LOOK: What Radiation Does to the Human Body

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC IMAGE FOLLOWS

In September 1999, 35-year-old Hiroshi Ouchi was working at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, Japan when an accident happened. Mr. Ouchi and two other co-workers were exposed to massive doses of radiation.

In fact, it was the most powerful form of radiation in the form of neutron beams. Meaning that in the exact second that the three were exposed to the beams, they were practically dead men walking.

Mr. Ouchi was brought to the University of Tokyo Hospital ER, and he appeared relatively fine. He was even able to talk to doctors. But after a while, like wax to a flame, his skin started oozing off.

The radiation was beginning to destroy the chromosomes in his cells, and Ouchi’s condition steadily worsened. His skin blackened, blistered, and began to fall off his body. Internal organs failed and he lost 20 liters of bodily fluids a day.

He lasted a mind-boggling three months in this gruesome condition. But mercifully, he was kept in a coma-like state. Mr. Ouchi was monitored round-the-clock, as doctors feverishly worked to improve his condition. He was given a variety of treatments including skin grafts, stem cell transplants, and blood transfusions. Although it was pretty clear from the start, given the lethal dose of radiation he suffered, that he would not survive.

The book entitled, A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness, chronicles Mr. Ouchi’s ordeal.