“This room was not supposed to be a pharmacy. The hospital needed one so urgently, so they created a spot for it. I had to spread the pills out on the floor for the first few days when I arrived here on March 1 from Seongseo Dongsan Hospital. The logistics team got me this cabinet. The fridge and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical(ATC) machine over there were donated. It’s much organized now. We have a system that nurses drop by here during their shifts to pick up the drugs before going back to their wards. If there’s a patient taking multiple pills, the nurse should go through the names one by one, but then it’s really hard to read the writings through the goggles. So we are packing the pills in one bag per patient. Patients are not the only ones going to a pharmacy. We have a lot of nurses asking for pain reliefs or Tylenol because wearing protective gear makes it harder to breathe and gives them headaches. Our job is rather comfortable compared to their efforts. I even had the luxury of having a peek at the flowers, thanks to our only opening window that looks over a cherry blossom tree.”

translated by Wonjeong Song
translation supervised by Beckhee Cho