This Is What
Radiation Can Do To The Human Body
Stes de Necker
The wasted body of 35 year old Hiroshi
Ouchi, who had suffered a terrible accident at the uranium
reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo where he had
worked, on 30 September 1999.
The cause of the accident was the
depositing of a uranyl nitrate solution, which contained roughly 16.6kg of
uranium, into a precipitation tank, exceeding its critical mass. Three workers
were exposed to incredible amounts of the most powerful type of radiation in
the form of neutron beams.
The micro-second those beams shot through
his body, Ouchi was a dead man. The radiation completely destroyed the
chromosomes in his body.
According to a book written by NHK-TV called
A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness, when arriving at the
University of Tokyo Hospital Emergency Room, Mr Ouchi appeared relatively well
for someone that had just been subjected to mind blowing levels of radiation,
and was even able to converse with doctors.
That is, until his skin started falling
off.
As the radiation in his body began to break
down the chromosomes within his cells, Ouchi’s condition worsened. And then
some.
Ouchi was kept alive over a period of 3
months as his skin blackened and blistered and began to sluice off his
body. His internal organs failed and he lost a jaw-dropping 20
litres of bodily fluids a day. Fortunately he was kept in a medical coma for
most of this time.
Every aspect of his condition was
constantly monitored by a round the clock team of doctors, nurses and
specialists. Treatments used in an attempt to improve his condition were
stem cell transplants, skin grafts (which seems like it may have been pretty
redundant) and massive blood transfusions.
Despite doctors lack of knowledge in
treating patients like Ouchi, it was clear from the dosage he had been
subjected to he would never survive.
As previously mentioned, he was kept alive
for 83 days as doctors tried different methods to improve his condition.
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