A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness
Language: English
Pages: 160
ISBN: 1942993544
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Japan's worst nuclear radiation accident took place at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, on 30 September 1999. The direct cause of the accident was cited as the depositing of a uranyl nitrate solution--containing about 16.6 kg of uranium, which exceeded the critical mass--into a precipitation tank. Three workers were exposed to extreme doses of radiation.
Hiroshi Ouchi, one of these workers, was transferred to the University of Tokyo Hospital Emergency Room, three days after the accident. Dr. Maekawa and his staff initially thought that Ouchi looked relatively well for a person exposed to such radiation levels. He could talk, and only his right hand was a little swollen with redness. However, his condition gradually weakened as the radioactivity broke down the chromosomes in his cells.
The doctors were at a loss as to what to do. There were very few precedents and proven medical treatments for the victims of radiation poisoning. Less than 20 nuclear accidents had occurred in the world to that point, and most of those happened 30 years ago. This book documents the following 83 days of treatment until his passing, with detailed descriptions and explanations of the radiation poisoning.
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always together, and their m utual care was obvious. The fam ily was united w ith affection and m utual trust, devotedly looking after Ouchi; they wanted M aekawa to do everything in his power u n til the end. He painfully understood how each fam ily m em ber felt. 46 A rtific ia l R e s p ir a tio n C o n t r o l — Day 11 A SLOW DEATH Su b tle changes appeared in O u ch i, w ho had been referred to as "th e cheerful Mr. O u ch i" since his transfer to the hospital. Nurse M ika Hosokawa
the morning deliberation meeting, he prepared the report for the evening m eeting while treating Ouchi. After the evening meeting, he was on night duty and prepared the report for the morning meeting while providing treatment. Each report was seven to eight A4-size pages. Often, it was already morning before Yamaguchi realized. After he pre sented the report at the m orning m eeting, he was again involved in the treatm ents, and w ent hom e only after the evening meeting. There was certainly no
of intravenous drips. Ouchi's heart continued beating furi ously to send blood to the entire body. In order to increase urine flow, Dopamine Hydrochloride, also a powerful cardiotonic drug, had been administered since Ouchi's transfer. Swelling caused by radiation damage had increased the pressure on capillaries and had also damaged blood vessel cells, causing the blood flow to decline. Ouchi's heart rate transitioned to around 120 at the beginning of October. For nearly two m onths, Ouchi's
increase blood pressure means that blood does not circulate to the extremities. Decreased blood circulation m eant that antibiotics and antifungal drugs were poorly diffused in the body. The mold called Aspergillus appeared on Ouchi's body, feeding on bodily fluids seeping from the surface. The silver w hite Aspergillus spread from his body to his arms, and eventually to his groin. Junko Nawa recorded details of the family's visit that day at 3:00 PM in the nursing records. "'O h, poor Honey. You
department that would be involved in the treatment. A t noon, professors and staff from 13 departments and clinics gathered, including Cell Therapy and Transplan tation M edicine, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases, Blood Transfusion, C linical Laboratory and Radiol ogy. At the meeting, Maekawa called to the professors for their cooperation. "Everything we're dealing w ith is new, making it difficult to predict the kind of symptoms the patient w ill show. I'd like each