Observations on Sickness

One thing I’ve learned through traveling, and through working at Sea Mar, is that medicine, is as influenced by culture and policy as it is by science. Case in point, Master Oh thought I should go to the hospital when I had the 24 hour stomach bug. In my mind going to a hospital for a stomach bug is out of the question. The I.V. would keep me hydrated and potentially speed my recovery, but the stress of being poked with a needle and staying in a strange bed surrounded by other sick people could slow recovery. The individualist culture ingrained in me responds indignantly to going to the hospital for a stomach bug. I don’t need an MD to tell me what I already know; I clearly had a stomach flu. Furthermore, even though I’ve been lucky enough to always have health insurance, I can probably count every doctor visit I’ve ever had. Most visits were for sports physicals, routine vaccinations, and female annual exams. People from the United States don’t go to the doctor. Insurance or not, doctors are expensive and a huge time suck.

In the Korean mind, the previous paragraph is unthinkable. Due to the value of education in Korea, and the importance of hierarchy, doctors are highly respected. Koreans are far less likely than someone from the United States to suspect a doctor of mistakes. In Korea, doctors and medicine are very affordable and accessible; even to the most low income citizens. On page two of the Wall Street Journal article “Who Lives the Longest – Countries with the Most and Least Effective Health Care” Korea ranks fifth most effective. Affordability compared to life expectancy was a major criterion.

People go to the doctor and the hospital all the time in Korea. When I first got here, and heard a kid was in the hospital, I got really worried. Nobody could tell me why he was there beyond, “He is sick.” Since I’m from the Unite States, I imagined grave illness. But when I saw that same kid in school the next day, and asked them how they were, they were confused by my level of concern. Slowly I stopped caring as much because kids just kept going to hospital, and mostly kept being alright shortly thereafter. In general I think parents take their kids to the hospital quicker than they’ll go themselves.

Despite the general enthusiasm for hospital visits, I’ve never been to a place where so many people come to work and school looking completely miserable. When people are sick they wear a face mask and carry on. Basically, unless you’re in the hospital, or dying there is no reason to miss work or school in Korea. I’ve seen kids exhausted with fevers, sleeping on their desks instead of eating lunch. Occasionally my co-workers have looked suspiciously like zombies. Kids even come to school with all kinds of gross eye crud, including pink-eye. I don’t know why people push it so hard when they’re sick. Maybe it’s because they aren’t so worried about being bankrupted by a hospital stay?

To end on a random note, it isn’t polite to publicly blow your nose in Korea. Thanks for reading!