The world is not only just witnessing and harnessing the growth use of technology and science but also the rapid growth use of nuclear technology for power production and other applications from both developed and developing countries of the world.
Nuclear power technology and its production have always been a great part of Radiation. Since the discovery of radiation, it has always been a subject of prodigious interest for many scientists. Many scientists have looked into the impacts of radiation on the environment and living organisms, especially humans.
As a result of radiation and its impacts, many living organisms have suffered at the hands of those who sought to find the real impact of radiation on living beings. Nuclear radiation mainly affects the atoms in living cells and damages their genetic material. Throughout the years this experimentation on radiation was mainly focused on animals as it would be unethical to test such dangerous things on humans.
Who is Hisashi Ouchi?
Hisashi Ouchi was a 35 year old lab technician at Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co. which is located at the Tokai village of Naka District, in Japan. Hasashi was one of those victims who were exposed to massive nuclear radiation on 30th September in 1999 at around 10:55am including his coworkers Masato Shinohara 35 years old, and Yutaka Yokokawa 54 years old who suffered the exposure to enormous nuclear radiation when they were working at the nuclear lab during their shift that day which later on became the nation’s worst-ever nuclear radiation victims during a Tokaimura nuclear accident in a nuclear power plant of Japan.
As their condition was extremely serious and critical, two of the workers couldn’t survive and died, whereas Hisashi Ouchi kept himself alive for next 12 weeks and 83 days in some magical and experimental ways days after the incident happened.
But the only question that still remain about the consciences surrounding his treatment that, “Why and how was Hisashi kept alive for 83 days and 12 weeks against his will in such unbearable pain and suffering?” because when you look into this matter Hisashi was unfortunately the only victim who was the nearest one from the nuclear explosion and injured more than two of other victims of the incident.
How did the incident happen?
Tokaimura nuclear plant of Japan was in charge of looking after the process of dissolving and mixing enriched uranium oxide with nitric acid to produce and create uranyl nitrate, a product that appears as a yellow rhombic radioactive crystal, which the bosses of the Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co. wanted to have ready by the 28th of September.
The incident took place during a uranium reprocessing facility in the Tokaimura nuclear plant where both the scientists were preparing a small fuel preparation plant which was operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co. Hisashi Ouchi and his coworker Masato Shinohara had their shifts that day where they were working together to prepare a measurable batch of nuclear-fuel by adding a uranium solution to the precipitation tanks.
Due to lack of experience, the duo had mistakenly added an excessive measurement of uranium which exceeded about 16kg to one of those precipitation tanks which reached its critical mass condition. Unfortunately the precipitation tank was not designed to dissolve this type of solution which could not prevent such accidents to happen, after the exceeding quantity of uranium solution in the precipitation tank was added, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction started with an intense and penetrating blue flash. As a result, three workers of JCO were exposed to intense neutron radiation doses in excess of allowable limitsand the horrible accident took place in seconds.
Aftermath of the incident to victims
Three of them were immediately admitted to the nearest Mito Hospital. According to the reports, Hisashi received 17 Sieverts of radiation while 8 Sieverts were considered as the mortal-dose, whereas, Masato and Yutuka also received the fatal doses of 10 Sieverts and 3 Sieverts respectively. Turned out Hisashi almost suffered 100% of serious burns, fully or partially damaging most of his internal organs. Shockingly the count of white blood cells in his body was near to zero, which destroyed his whole immune system, and the fatal radiation also destroyed his genetic material (DNA) which also penetrated his chromosomes, which meant that new cells would not be generated thereafter in his body.
Hisashi’s skin started to peel of like Husk
The intense radiation badly caused damage to the surface of the body of Hisashi, doctors used surgical tapes on his body however the worsening of his situation it became more frequent that his skin was ripped off along with the removed tape. So the doctors stopped using surgical tapes on his body because in Hisashi’s irradiated skin, new cells were no longer generated due to the destruction of chromosomes. His old skin was falling off and new skin cells didn’t fill the lack. It was an intense pain in his skin peeling off and the continuous battle against radiated infection. Moreover, he had also developed fluid retention in his lungs and started facing difficulty in breathing.
Hisashi Ouchi’s eyes started to bleed blood tears
With the passage of time during his treatment he had internal infections and an almost skinless exposed body surface which was rapidly poisoning Hisashi from inside and outside at the same time. After having various skin plants he continued to lose body fluids through the pores of his skin-burns. At one moment, Hisashi started bleeding from his eyes and his wife said that it looked like he was crying blood! It was reported that his family wanted his death to come peacefully.
Hisashi Ouchi received first ever Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation
With his worsening situation, he was transferred to the University of Tokyo Hospital where he reportedly underwent the treatment world’s first ‘transfusion of peripheral stem cells’ so that the white blood cells could be begun to generate again in his body, through this treatment Hisashi received stem cells through a catheter placed into a blood vessel generally located in the chest.
Hisashi’s fight to live started to question nation’s dignity
In the process of his treatment, the medics and top experts of the world kept him alive by pumping huge amounts of blood and fluids into him on a daily basis and treating him with drugs specially imported from various foreign sources.
According to the reports it has been said that Hisashi requested several times from the medics to release him from the unbearable and intense pain, that once he even said, I didn’t want to be a guinea pig anymore! But his case was considered as amatter of national dignity. Despite his will to die, doctors and medical experts went under pressure and tried their best shot and made utmost effort to keep Hisashi alive for 83 days and 12 weeks.
On the 59th day of his treatment, his heart stopped beating three times within just 49 minutes, which caused serious damages in his brain, kidneys and other organs of his body. Doctors had taken Hisashi on a ventilator and a total life support until he finally died a slow death on the 83rd day of his treatment on December 21, 1999, due to multi-organ failure.
Since then, Hisashi Ouchi is considered as one of the worst nuclear radiation affected victims in the history of medical and science, who spent the final 83 days and 12 weeks of his life through the most painful inpatient condition. After his tragic death, there was a book published which was titled “A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness” on this tragic incident and death of Hisashi Ouch.
What was the cause of the incident?
After the incident took place, the Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co underwent many deep investigations. Later on the International Atomic Energy Agency found that the incident took place because of a “human error and serious breaches of safety principles.”
According to their reports, the accident was triggered when the three lab workers of the nuclear place used the exceeding amount of uranium to make fuel and set off an uncontrolled atomic reaction which also revealed that the workers at the nuclear plant, run by JCO Co. used to routinely violate the safety procedures, including mixing uranium in buckets to get work done quickly.