'Chosun's Lover' star Insooni's daughter, Park Se-in, has opened up about why she lost a finger.
On the March 30 episode of TV Chosun's Chosun's Lover, veteran singer Insooni discussed her daughter's harrowing accident.
Her daughter said she loved living on her own at Stanford. As a junior, she interned at Microsoft and joined the company immediately after graduating.
Her promising trajectory took a turn during a business trip to Los Angeles when she suffered an unexpected accident. She recalled that after parking, everyone exited the car except the driver. While she was removing a bag from the trunk, the car suddenly reversed; a wall was behind it and her hand became trapped.
She said she has no memory after the ambulance arrived. Before surgery, the anesthesiologist — a Korean doctor — asked permission to cut off her wedding ring, and she agreed. Doctors told her there was no blood flow to the finger. She underwent seven hand surgeries, but ultimately lost her left pinky.
Insooni's husband reflected that, in a way, they were fortunate her body wasn't fully trapped. \"If she'd been unable to speak and just lying there, we would have gone insane,\" he said. \"I know it was hard. It still hurts every time I see her. I still get choked up thinking about it.\"
Insooni said she offered her daughter a prosthetic hand, but her daughter declined. Insooni explained that prosthetics can appear too stiff or look unnatural in motion on social media, which made her uneasy.
After two months of limited activity during recovery, her daughter gradually healed and, two years later, put her wedding ring back on — a sign she had worked through the trauma. Insooni said she was grateful her daughter had faced an acquired disability with dignity.
The episode also highlighted Insooni's generosity. One chorus member said that during the pandemic Insooni gave her a savings passbook she had been contributing to for a year, prompting the member to pledge even greater loyalty. Another member said Insooni offered her a room when she briefly had no home and would otherwise have had to stay in a hotel.
Eun-jung Kim, TenAsia reporter
