Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 125

Cholera causes acute dehydration.

After an incubation period, it starts with severe diarrhea and vomiting, and in severe cases, patients can die within hours.

Since Putuo Temple is a place with martial artists, they might be able to endure better than ordinary people, but it was still uncertain how long they could last.

No matter how strong a martial artist is, as long as 50-70% of the body is water.

Because without water, one cannot survive.

‘In modern times, we’d immediately start IV fluid therapy.’

This is to prevent death from dehydration.

For patients in serious condition, antibiotics should be administered to alleviate symptoms.

Jin Cheon-hee calculated the amount of penicillin in his medicine box.

While penicillin was effective in preventing various emergency surgical infections from fights with martial artists, it was difficult to use against cholera.

Usually, antibiotics like tetracycline, which directly interfere with bacterial protein synthesis to prevent growth and reproduction, were more effective.

‘Maybe the cholera here might respond to penicillin, but…’

However, even if antibiotics work, the amount is far too little to administer to all these people, and for cholera, fluid replacement is the priority.

Using the Profound Origin Divine Technique, Jin Cheon-hee quickly analyzed what he needed to do next.

Finally, Jin Cheon-hee stood up.

“First, we need to close the well.”

Cholera is a waterborne disease, meaning it’s infected through contaminated water.

We need to prevent additional infections.

Jin Cheon-hee added one more thing.

“There’s a high possibility that the well is contaminated. Nuns in the incubation period might feel fine now, but symptoms will appear in a few days.”

At those words, one of the Putuo Temple nuns said,

“We’ve been cooking and doing laundry with that well water…”

“You must stop immediately. Also, anyone who has directly or indirectly consumed water from that well needs to be isolated.”

At those words, all the nuns looked at each other.

Jin Cheon-hee said,

“Don’t tell me…”

Nun Abi said,

“That well water is the drinking water source for Putuo Temple. Probably not a single person hasn’t drunk it.”

‘This is a disaster…’

A living hell is about to begin.

***

Jin Cheon-hee sent Hwanggu to find the nearest intact water source in the vicinity.

Looking at the map, there should be a water source not connected to the well water.

Hwanggu, who had detected by smell that even the tea water was contaminated, said:

Woof! – I’ll listen to Master! Other dogs agreed to help too.

The number of olfactory cells in humans is 5 to 10 million. In contrast, dogs have about 100 to 200 million.

It’s said that dogs’ sense of smell is over ten thousand times more developed than humans’.

Not only can they track people from far away, but in some cases, they can even distinguish cancer patients.

In the case of Hwanggu, a spiritual beast, he should be able to smell things from distances Jin Cheon-hee couldn’t even imagine.

That’s why Hwanggu had never gotten lost or failed to find someone.

Plus, with the local dogs agreeing to help, finding a water source shouldn’t be too difficult.

‘Good. Now it’s my turn.’

First, he sought caregivers from the village to help Jin Cheon-hee.

Given the nature of the situation, he said he would give ample compensation.

Before long, the village selected those with the best physical strength and sent them up to Putuo Temple.

Probably conscious of it being a male-restricted area, they were all women.

They rolled up their sleeves and said:

“We don’t need compensation. We’ve received favors from Putuo Temple before, so if we can repay it like this, we’re glad.”

This showed how Putuo Temple had lived as a prestigious orthodox sect all this time.

Nun Abi responded with a half-palm greeting, saying “Amitabha…”

Her voice chanting the Buddha’s name trembled slightly.

The women said:

“Tell us what we need to do. We’ll do everything we can.”

“What we need right now is disinfection and fluid supply. These two things. Hwanggu is looking for drinkable water nearby, so disinfection should be the priority.”

Disinfection.

It’s an unfamiliar concept to people here.

Jin Cheon-hee first said:

“Did you bring the alcohol as I asked earlier? The strongest you have.”

At those words, the women laughed cheerfully.

“We never thought we’d bring alcohol to a temple.”

“It’s the kind sailors drink, so it’s very strong. Will that be okay?”

Jin Cheon-hee replied:

“We won’t be drinking it. We’ll use it for disinfection.”

At that moment, not far away, the sound of an animal howling was heard.

Awoo-!

Jin Cheon-hee immediately recognized it as Hwanggu’s howling.

“It seems there’s drinkable water nearby. That’s fortunate.”

“What are you going to do with the water?”

“We’ll boil it. And we need to add salt. A bit of sugar too. But depending on the situation, we might need to use other methods.”

For sugar, there’s medicinal honey.

What Jin Cheon-hee is trying to do is ‘oral rehydration therapy’.

It’s a method used to treat cholera in developing countries.

***

The large cauldron was boiling vigorously.

People brought water from the source, boiled it, and disinfected it.

In this urgent situation, they had to use everything available.

However, since cholera can spread, he educated them to cover their mouths and noses with cloth like Jin Cheon-hee was doing, and to always wash their hands when entering and leaving.

He also strictly instructed them not to bring their hands to their mouths, and fortunately, covering their noses and mouths with cloth prevented habitual touching.

All utensils, bedding, and things in use were washed and disinfected.

And in there, Jin Cheon-hee stared at the cauldron.

‘The key to oral rehydration solution (ORS) is the mixture.’

Fortunately, thanks to being an island region, there was no shortage of salt.

Honey contains glucose and can substitute for sugar.

Being an island region, salt was abundant but sugar was scarce, which was a problem.

In lieu of that, they requisitioned whatever they could find like rice syrup, honey, and sugar.

‘If there’s not enough glucose, we can use rice instead.’

If you don’t have teeth, use your gums – level 9!

These days, rice is also used in oral rehydration solutions to alleviate intestinal osmotic phenomena and increase calorie content.

Since rice powder is cheaper than sugar, it’s a Plan B created for people who can’t even afford that amount.

‘In this case, we lower the sodium concentration.’

Whether Plan A or Plan B, it was prepared.

The next thing needed was willpower.

‘This will be a long battle.’

With cholera, antibiotics only help; ultimately, it’s a battle of time and endurance.

Recovering patients as quickly as possible.

That would be the key to this battle.

***

Hwanggu discovered a few more contaminated water sources.

Woof, munch munch. – Dried fish tasty. Loyalty loyalty!

Jin Cheon-hee immediately had those places closed off.

However, even so, people in the village started suffering from the strange illness.

Those people were immediately started on treatment as well.

The big problem was that there were a few children among them.

There were young children in Putuo Temple, but it was the same in the village.

Cholera is several times more fatal to children than adults.

This is because their metabolism is different from adults, and they have less strength to fight the disease due to weaker physical strength.

In this case, Jin Cheon-hee directly infused Five Elements True Qi to buy time.

Diarrhea is not only a representative symptom of cholera causing dehydration but also a defense mechanism for the body to expel pathogens.

We had to continuously administer oral rehydration solution to help patients fully expel the pathogens.

In a way, it’s similar to sending bullets to allow the body to fight cholera.

Isolation and treatment.

In the process of leading people, both body and mind were wearing down.

But Jin Cheon-hee himself was the only doctor on this island.

In this hellish time, the first fully recovered patient appeared.

The number of patients increasing daily finally started to decline little by little.

***

“The dehydration has stopped. The body is fine now too…”

“Uwa, uwawa…”

A young child giggled.

Unlike adults, it wasn’t easy to feed oral rehydration solution to infants and young children.

The child couldn’t understand why they had to drink this, and the solution didn’t taste good, so it was truly a dire situation.

In the end, when they wouldn’t drink and vomited, he had to maintain the child’s vitality by infusing Five Elements True Qi all night.

“Now let’s stay isolated for a few more days and then go back to mommy.”

“Gau, gagaa!”

Jin Cheon-hee let out a small sigh.

‘We’ve almost got it under control now.’

The majority had recovered, and there were almost no patients left.

He couldn’t tell what the child in front of him had been sucking on to end up like this, so he dealt with everything he could think of.

‘How many days have passed…?’

Focused on other things, he forgot to count the days.

Jin Cheon-hee went outside.

Disinfecting his hands. Taking off his mask. Blankly looking at the sky.

He rubbed his eyes from fatigue.

“Master Benefactor, please rest. You’ve overworked yourself.”

The Putuo Temple nuns started calling Jin Cheon-hee ‘Master Benefactor’.

He was a doctor who didn’t hesitate to deal with smelly and dirty things to save people.

A benefactor of the sect.

The Putuo Temple nuns never imagined they would receive such a favor from someone.

‘To think we’d receive it from this young doctor.’

Fatigue was deeply etched on his face that still retained traces of boyhood.

The Putuo Temple nuns said:

“Why don’t you rest?”

“That’s right. Take a rest, Master Benefactor!”

Young Putuo Temple children grabbed Jin Cheon-hee’s sleeves with both hands.

“Oh my, children. You shouldn’t come here.”

“But there’s almost no sick people left…”

“Still, go back.”

Even after recovery from cholera, infectiousness remains for about 2-3 days.

Since there are occasionally asymptomatic patients who are still infectious, he checked everyone’s pulse and isolated anyone with even the slightest abnormality for treatment.

Rarely, some cases intermittently excrete bacteria for several months.

‘But I haven’t told them this yet.’

If this fact were immediately revealed to the villagers, anyone who had ever contracted cholera would become a second-class citizen.

Throughout human history, in severe cases, it often led to mob violence resulting in deaths.

There were even cases where patients were burned alive in the name of treating the disease.

That person’s family and friends would all be made into second-class citizens and harassed for life.

Plus, it’s a closed, small society.

It’s not for nothing that it’s a terrible disease, so even after recovery, he’s maintaining isolation, thoroughly disinfecting, and preventing children from coming.

‘Human rights and truth. What choice should we make between these?’

Even the most ordinary person had evil in them.

An era of barbarism.

The human heart is still weak, and fear is like the night, bound to cover people someday.

From here on, it was no longer a matter for Jin Cheon-hee to decide.

Even though Jin Cheon-hee was helping them here as a doctor, he was ultimately an outsider who would leave someday.

Life ultimately belongs to the Putuo Temple people living on Mount Putuo.

‘I suggested to the sect leader that it might be good to close the sect and isolate the infected people for about 1-2 years.’