "I'm a guest of the examiner, but I can't walk because I have a stroke again." A flu patient walked with a fever
- "I thought it was shingles, I felt sick as if I was going to break my body." Flu symptoms popular this year
- Only 7 emergency medical support doctors in the country this year, 1 obstetrics and gynecology department, 2 thoracic surgery department..'Depidermy' Problem Serious

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.


◇ Lee Ik-seon: Let's have a cup of coffee or tea after lunch. Issue & People's Small Drawing Room <Salon de Sangam> Today, you are an emergency room doctor and a best-selling author at the same time. We will talk with Namgoongin, a professor of emergency medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. Welcome.

★ Namgoongin Professor of Emergency Medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital / Author (hereinafter Namgoongin): Hello, I am Namgoongin.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Can you say hello to our listeners?

★ Nam Goong-in: Yes, hello. I'm currently working in the emergency room of Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. I'm Nam Goong-in, who also works as a writer. Nice to meet you.

◇ When do you sleep? If you do a lot of things like that.

★ Namgoongin: in his spare time. I'll go to bed when I die.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Get a few hours of sleep a day.

★ Namgoongin: I still sleep for about six to seven hours. If you are on duty in the emergency room, you can't sleep at all at night, so you have to drive and sleep.

◆ Choi Soo-young: The flu is making headlines in the media these days, but it seems that it is breaking the record every day.

★ Nam Goong-in: There are a lot of flu patients these days. First of all, as citizens' health itself has deteriorated, the emergency room seems to have increased by about 20% of the patients.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Does it mean that there are people who don't come with the flu, but have gotten worse because of this and that?

★ Nam Goong-in: Yes, the number of flu patients increased separately because the whole nation caught the flu.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: A lot of what you wrote about the flu has become an article. My mother can't eat. My father can't walk. I think the urinary tract infection has recurred. It was all flu. Usually, when you get the flu, you get high fever, chills, muscle aches, and sore throats. ’ This time, there are many cases outside of the typical symptoms, right?

★ Namgoongin: Yes, there are many. Originally, if we have the flu, we have a fever, sore throat, cough, phlegm, and so on, everyone knows that we have the flu, but this time, we have a lot of muscle pain. My body aches. I am in low spirits. And you seem to have some neurological symptoms. The director of Gosiwon said that my mother couldn't walk, but she reported that our guest at Gosiwon had a stroke, but she couldn't walk, so she seems to have had a stroke again. Walk when the temperature drops. The day before yesterday, my mother came saying that her left arm was not usually used, but her left arm was not moving at all. You were a little bit disappointed that I might have the flu, but it was definitely the flu, not the stroke.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: How painful is muscle pain? The person who suffered from shingles caught the flu and said it was similar to shingles.

★ Nam Goong-in: I'm dying, this is breaking my body, there's definitely something wrong with my body. That's how many people appeal. I'm not getting sick yet, and I'm holding out because I got the vaccine, but it's bad. You can feel it.

◆ Choi Soo-young: When you're working in the emergency room, you've faced a lot of very serious situations. I heard that there was a situation where a healthy person in his 30s went to the intensive care unit due to the flu.

★ Namgoongin: Yes. There is a possibility that all respiratory diseases will progress to severe disease. Since this influenza is severe, once pneumonia spreads, it becomes very scary. This person even drove to the hospital, but his condition suddenly deteriorated for an hour, two hours, three hours, so he went to the intensive care unit, and there are quite a few other healthy people who went to the intensive care unit.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: As the number of pneumonia-related deaths has increased rapidly, people have been hearing a lot of swelling these days. The frequency of funeral homes has increased, and even the number of days of funerals is often changed because it is difficult to book a crematorium. Some experts say the flu epidemic hasn't peaked yet, but it's scary. It's until the Lunar New Year holiday.

★ Nam Goong-in: Since it's been cold, I'm thinking that the flu will spread more as other viruses circulate. Originally, in a country with four seasons, it is difficult for the elderly to endure winter. The flu is also prevalent, and you're not feeling well, so you should be more careful about the epidemic.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Do people usually catch the flu in winter?

★ Namgoongin: Winter is only indoors. It's usually ventilated when you go outside, but it's less ventilated by heating, so if you're with people, you're more likely to get it. All colds are seasonal and usually in winter.

◆ Choi Soo-young: I got a flu shot last Wednesday. Two or three days after I got the shot, I had symptoms like enteritis, so I had a hard time for two or three days, but it got better from yesterday. Is that the aftereffects of a flu shot?

★ Namgoongin: I don't think so. I think you just got enteritis separately.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Most Koreans make their own diagnosis. That's often the case.

★ Namgoongin: There are a lot of people like that. Why are you coming to the hospital? He came to a conclusion. When patients say it's because of what they ate, we usually just let it go. You're saying, "My saury has an upset stomach," but if you examine it, it's myocardial infarction. There are a lot of cases like that.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: This Lunar New Year's holiday has been increased due to the addition of a day of temporary holidays. Since you're working in the emergency room, you'll be worried about things like working days and days off. We're taking turns like this. Do you still have a tight work schedule this holiday?

★ Namgoongin: If it's the Lunar New Year holiday, there are 50% more patients. Because other hospitals don't do it. Basically, there is no place to go, so it increases by 50%, so the longer the holiday is, the more we are scared and struggling. We looked at the calendar in advance to see how long the holiday was and said, "The holiday is a week. I think I'm crazy. I think I'm dead." This time, a temporary holiday was designated, and that was when I was on duty. When I saw the news of the temporary holiday, I thought that I should work hard.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: So it's not all good. There are many people who like it because it's a temporary holiday, but if you look at it, there are these difficulties.

◆ Choi Soo-young: If you think about the last Chuseok holiday, how much has our emergency medicine contributed? At that time, not only the government but also everyone said that it would be a big deal if they got sick, but I guess they stuck it out and went on.

★ Namgoongin: I see. Even then, the whole nation knew so much that they shouldn't get sick, so I think they passed it wisely. I hope it goes over well again this time.

◆ Choi Soo-young: But the medical gap was very problematic last year, but you still think of it as a serious one.

★ Namgoongin: Yes, nothing has been solved at all. We are still in a university hospital, but there are no students and doctors I need to teach, but I think we will continue to have a heavy penalty this year. It's just a system where professors directly treat it, so I'm adapting and moving on.


◇ Lee Ik-seon: Aren't there many doctors who support emergency medicine? What do you think?

★ Namgoongin: Seven doctors applied nationwide this year.

◆ Choi Soo-young: That's a number that's in ten fingers.

★ Namgoongin: 7 people across the country. One obstetrics and gynecology department and two thoracic surgery departments, so we won several times.

◆ Choi Soo-young: We have to take that as comfort, so that's very true.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Where is the most concentrated?

★ Namgoongin: The dermatological plastic surgery we know. There were a lot of applicants again this time. Radiology is also popular.

◆ Choi Soo-young: To put it simply, the main reason is that my body is a little comfortable and my punishment is good.

★ Namgoongin: Basically, it's the opposite of emergency medicine. We have to see patients at night, and life and death are very directly at stake. The quality of life as a doctor is already a little different because you have to work on holidays in an emergency situation where you don't know when and what will happen.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: You're right. It's night time, life and death are at stake, and you have to wait. Have you ever thought about changing departments in the middle?

★ Namgoongin: First of all, when we were training, we had a lot of emotional labor for drunk people or people who drank too much. There are a lot of people who are verbally abusive. I understand because you're sick, but I think it would be better not to look at the patient in that case because the service job consumes a lot of emotions, or maybe it would be better to go to a department where the patient is sleeping all the time, like the anesthesiology department. But now, I don't regret it as if it's my calling, and I'm watching it well.

◇ Interest line: All right. Since you said that there were 7 people who applied to the emergency medicine department, I think you know better than anyone how to get more support for the department of emergency medicine, the pros and cons, and what needs to be improved.

★ Namgoongin: We're working because we're responsible for our work. Moreover, as a doctor, I wanted to be a doctor who could deal with life and death anyway. Personally. If you're a doctor, shouldn't you do that? I'm working with this responsibility, but I think it's a priority to improve the environment where we can work comfortably with faith because the risk of litigation is much higher and the amount of litigation is greater than other departments if we continue to work alone without anyone to help us at night.

◆ Choi Soo-young: Let's be a little more specific. You mentioned environmental improvement, there are things the government can do and there are things the hospital can do, but at least this should be resolved first. Or if you have anything to point out or suggest.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: I think the lawsuit really touches my heart.

★ Nam Goong-in: When it comes to litigation, it's really difficult and dangerous for us, but when we work, people will die someday. There is no treatment that can save everyone 100% or anything like that. In the end, no matter how much we did our best, there are cases where people sadly died. We actually have to go to court because of the lawsuit, we have to submit an affidavit, and if the result is bad, the amount of compensation usually comes out. You're going to be guilty, but if you already have a few cases like that, it shrinks. First of all, whenever I read such articles, I feel difficult, so I contract when I see a doctor. There was a patient like this, but like this.

◇ Profit line: You avoid it, and our emergency room doesn't receive it. What if you turn it around and you die?

★ Namgoongin: Yes, that's often the case. First of all, I hope this will be solved.

◇ Interest line: First of all, there should be some kind of safety so that you don't feel too much pressure in the lawsuit.

★ Nam Goong-in: And there is also a shortage of manpower. As fewer and fewer people apply because it has become a so-called "Gifi department," I am now at the local emergency medical center in Seoul. It's an institution that sees the most important patients, and there are only eight in Seoul. It's been a year since I worked alone at night. That's why I'm alone. But all areas are similar. So, there are only about 10 emergency medical doctors at the regional center who wake up at night and are watching patients on standby. In Seoul.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: It's so amazing.

★ Nam Goong-in: I think these things need to be improved so that we can work comfortably because we are working in dangerous environments.

◇ Interest line: So to get more people to volunteer, of course, it's a real problem. For example, you have to double or triple your salary.

◆ Choi Soo-young: That's right. There's also a way to make amends. The listener texted me. I really respect the emergency medical teachers. I respect where you go in case of an emergency. ’ You've said respect twice, and I think you're in a situation where you're going to be treated like that.

◇ Professor Nam Goong-in of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital is also a writer today. We're having a conversation with them. "A Deadly Day" became very well known by writing an essay looking at patients brought to the emergency room as suicide attempts, but I heard that many people participate in suicide prevention events. I'd like to hear more from you until you wrote that book.

★ Nam Goong-in: First of all, I've been a bit of a literary boy since I was in middle school. I thought writing was a fantastic medium. I was happy because I could just do it by myself and write it and others could read it infinitely. I was interested in writing and read the literary works carefully, and they were so beautiful. For the rest of my life, I thought that becoming a writer was my dream. Literature people are usually a little depressed. There is no joy. Everything was sad and painful, so I left behind classical literature, but as I encountered them, I was curious about what death was. I need to be a doctor who deals with life and death. I thought so, but when I went to the emergency room, the emergency medical department patient group was very special, but they are the most sick people right now.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: You're right.

★ Nam Goong-in: I caught a cold, so I'm going to see a doctor tomorrow. Then the peak is for people who are a little past, but if you're the most uncomfortable right now and you're not sick, there's no reason to come to the emergency room. All of these medical knowledge and spectrum are medical, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and they are doctors who help the sickest and are even responsible for death with this diverse spectrum. So I went to the emergency medicine department, but when I went to the emergency medicine department, I still see about 40 to 50 patients a day, and all of them have stories. Everything is sad, everything is sick, and I can relate to it. As I've written some of those things, I've released books called "If Nothing" and "A Deadly Day" and I'm currently working as a writer.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: I can't introduce all of the books, so can you tell me one example that you cared about the most?

★ Namgoongin: When I didn't have a screen door in Seoul when I was a resident. I was an emergency room doctor for 17 years, so I majored when I didn't have a screen door. At that time, there were quite a few accidents where elderly people threw themselves into the subway. People like that usually throw themselves in the morning. I brought one of the people who threw himself with me, and he usually turns right away when he gets hit by the subway. I was wondering if I should say that the timing was a little off, so I had an accident with only two legs amputated. 119 crews brought both legs. Bring your upper body, too. I went to work and left, but I couldn't believe it. The crew brought two legs. I had to save it quickly, so I put my two legs on a bandage, washed it, and saved it by catching a vitals. But the two legs can't be joined together. Basically, the subway was laid down. Besides, this destroyed bridge is so terrible. Unfortunately, I had to deal with both legs and give the patient some hope because I'm a doctor. "Even if you threw yourself into the subway, you survived. Both legs can't be helped, but let's do well in rehabilitation and live with hope. ” That's what I told you. Then, the patient asked me to kill him quickly, saying what he was talking about. When I thought about it like this, he was so tired that he even threw himself into the subway, but he became a disabled person. If it wasn't for him, I screamed for him to tell me how to die, and my family came and my father's leg was thrown away at will. After going through all these incidents, I was on duty 24 hours a day and left work, and there were only three lines of the article. "Yesterday, a man in his 70s threw himself at a subway station and got seriously injured. That's why citizens on their way to work suffered a lot of inconvenience. I'm doing my research. ’ It was written like this. I saw so many uncomfortable people yesterday. The family, the engineers, the person who brought the legs, and the patient himself are having a hard time. But in the article, only citizens on their way to work were uncomfortable. I should write a story behind this. There are people who suffer and the real inconvenience is here. That's what I thought, so I started writing stories.

◆ Choi Soo-young: Since such desperate stories have become a book, I think this book was bound to be loved by the public and had no choice but to evoke empathy. If you continue to work in the emergency room, you'll also face death. He said that he entered this path because he had a lot of thoughts and interests about death since he was young, but can a doctor who is a male court doctor make a definition of death or something?

★ Nam Goong-in: I've thought a lot about death scientifically, and I've thought about death drawn in various parts such as literature and art, but I still don't know since I'm in my 20s and 30s. That's what I thought. But these days, we don't know death, but even if it comes, I'll keep working hard so that I don't regret it. I think about this a lot. The day before yesterday, a man suddenly fell down from a cerebral hemorrhage while living normally like us, and he was a very healthy man in his 50s. But he looked like he would never wake up again. I don't know when death will come, so even if it comes tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, I will live faithfully enough to satisfy myself without regret. I'm reaching a conclusion to a degree.

◆ Choi Soo-young: You actually write and take care of patients. As you said earlier, when I was fascinated by literature as a boy, I usually go to liberal arts, but I went to natural sciences and became a doctor. In a way, the emergency ward where reality is in front of you and the place where you write when you sit down to write are completely different, but have you ever felt that your identity is in conflict?

★ Nam Goong-in: I am a professional who has worked in the emergency room for a long time. That's what they call me because I have to think of myself as a "death-handling pro" so that I can do this well. If you cry together when you announce the death of a patient too rationally, you may find yourself in an unacceptable and difficult situation, so as a doctor, I can't do this very rationally and cool-headedly. So far, we've worked hard and done this, but he's completely dead medically, but emotionally, I'm sorry, and I'll say a few more words, but it's a program that essentially has to be rational. But when I get home from these things, I come back home and think about what happened and what kind of emotions I felt.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: I see. Professor Kim Cheol-gon of the Department of Psychiatry of Dong-A University Busan appeared on our program, and I asked him a question. When I asked him how to relieve all that stress, he doesn't talk to people much, but talks to himself with wood and earphones. It's extremely stressful. How do you release it when it can be very emotional?

★ Nam Goong-in: Writing is my hobby and specialty. Like I used it like this when I was in school. Writing and reading are ways to relieve stress. I believe that if you move something in print anyway, you'll be able to tolerate anything. I organize what I felt from the beginning and write with a repentance for things like difficulties, unfairness, or mistakes in a single article.

◆ Choi Soo-young: You just told the people who died in the emergency room that you explain coolly and rationally and calmly as a doctor, but you also meet various human groups in the emergency room. You may have seen people who suddenly encountered each other due to a really unprepared breakup in the emergency room, but in that case, how do you treat them?

★ Namgoongin: No matter how bad all deaths were, there was no prepared death. No matter how bad the patients look, everyone is sad, but there are really unprepared farewells. I had 5 cardiac arrest while on duty for 4 consecutive days until yesterday, and four of them were saved. One of them died. I couldn't save one person. He even killed himself. When my family told me I was dead, they hugged my knees and cried for 10 minutes. But I can't avoid this, and he's already crying because he's so sad, but there's no way to say goodbye without preparation. There's just no way. The feeling of human sadness exists and I have to wait for it. I showed you the body, but he held it and cried for more than an hour.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: Nietzsche says he did. Death is the completion of life. ’ I think you have the authority to say this because you often face death for a more complete life and death, but what do you think we need to prepare? You mentioned earlier that you're working hard.

★ Namgoongin: You need someone you love. You must have someone you love around you. When I saw various forms of death, no one came to me even if I died, and even if I managed to search through my contact information, I said, 'Oh, is he dead? ’ And I learned that there are quite a few deaths that no one takes care of. But on the other hand, even though he's about to die, the whole family came and tried to protect him with love, and I thought, 'What I need before I die is to have people who love me and love me by my side.'

◆ Choi Soo-young: The book written by Dr. Nam Goong-in is "If There Is No", "A Deadly Day", so if you look at it like this, it seems like a book that recorded what happened in the emergency room, but if you have any plans to write it in the future. After today's interview, I have a hunch that I will be writing a book that is close to a philosophy book, do you have any plans?

★ Nam Goong-in: Surprisingly, I wrote a science book. I've been writing a book for about three years by working on how to make medicine fun with science, and I'm finishing the last chapter of the year. Medicine is actually science, too. I've written a book for three years that solves medicine with the grammar of the science book and makes it interesting for readers to have fun with medicine and science based on cases in the emergency room, and it's coming out soon this year. The crayfish is <Body> and it is likely to change during the editorial meeting.

◇ In fact, if you've been sick at least once, or if you've been to the hospital with your sick parents, the doctors in the hospital feel almost godlike. That's why his words make me feel really jagged. If you keep it warm, I'll live a lot, and if you talk coldly, you'll get hurt a lot. Since you're in the emergency medicine department, you can't afford to talk to anyone, but please don't get me wrong. The patients. That's not how doctors feel. Please tell your listeners to this effect.

★ Namgoongin: In spite of all the situations, we want to be good to our patients, and we have a sense of professionalism. And my colleagues and I are doing our best for him. Please listen carefully to the doctor at the hospital. There are many people who are so worried about the flu, so what I always say to patients should be common sense. Take good care of your condition, don't drink too much, get vaccinated, wash your hands, and wear a mask, and you can overcome most of them. Please take good care of your health in such a common sense.

◇ Lee Ik-seon: <Salon de Sangam> I was with Nam Goong-in, a professor of emergency medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital.

★ Namgoongin: Thank you.