“I’ll die if I live here”
There is no dialysis hospital in Jinan, Muju, or Jangsu.
“Father, I am here.” At 6:30 am, Park Jeong-il (49) visited the house of his father Park Gyeong-taek (76) without fail. Mr. Jeong-il starts his car in Jeonju every two days early in the morning to pick up his father, a dialysis patient who lives in Jinan-gun, North Jeolla Province. Gyeong-taek is a patient with end-stage renal disease. Dialysis (the process of removing waste products by drawing blood out of the body) is essential, but there is no artificial kidney room for dialysis patients in Jinan. It is not found in nearby Muju and Jangsu counties. The son takes his father and drives an hour from his home in Jinan to the hospital in Jeonju. On the 4th of last month, when I met reporters from the Hankook Ilbo, Mr. and Mrs. Gyeong-taek and his son home at 6:37 in the morning.
