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베스트셀러 “지선아 사랑해”의 작가 이지선 씨가 9일 SBS 힐링캠프에 출연해 끔찍한 사고를 극복하고 살아온 이야기를 나눴다.
이지선 씨는 이날 13년전 교통사고 이후 양쪽 엄지를 제외한 여덟 손가락을 자를수 밖에 없었던 상황에 대해 설명했다. 그는 “당시까지는 오른손만 절단하는 줄 알았는데 왼손도 안 된다는 것에 절망했다”면서 “수술실에 들어가기 전 엄마에게 ‘더 많이 자르지 않아서 감사하지?’라고 말했다”고 말했다.
이어 이지선 씨는 “이 때부터 하루 한가지씩 감사할 것을 찾았다. 내 힘으로 숟가락질 하는 날에 감사하고 환자복 단추 구멍 채울 수 있는 것에 감사하고 계단 올라가서 감사하고, 습관처럼 그렇게 했다”라고 말했다.
이지선 씨는 이화여대에 재학 중이던 2000년 7월 3일, 오빠 이정근 씨의 차에 타고 귀가하던 중, 음주운전자의 과실로 인한 7종 추돌사고에 휘말렸다고 한다. 이로 인해 이지선 씨는 몸의 55%에 3도 화상을 입고 마흔번이 넘는 수술을 해야했다.
당시 차 속에서 이지선 씨를 구해낸 이정근 씨는 이날 영상편지를 통해 “당시에는 널 구한 게 잘한 일인지 고민했었지만, 지금은 후회하지 않는다”고 말했다.
이지선 씨는 “내가 몸이 힘들었다면 나를 구해낸 후 오빠는 마음이 힘들었다”면서 “사고 후 오빠가 나에게 ‘얼굴은 괜찮아’라며 위로를 했지만, 나는 ‘이러고 어떻게 살아’라고 했다더라”고 말했다. 이어 “오빠는 이후로 오랫동안 그 말을 마음에 품고 자책을 하며 살아왔”고 했다.
한편 이지선 씨는 사고에 대해 “모든 것을 잃고 좌절한 순간도 있지만 돌아보니 많은 걸 얻었다. 사고 이전보다 많은 행복을 누리고 있다”면서 사고 이전으로 돌아가고 싶지 않다고 설명했다.
그는 “그 전에는 내가 행복하려면 뭔가 더 가져야하고 부러워할 가정과 직장을 꾸려야 행복해지는 줄 알았다”면서 “지금 이 얼굴이어도 여전히 행복하다”고 말했다.
Scarred survivor of horrid accident ‘grateful’ for her life
Looking back at the fateful car crash that left her body marred and completely changed her life, Lee Ji-seon said she is still thankful for her life.
Lee, the author of best-selling essay “Ji-seon-A Saranghae (Ji-seon, I Love You),” appeared on SBS talk show “Healing Camp” to share how she coped with a horrid traffic accident that burned over 55 percent of her body.
“That is when I learned to be grateful for one thing each day. I was thankful for still being able to pick up a spoon, for being able to button my shirt, for having an ability to climb a flight of stairs,” the 35-year-old writer said. “Finding things to be thankful for has became a habit for me.”
On July 30 2000, Lee -- then-student at Ewha Womans University -- left the school library and headed home in her brother Lee Jeong-geun’s car. Moments later, the siblings were engulfed by a seven-way traffic accident initiated by a drunken driver.
Her brother managed to pull Lee out of the burning vehicle, but not before her face, hands, and other parts of her body had sustained third degree burns. The life-threatening injuries forced her to undergo more than 40 surgeries, and partial amputation of eight fingers.
“My brother struggled after saving me,” Lee said. “He attempted to comfort me, but I told him ‘How am I supposed to live like this.’ Since then, he had blamed himself.”
Jeong-geun, also on the show, said that he had wondered if he did the right thing by saving his sister, but he does not have any doubt about his action.
After clawing her way back from the verge of death, Lee went to the United States where she received two master’s degrees; one in rehabilitation counseling at Boston University and another in social welfare at Columbia University. She is now going through a Ph.D. course in social welfare at UCLA.
Lee said that she will not trade her current life with one she had before the accident.
“It may sound silly, but I do not want to go back to the day (before the accident),” she said.
“I lost many things but looking back, I realize that I also gained a lot. I am happier than before the accident.”
“I did not ‘suffer’ the accident, I met it. That day I was born again,” she said.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
