INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT SHIFT – DOCTOR’S LOUNGE
Dr. Luka Kovač, tired but compassionate, sits with a cup of black coffee. A patient, an elderly jazz musician with a soft hum in his ears that won’t stop, has just left the ER. Luka reflects out loud, speaking to a curious intern nearby.
DR. LUKA KOVAČ
(soft Croatian accent)
Tinnitus. The endless ringing… like a ghost of sound. I saw a man once who said it felt like he was trapped inside a seashell. Medicine can try to help, but sometimes it’s the old ways that offer comfort.
He leans forward, lowering his voice like he’s about to share a secret.
There’s something I heard from an herbalist in Dubrovnik — purple onion and castor oil ear drops. Strange, yes, but listen…
He lifts his finger, storytelling now.
You take a few drops of juice from the purple onion — not the white ones, not yellow. Just the purple. Antibacterial, full of antioxidants. You warm it just slightly, then add a little cold-pressed castor oil — thick, viscous, soothing.
He mimics holding a dropper to the ear.
Two drops, just before sleep. Not every night. Maybe three times a week. The castor oil softens everything, calms inflammation. The onion… it brings circulation back to the tiny vessels inside the ear. Helps the body remember the silence it once knew.
The intern looks skeptical.
INTERN
You’re telling me that kitchen soup ingredients can fix ringing ears?
DR. LUKA KOVAČ
Not fix. Maybe not even cure. But soothe. And sometimes, that is enough. Medicine is not always about pharmaceuticals. Sometimes, it’s about giving the body — and the soul — something it recognizes.