#improving peoples lives
Ryong Son Il, a pharmacist in the Kim Man Yu Hospital in Pyongyang for 35 years after graduation from the pharmacy department of the Pyongyang Medical College of Kim Il Sung University, has studied and developed many kinds of medicines. Her first invention in this hospital was an efficient medicine for anemia from iron poverty.
In the past, medicines for this illness were foul-smelling and inefficacious, and often produced side effects. But her invention overcame all weaknesses of the past remedies, and the time required for its use is 40 days, much shorter than before. Its clinical effect is notable. Ryong Son Il said to the people who were surprised at her success in research work shortly after starting work in the hospital, “I only have a close acquaintance with books.”
Even when working as a pharmacist in the hospital, she was fond of reading books always like a college student, making a deep study of pharmacology. After work, she would go to the Grand People’s Study House to hunt for books, her range of reading extending over a wide area even beyond her field of specialization. Her knowledge accumulated from her reading, which brought original ideas to her mind and led to new discoveries. Reading classic medical books and modern literature of science and technology, she hit upon an idea that a new medicine good for anemia from iron poverty could be compounded of ingredients of domestic animals’ blood, sulphate of iron and various microelements. After that, she got married and had two children, but her zeal for reading and spirit of inquiry never cooled down. She found time for reading on her way to work and back and even while cooking. Kim Yun Ho, her husband, a graduate of the University of Sciences with a major in mathematics and chemistry, would collect and offer a great deal of scientific materials to her, considering it the best help he could afford for her.
Her spirit of inquiry rose higher after her participation in the National Meeting of Intellectuals in 2007. Hearing many speakers at the meeting talk about their scientific and technical achievements proudly, she regretted her own self-conceit at the trifling success she had achieved. Back from the meeting, she set about a new study and finally succeeded in making gel for use in ultrasonic diagnosis with domestic raw materials, dispensing with its import from abroad. Then, she invented over 30 kinds of medicines including gly-amino acid injection good for treatment of liver trouble and promotion of nutrition and a medicine for revitalizing cerebral metabolism, attracting the attention of the medical circles. Recently she obtained a doctor’s degree by inventing sclero injection including tannic acid which works wonders in treatment of hemorrhoids by one injection, making operations unnecessary.
Now her hair has turned frosty, but she never stops reading, always absorbed in books as she did when she was young. She is wont to tell young people, “Love books! And then, you’ll be equal to creation of whatever you want.” This is saying a great deal as her motto.
Voice of Korea
