A pediatrician, who has treated children for more than 20 years, saying they were her “luck and joy,” suddenly said she would close her clinic.

It was not because of business difficulties but because of emotional labor due to “malicious complaints” from parents.

The doctor said she would discontinue pediatric treatment on Aug. 5 and shift to treating chronic diseases.

The doctor, surnamed Kim, has run a pediatric clinic in Gwangju Metropolitan City for over 20 years.

On Thursday,  she put a notice on the door of her clinic.

“The past 20 years of my life as a pediatrician with flower-like children have been a blessing and a joy,” Dr. Kim said in the notice.

“However, due to a malicious false complaint from the parent of a child born in 2019, I am closing this clinic on Aug. 5.”

According to the notice, the four-year-old child was brought to Kim’s clinic by her mother after suffering from swollen skin, pus, and ooze that did not improve after visiting other clinics.

On the second visit, the treatment progressed to the point where the mother said, “It got much better.”

However, Kim explained that the mother filed a false and malicious petition against the clinic, complaining about insufficient nursing care and the prescription of non-reimbursable dressing materials.

“I thought it was difficult to practice medicine for the caregiver, not the patient,” Kim said. “To be more sincere in treating sick patients, not caregivers, I decided to stop my pediatric practice and become a doctor who treats chronic pain and internal medicine-related diseases.”

She went on to say, “I would like to thank the child’s guardian once again for giving me the courage to no longer work as a pediatrician.”

Other pediatricians said that they could have easily been in the doctor's shoes. They added that not a few doctors have had to close their doors after “falling into a serious slump” due to the emotional labor caused by guardians, as was the case of Kim.

“It's too malicious,”  Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korean Pediatric Association, told Korea Biomedical Review on Thursday. “There are several doctors who close their clinics (due to the emotional labor of guardians). They end up switching to adult care.”

Lim noted that Dr. Kim provided genuine care by taking pictures of the dressing process and giving them to the guardian so that she could do the dressing at home.

However, the mother took issue with charging her 2,000 won ($1.5) more, even though she was fully informed of the non-reimbursable dressing materials, he added.

According to Lim, the guardian was fully informed of the non-reimbursement when prescribing the dressing material.

“It’s demoralizing for pediatricians, who hold on with a mission to treat children. Such complaint is a social evil that prevents them from treating other children,” Lim said. “I think doctors should be given the right to refuse treatment for such people through social consensus.”