[KS] Air conditioning and facial paralysis

[David McCann]

A related note:

Back in the days, in 1967 my family in Andong set up a heater for me in 
my room.  It was ondol 'heated,' but a bowl of water beside me on the 
table would freeze overnight.

The heater used charcoal briquettes, and seemed to do the job.  But one 
night, evidently, the wind came from an unexpected direction.  I woke 
up, barely, in the middle of the night, eyes streaming, mucous pouring, 
quite unable to do more than crawl over to the door and fall out onto 
the small porch outside.

I realized later how lucky I had been that those yônt'an briquettes were 
so terribly full of impurities.  I think it was the sulfur that had 
saved me.  The newspapers carried fairly frequent stories of others who 
hadn't had such luck.

David McCann

On 9/18/06 4:02 PM, Edward Massengill wrote:

> Just as I was getting a big kick out of teasing my Korean wife about 
> the apparent absurdity of "death by fan" (which she believes) the 
> picture was clouded by references to "cold air" and "paralysis".
>
>  
>
> Just a few weeks ago, one of my best friends told me that one night 
> recently she inadvertently left her air conditioning system on very 
> low. The next morning she woke up with paralysis (hopefully temporary 
> but still present after more than a month) on one side of her face. 
> Neither she nor her doctors are Korean.
>
>  
>
> Edward Massengill
>
> Amateur Koreanist
>
>  
>
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