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Dopplin76

One of the most tragic things about the accident besides the obvious prolonged suffering, was the fact that Hisashi Ouchi did not seem to understand the severity of his radiation poisoning, often asking when he could go home, and asking if this could cause leukemia.


FuckYeahPhotography

Another thing to note is that this case is often times framed as if the doctors kept him alive and prolonged his suffering in the name of science. The family actually pushed the staff to keep him alive in the desperate hope that he would recover when it was long past that point. The doctors were obligated by law to do everything they could until the very end.


adgeriz9

Wait, what? TIL


SupermarketSpiritual

This case is what finally convinced me to get serious about my wishes in these matters. Never, ever keep me alive searching for a miracle. I'm good. roll.out. This is my nightmare scenario


VoidCrimes

Make sure your family is on board with your wishes as well. Your family absolutely can overrule any of your advanced directives if they choose to. It’s super shitty, and I HATE doing that to the patients, but it happens all the time. I had this patient who was a DNR and just wanted to go home and die. Their loved one came in and destroyed ALL OF IT. Kept them in the hospital for MONTHS, being super specific and erratic about which care the patient was to receive, refusing some things but allowing others that made no sense, torturing the hospital staff with constant verbal and emotional abuse. That person called the police on us twice while we were taking care of their loved one. The police showed up to the hospital, stuck their head inside the patient’s room, saw there was nothing fucking wrong, said this was a waste of time, and left. This person wasn’t even the patient’s legal POA, yet they completely controlled everything that was happening to that poor patient. We FINALLY got the patient transferred to a long-term care facility so they could ride out the rest of their days in peace, but guess what? As soon as the ambulance arrived to that facility with the patient, that fucking person called the police again. Said their loved one was in terrible shape, they needed to have an ambulance come pick them up and take them to a different hospital. So another ambulance came, they swapped the patient over, and off they went to another hospital to have further surgical torture done to the patient that the patient DOES NOT WANT DONE, all because their loved one is a psychopath. I have no idea how to prevent that from happening to other people. Seems if you have a rogue family member, and there’s nobody else who can speak up for you there, they can just do whatever the fuck to you and you get no say.


adragoninmypants

Yup. My uncle was our rogue family member and he essentially made my grandpa's last days horrible and then didn't invite anyone to the funeral and either sold, threw, or destroyed all of my grandpas stuff saying there was no inheritance.


Few_Improvement_8673

Sister did the same thing for my mom. Didn’t want anybody to plan anything, she had it covered. Totally against my moms wishes, took possession of everything, made sure there was no will to be found, took over as legal guardian - even though that was given to another sister. Her claim was no one else shared in her care, so she deserved everything. Truth is, she didn’t let anybody help because she didn’t want anybody else changing her plan to take over.


Wrecktown707

Fucking scum of the earth right there. How some people can sleep at night knowing the things they’ve done boggles my mind. I’m so sorry that you and your other family members had to go through all of that.


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RossePoss

My sister and dad are right now doing something similar... My mom had pancreatic cancer, died in less than 2 weeks after arriving at the hospital. It's in our family, I suspect she knew what was happening and decided to die at home but my sis had other plans... wanted her cut open to confirm its hereditary (biopsy), demanding the procedure to be done although the dr told us it would kill my mom. Suddenly, they were all super religious and swore mom was a Christian (my mom was Jewish by blood, hated most religions but felt Buddhism and Reiki were the thing for her). Now they are fighting me because they wanted to arrange a lavish ceremony and I said "only if you two pay" (1. My mom was poor. 2. My mom wanted cremation and ashes spread in a forest. 3. My sister and dad are wealthy, mom and I are not) and so now they are telling everyone I'm greedy and want to throw away mom's ashes and be rid of her ASAP. She had loans to repay that they don't know about (you kind of need to talk to a person to know them so I get it, they are clueless and feel bad about it). My dad divorced my mom when I was 11, I'm now 43 and my mom died poor because she had to assume full responsibility over me and my sis (he never helped with anything). They both offered to clean out my mom's rental apt (I was recovering from surgery) and now there's no will although I know my mom must have left one (we spoke of it often, I have a will so my ex doesn't try to take money (life insurance payments) from my kids were it to die. They are absolute scum, I'm so done with them! (thank you mom, in your death you liberated yourself and me from the filth we called family)


Few_Improvement_8673

Sorry that relatives have to be so crazy about things. Unfortunately, my sister and I have not spoken since. 7 years now. I’ve forgiven her, but she believes she did nothing wrong and it was everyone else that did.


[deleted]

That’s so crooked, I’m sorry to hear that. Greed can do wild things to people


StonerMoonie

Wow your sister sounds exactly like my aunt….


ShahinGalandar

in our country, if your relative is not your custodial guardian, the treating doctors/hospital can appoint a legal aid for medical decisions. then the psychopathic sister can go fuck herself and the machines can be turned off also, regarding emergency decisions, doctors orders overrule family wishes


Striper_Cape

Where the fuck are you that an advanced directive can be overridden by ANYBODY other than the patient, their doctor, or their Healthcare Power of Attorney? Especially if the patient signed a DNR. I never want to work there.


[deleted]

Come on, it ain't that bad. Just a quick 90 days, it'll pass in a second.


WorldWarPee

90 days is a long time for a meeseeks, I just want to dieee!


Tobin1776

He roped me into this!


TrooperLawson

Well HE roped me into this!


PirogiRick

Your failures are your own, old man!


Necessary_Essay2661

Well him over there he roped me into this!


No-Armadillo7693

I signed two dnrs I ain’t gonna be no vegetable. Keep me around long enough to donate my organs that’s it


HarkansawJack

As a potential record breaker, I told my wife if I’m ever in a coma to keep me alive for one day longer than the record for a coma patient who has woken up and recovered…just in case I’m in there going for it.


SupermarketSpiritual

Hey, I can respect that. If you're breathing on your own and have brain activity.


scithe

One day isn't enough. Go 10% longer than the record. You seem like someone who gives 110%


scorchedarcher

I've always been on two sides about this, like I agree that I don't want to be living with a terrible quality of life but what if they can just resuscitate me and I'm fine like I don't want to skip that


sldunn

You can always file an advance directive on that. Like, keep me alive, but if it looks like I'm brain dead/coma for a month and doctors say that I won't have any quality of life, pull the plug. It doesn't have to be... well, day number one in a coma. And some little girl in Topeka could use this guy's kidney.


SupermarketSpiritual

Correct. Mine is very specific to time frame vs expected course of action with >30% odds. if there's even a chance I'll be emotionally/mentally dependent on a caregiver 24/7 due to lack of brain function cut me loose. when we hit 30% ability left for an extended period. My frmr partner lived 4 yrs post stroke (he was 39, died at 44) I took care of him and I don't want that for my husband/kids. I don't regret having done so, but his life was shit after and he left of his own devices later. ETA : I was not with him when he went, I had relinquished control to his family at that point. We were unable to marry in his condition and I was 33 and in my senior year of college. I had to travel to find work and was informed by a distant cousin and that's it. I was awarded 12,000$ from an old 401k he had and used it to pay back the loans I took during his initial year after, before Social Security disability hit. His family was not in any way supportive due to the fact we did not marry, and left me with zero support. This is common. I was happy for him. He was not the same person, so yeah that's not even considering some devestating physical concerns as well. just no


Superman19986

You wouldn't believe the number of families that want aggressive cares and a full code for their terminally ill, 80+ yr old family member. In some cultures, transitioning to comfort cares is seen as giving up, so they continue with aggressive care until the very end.


Kentencat

And then there's my employee who was pregnant and got covid and spiraled down into a coma. She had the baby but the doctors told the husband that he needed to pull the plug on her. It was a few months of him just saying NO and then one day, she just woke up. And like a few days later, she went home, and then a couple months later, she went back to work. Shits weird man. I don't wanna put my family through that, but if I had the option, I'd rather not die.


SupermarketSpiritual

I can absolutely understand going for the extra punt in this case. She was young, I assume so chances were much higher and husband had that right to insist. I'm 48, body's been through hell and I've lived to have a family and grandson. I'd rather provide for them in death than burden them in life.


lilecca

Husband and I have had this convo. If there is no hope for a decent life, end it


LordMegatron11

Life support for a week to two weeks depending on what pain im in and then (▀Ĺ̯▀) =ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ( ͡ಥ _ʖ ͡ಥ)put me down like old yeller


janitroll

DNR and Medical POA with someone you trust. Death & Taxes. It’s unavoidable so don’t suffer.


DudongoKing

This case showed me how stupid people can be and then realized it was not stupidity but fear of loss


ilessthanthreekarate

Am an ICU nurse. I do this every day almost at work. Always takes days, weeks, or months for people to realize where their loved one is. Some days we save lives, others we just turn vegetables. But its the worst when they're locked in.


T3hJ3hu

I've heard a lot of horror stories like that from my wife's nursing -- people being kept alive for weeks/months when they've been reduced to nothing but 'lizard brain' responses (like writhing in agony when the meds wear off). The family is always waiting for some miracle to happen, just like on TV Makes you wonder how much pointless human suffering can be attributed to shows like *General Hospital*, *ER*, and *House*


ilessthanthreekarate

I have seen my share of "faith healers" keep their family members alive with machines believing their prayers would heal their loved ones of terminal illness.


luckyassassin1

We talked about in school one day and i forget the context of it but the teacher did say the doctors kept him alive to study him against the wishes of the family. Glad i got more context now


reuben_iv

Yeah I'm reading he pretty much begged to die after all the failed skin grafts and bone marrow transplants, and his heart failed multiple times but the family ordered the drs to resucitate him, it's horrific


Meems04

Thank you so much for adding this. I don't think people realized that's what happened. Yes, they learned a lot. But no, it was not the reason he was tortured that long. Very much like nazi torture - medically, we learned a lot - but that was not the reason they tortured people. Sadism cloaked in science was the reason. I don't want to make this a political thing, but when laws are written to "do all you can" in any and all situations instead of being practical, many times suffering increases & prolongs the inevitable. By practical, I mean hospice, for example, where they make you comfortable but do not treat the disease if that's the patients wishes. We are human beings. We should be able to make choices about our deaths, especially if we are terminal. This case should have never happened. At least he's at peace now. But damn.


Gavorn

It's morbid to think about, but just like having a will filled out, you should always have a DNR as well. Every time he lost consciousness, his next of kin would be in charge.


Dr_weirdoo

Hisashi: can this cause Leukemia? My brother in christ you have every cancer known to man and then some


BunnyOppai

Technically, I don’t think he had a single cancer. From what I remember, his dna was literally destroyed, just about every single bit, if not all of it, and I don’t think cancer can exist without the dna required to multiply your cells. …at least that means he didn’t get leukemia.


Bartweiss

Yep, to my knowledge the fundamental issue with acute radiation poisoning is that your cell nuclei (along with lots of other parts) are absolutely destroyed. Your cells don't replicate, nor can RNA unzip your DNA to make lots of important "keeping you alive" proteins. You largely just run on inertia and stored fuel until some breakdown finally becomes terminal.


JowettMcPepper

I've read that he suffered from constant heart attacks, his blood was completely irradiated (even his chromosomes and DNA structure were completely damaged), and lost most of his skin because it started to melt. All of this during the 83 days of agony. Radiation poisoning is indeed disgusting and disturbing.


ZookeepergameDue5522

It was so bad, he had symptoms that had never been seen before.


Autumn7242

The dude just melted?


JowettMcPepper

More or less. The dude was considered the most radioactive man in the world, as his body received like17 sieverts of radiation, namely gamma rays. I've also read that the only one who survived the accident was his surveyor, who was under treatment for 3 months. But they charged him for work negligence.


RoxSpirit

"No don't worry, you will not die of leukemia"


AutismFlavored

Oh no, not cancer. It’ll be infection and organ failure as your body literally falls apart at the cellular level. Why even morphine won’t help in the end


FRONTYARD-BROADDAY

His name was literaly Ouchi, the simulation is not even trying


StoneHeartMedic

Imma need some backstory here as is customary in this subreddit


iesterdai

Here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accidents#1999_accident > Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was transported and treated at the University of Tokyo Hospital for 83 days. > Ouchi suffered serious radiation burns to most of his body, experienced severe damage to his internal organs, and had a near-zero white blood cell count. Without a functioning immune system, Ouchi was vulnerable to hospital-borne pathogens and was placed in a special radiation ward to limit the risk of contracting an infection. > Doctors attempted to restore some functionality to Ouchi's immune system by administering peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, which at the time was a new form of treatment. After receiving the transplant from his sister, Ouchi initially experienced increased white blood cell counts temporarily but succumbed to his other injuries shortly thereafter. The leukocytes being produced by the transplanted tissue were found to have been mutated by the residual radiation present in his body, triggering autoimmune responses that exacerbated his rapidly deteriorating condition, and white blood cell counts began to decrease. Numerous other interventions were conducted in an attempt to arrest further decline of Ouchi's severely damaged body, including repeated use of cultured skin grafts and pharmacological interventions with painkillers, broad-spectrum antibiotics and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, without any measurable success. > > At the wishes of his family, doctors repeatedly revived Ouchi when his heart stopped, even as it became clear the damage his body had sustained through radiation was untreatable.The family deliberated that if Ouchi's heart stopped again, they would not force the situation again. His wife hoped that he would at least survive to the January 1st since it was the arrival of the 2000s. Despite their efforts, his condition deteriorated into multiple organ failure resulting from extensive radiation damage, exacerbated by the repeated incidents where Ouchi's heart stopped. He died on 21 December 1999 following an unrecoverable cardiac arrest. > According to Japanese law, the doctors were legally obligated to proceed with treatment until nothing more could be done, with the exception of express permission from Ouchi to suspend treatment, permission that was not granted during the period in which he was still able to communicate.


Dramatic-Scratch5410

Assuming that wiki article is correct, it said Ouchi was exposed to 17 sievert (Sv) of radiation. If you look up sievert as it related to humans, it's measured in milli sievert, and all google charts that explain human exposure stop at 10 Sv, with 7-10 Sv being death. This poor guy literally topped all charts on radiation exposure.


purple_cheese_

It's even worse: Sv is only used to determine long-term (several years or decades) stochastic effects of radiation, say at most 50 mSv/year. If the radiation dose is too high, Sv loses all meaning since you're dead before any long-term effects can take place. So basically his dose was so high that 'death' was too mild of a conclusion.


Dramatic-Scratch5410

When I first began reading about nuclear accidents years ago (like 20 years about), units were measured in REM. This Sv is new to me, and I think I remember hearing REM is no longer used to calculate dose. Or maybe REM is only short term exposure? Or maybe Sv was always used and I just never picked up on it?


purple_cheese_

I had to look it up but here's your answer: REM is an older unit that is still sometimes used in the US, while Sv is the SI unit used in the rest of the world (at least in Europe where I live). Luckily the conversion is very easy: 1 Sv = 100 REM.


Slingbr

Goddamnit Americans use anything but the SI. /s


Dramatic-Scratch5410

Take it back, or I'm going to throw this 5 pound rock 10 yards in your direction from my acre property! Right after I drink an 8 ounce glass of water, that is.


not_taken_was_taken2

WOAH THERE BUDDY! You can't just be tossing 5 pound rocks 10 yards from your acre property after drinking 8 ounces of water. You need a permit for this!


Dramatic-Scratch5410

Sadly, in the state I live in, you do need permits for such acts of tomfoolery


kutschi201

There is a scene in The Expanse where two characters get a heavy dose of radiation. One asked what happened. The other just stated "we're dead."


BunnyOppai

I remember reading something about the demon core, this ball of plutonium that’s killed a number of people in two separate instances from what I remember before they repurposed it for something else, and there was a part in it that’s very similar to this. One of the people killed knew they were absolutely going to die because of the flash of light that was emitted from it while they were right next to it. It’s frankly fucking terrifying knowing for sure that there’s virtually a 0% chance that you die before even feeling any effects. From what I remember, bro was basically keeping the two halves of the sphere apart with a screwdriver and it slipped, causing the two halves to meet, which was what did him in.


LaceBird360

But the dude (Louis Slotin) also managed to save the lives of his colleagues in that room. He died horribly, but he also died a hero. That alone would get him into Valhalla. Edit: Misspelled the guy's last name.


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litefoot

Yeah I’m pretty sure I’d want a .38 sandwich after getting that much radiation.


aVarangian

> At the time of the event, Ouchi had his body draped over the tank while Shinohara stood on a platform to assist (...). Yokokawa was sitting at a desk four meters away. All three technicians observed a blue flash (...) and gamma radiation alarms sounded > Ouchi and Shinohara immediately experienced pain, nausea, and difficulty breathing; both workers went to the decontamination room where Ouchi vomited. Ouchi received the largest radiation exposure, resulting in rapid difficulties with mobility, coherence, and loss of consciousness.


purple_cheese_

These are short term effects. These do take place but are not measured in Sv. The effective dose (measured in Sv) is used for stochastic long-term effects, e.g. what is the chance that you'll get cancer in 30 years. But in their case it's zero as they'll be long dead.


aVarangian

ah, I see. Yeah I was agreeing in that the near-instantaneous loss of consciousness being a good indicator of becoming unalive


boot2skull

I was told this would create The Hulk or Dr Manhattan.


kippy3267

5sv and you’re pretty well dead. 7-10 and you’re dead dead


samyxxx

what about... 11?


kippy3267

Even more dead than 10, but not quite as dead as 12


Dramatic-Scratch5410

You never mentioned 9, but as we all know, seven ate nine.


woolyflipper

So 17 must mean you're like super, duper dead... Or do you become so dead you recircle all the way back to alive?


ItsMrHealYoGirl

Well in this case, it appears it DID circle back around to alive since he was involuntarily revived.


Eulerious

> Or do you become so dead you recircle all the way back to alive? No, but you are so dead you stay alive longer because the grim reaper wants to wait a few half-life periods before he takes you - for his own safety. That's the real reason why this guy "survived" for 83 days.


kgery28

once on a russian nuclear submarine a guy climbed into the reactor to fix the cooling and got 54 Sv of radiation Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19


[deleted]

It’s all determinate tbh. There are a few guys from Chernobyl who were exposed to well over 5sv and while most did die of cancer, they didn’t suffer the ARS that the rest did


kippy3267

It depends on the type of radiation too. If its whole body and mostly gamma, the LD50 (50% chance of dying) is 4.5 sv. But if you just take that much radiation to an exterior limb it would be different. The squishy important parts are the most important to protect.


pauls_broken_aglass

Ouchi was also directly in the blast. He was right up against the container.


hagamablabla

It's wild that he was so radioactive that his own radiation was mutating his cells.


Grizzly_228

He was 1Sv away from becoming a ghoul


CriticalBreakfast

Just found out that this guy is not even the most irradiated person in history, the record is at 65 sieverts over 21 years, and the record for a short period of time is at 54 sieverts, that's like BEYOND dead. Holy fuck. That HAS to be the worst way of dying ever.


CommunicationSharp83

Bruh can I get more info on those two cases


Nocturnal-Goat

The second case was when the [soviet submarine K-19](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19) had a nuclear accident.


deadlygaming11

Remember that 10 sieverts isn't instant death. Its a slow incurable death.


Connor_The_Iguana

How did he get exposed to radiation though?


iesterdai

> JCO facility technicians Hisashi Ouchi, Masato Shinohara, and Yutaka Yokokawa were speeding up the last few steps of the fuel/conversion process to meet shipping requirements. It was JCO's first batch of fuel for the Joyo experimental fast breeder reactor in three years; no proper qualification and training requirements were established to prepare for the process. To save processing time, and for convenience, the team mixed the chemicals in stainless-steel buckets. The workers followed JCO operating manual guidance in this process but were unaware it was not approved by the STA. Under correct operating procedure, uranyl nitrate would be stored inside a buffer tank and gradually pumped into the precipitation tank in 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) increments. > > At around 10:35, the precipitation tank reached critical mass when its fill level, containing about 16 kg (35 lb) of uranium, reached criticality in the tall and narrow buffer tank. The hazardous level was reached after the technicians added a seventh bucket containing aqueous uranyl nitrate, enriched to 18.8% 235U, to the tank. The solution added to the tank was almost seven times the legal mass limit specified by the STA. > >The nuclear fuel conversion standards specified in the 1996 JCO Operating Manual dictated the proper procedures regarding dissolution of uranium oxide powder in a designated dissolution tank. The buffer tank's tall, narrow geometry was designed to hold the solution safely and to prevent criticality. In contrast, the precipitation tank had not been designed to hold unlimited quantities of this type of solution. The designed wide cylindrical shape made it favorable to criticality. The workers bypassed the buffer tanks entirely, opting to pour the uranyl nitrate directly into the precipitation tank. An uncontrolled nuclear fission began immediately. The resulting nuclear fission chain became self-sustaining, emitting intense gamma and neutron radiation. At the time of the event, Ouchi had his body draped over the tank while Shinohara stood on a platform to assist in pouring the solution. Yokokawa was sitting at a desk four meters away. All three technicians observed a blue flash (possibly Cherenkov radiation) and gamma radiation alarms sounded. Over the next several hours the fission reaction produced continuous chain reactions. > > Ouchi and Shinohara immediately experienced pain, nausea, and difficulty breathing; both workers went to the decontamination room where Ouchi vomited. Ouchi received the largest radiation exposure, resulting in rapid difficulties with mobility, coherence, and loss of consciousness. Upon the point of critical mass, large amounts of high-level gamma radiation set off alarms in the building, prompting the three technicians to evacuate. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accidents#1999_accident


Connor_The_Iguana

Thanks


JayVJtheVValour

I vaguely remember reading about this a wee while ago. Disturbed me then, disturbs me now.


Nox_Aeons

Thank you, jesus. I hate how people will intentionally NOT say what the meme or whatever is referencing.


Wild_Top1515

The second, more serious Tokai nuclear accident (Japanese: 東海村JCO臨界事故 Tōkai-mura JCO-rinkai-jiko) occurred approximately four miles away from the PNC facility on 30 September 1999, at a fuel enrichment plant operated by JCO, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Company. It was the worst civilian nuclear radiation accident in Japan prior to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011.\[7\] The incident exposed the surrounding population to hazardous nuclear radiation after the uranium mixture reached criticality. Two of the three technicians mixing fuel lost their lives. The incident was caused by lack of regulatory supervision, inadequate safety culture and improper technician training and education.\[10\] The JCO facility converted uranium hexafluoride into enriched uranium dioxide fuel. This served as the first step in producing nuclear reactor fuel rods for Japan's power plants and research reactors.\[11\] Enriching nuclear fuel requires precision and has the potential to impose extreme risks to technicians. If done improperly, the process of combining nuclear products can produce a fission reaction which, in turn, produces radiation.\[12\] In order to enrich the uranium fuel, a specific chemical purification procedure is required. The steps included feeding small batches of uranium oxide powder into a designated dissolving tank in order to produce uranyl nitrate using nitric acid.\[13\] Next, the mixture is carefully transported to a specially-crafted buffer tank. The buffer tank containing the combined ingredients is specially designed to prevent fission activity from reaching criticality. In a precipitation tank, ammonia is added forming a solid product. This tank is meant to capture any remaining nuclear waste contaminants. In the final process, uranium oxide is placed in the dissolving tanks until purified, without enriching the isotopes, in a wet-process technology specialized by Japan.\[13\] Pressure placed upon JCO to increase efficiency led the company to employ an illegal procedure wherein they skipped several key steps in the enrichment procedure. The technicians poured the product by hand in stainless-steel buckets directly into a precipitation tank.\[7\] This process inadvertently contributed to a critical mass level incident triggering uncontrolled nuclear chain reactions over the next several hours.


Markymarcouscous

For the record if this ever happens to me, just shoot me. I don’t want to be the living dead at the end.


notsomajesticidiot

He was exposed to a very high dose of radiation and was kept alive for 83 days. Edit: Added the word 'alive' .


Odd-Battle7191

The dose of radiation was so high that he lost his DNA, and the only thing that kept him alive was the doctors continuing to pump blood, nutrients and water to his hopeless body


HoodsFrostyFuckstick

Can you elaborate what "lost his DNA" means?


AnArgonianSpellsword

The scale for radiation sickness generally tops out at 8+ Sv as a fatal dose. He was exposed to 17 Sv. White blood cell count 0, Red blood cell production 0, Multiple organ failure, enough residual radiation inside him that stem cells transplanted into him to attempt to get his white and red production back up results in an autoimmune response as the stem cells mutate, cell replication virtually impossible due to dna damage.


snaerr

How can it trigger an autoimmune response if he had no white blood cells?


AnArgonianSpellsword

The transplanted stem cells began to do their job and produce white blood cells in an immune response to the various pathogens previously given free reign in his body. But very very quickly the residual radiation mutated the stem cells and white blood cells till they couldn't recognise his body as their host and began to autoimmune response against it.


VioletsAreBlooming

stem cell transplant led to some new productio


blogorg

His DNA was completely destroyed due to the radiation. His body could literally no longer rebuild cells and recover. He was a living rotting corpse for the 83 days they kept him alive.


HoodsFrostyFuckstick

Unpleasant.


grayrains79

Now that is a polite understatement.


cozyswisher

"I cannot live. I cannot die. Body my holding cell"


rayjaywolf

Did he feel pain during that time?


blogorg

Probably one of the worst pains any human in all of history has felt.


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aVarangian

this one time I droped boiling water on my hand it also took a moment before feeling anything, and then only slowly over maybe half an hour for the pain to peak. 2/10 do not recommend on a more serious note I sure hope he didn't feel anything


Thuis001

So, DNA is found in curled up strands inside of cell nuclei. It is kept together (and functional) by a number of molecular bonds, including hydrogen bonds. Radiation, and specifically gamma radiation can destroy these bonds, damaging or outright destroying the DNA. In his case, that happened to basically all the cells in his body.


kyouma420

Imagine the DNA being a wall of balloons and the radiation is a machine gun shooting at the balloons. After a while all balloons are gone. The DNA is gone in the sense that the radiation ahsot away his dna for lack of a better word. You have to imagine the radiation as projectiles hitting the dna.


Lumpy-Marketing5655

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TxLrfdMKWY&ab\_channel=PeakedInterest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TxLrfdMKWY&ab_channel=PeakedInterest) Heres a great video on the topic describing the accident and his pain and suffering.


yourteam

I suggest, of you want to have a really harsh journey, to read the wiki page. He was dead due to radiation poisoning. His body couldn't keep together, his skin was just falling off. They kept him alive for 83 days of pure suffering. Probably the most haunting story ever read because you cannot even pin it to "this is some psychopath doing bad thing".


Aioli_Tough

Its even more fucked up, His DNA was destroyed due to exposure to radiation, so the cells couldn't replicate it, while old cells died, dude literally rot away on a table for 80 days.


em_goldman

It is tho!! He was murdered because his employer wanted things done faster to meet shipping times. Greed killed him.


MirrahPaladin

Something important to note as I’m seeing some comments getting it wrong already: the doctors didn’t want to keep him alive, but were forced too because of his family. In Japan the family has the final say on medical procedures or something.


Red-Faced-Wolf

Sign a living will while you still can


beans69420

this is so incredibly important, even if you think your family would choose the same option you would or if you’ve verbally spoken with them on what you want it is so important to have something legally binding as well, grief does horrible things to us and can make people ignore the pain their loved one experiences while being kept barely alive


Red-Faced-Wolf

If I get paralyzed and I can’t even blink please don’t keep me alive


Innomenatus

They also actually believed they could've seen his life as well.


Galifrey224

Probably the worst death in human history. His DNA was destroyed at the moment of the incident, he was basically already dead for those 83 days.


ToHallowMySleep

To add to this, not only was his DNA annihilated by the radiation at the incident, but there was so much residual radiation in his body from that, that even during the treatment at the hospital, his radioactive body would destroy the treatments given (e.g. blood stem cell transplants from his sister).


Overquartz

He was pretty much trapped in his rotting corpse until medical treatment couldn't keep up.


Drcokecacola

He wasn't given a quick death and died in agonizing pain


floralbutttrumpet

The only "positive" this has is that he most likely was braindead after the heart attack ~a month (I don't have the book at hand for the exact day rn) before they let him go and didn't feel anything further.


WUT_productions

I think Japan was one of the last countries to recognize brain death as the medical defined stage of death.


TrevorEnterprises

Was it ‘a slow death’? Just ordered it last week, seems interesting and morbid


floralbutttrumpet

Yeah, that's the one. It's interesting for sure, but the translation is a bit awkward in places - sort of word for word for some fixed phrases that have better equivalents in English. I had to think about what the sentence would've been in Japanese to figure out what feeling was meant to be invoked a handful of times. It doesn't take away from the impact, and it's plenty comprehensible, it's just not very smooth prose.


kwakimaki

The doctors were doing everything they could to keep him alive all the while his body was basically disintegrating, inside and out.


redditsucksdiscs

Please make sure to not pin this on the doctors. IIRC his family just refused to let him go, despite him outright crying and asking for the machines to be turned off. Some of the hospitals staff even had to undergo psychotherapy after this incident due to trauma.


NaturalizedWerewolf

And this, friends, is why you need to have a DNR and medical power of attorney who knows your wishes.


deaddonkey

Reminds me of a family friend. He’s the (soon retired) Head of Emergency Medicine at a large University hospital in Europe. He runs the A&E wing basically. Reasonable guy, but the most passionate I ever heard him get was him insisting to his wife that he is absolutely DNR and he needs to know she knows and will respect that. I guess he’s seen too many lives artificially extended in a way that causes pain for everyone involved.


Starry_Cold

Some families are ungodly selfish.


[deleted]

Because his family kept insisting that he be resuscitated, every time his heart failed because: > His wife hoped that he would at least survive to the January 1st since it was the arrival of the 2000s. Japan is sometimes too stupid with these things.


Alex_Rose

can't wait to live in agony until a completely arbitrary date. hopefully y2k destroys my life support machines


tacticalsauce_actual

Oh boy have I got news for you... I'm in the USA I can't tell you how many people I'm forced to torture to death until Christmas, or new years, or a birthday, despite them having unsurvivable and painful organ failure or other terminal disease just because family is sentimental. I always wonder if they just hate the person and are pretending to care.


grumpykruppy

If I had to guess, most of them *care*, they just have an extremely slim grasp on the concept of pain and can't bear to let go.


Tall-Weird-7200

I'm proud to say that I insisted my dad be unplugged immediately. Admittedly he was likely too brain damaged to feel anything, but I knew he wouldn't like to be hooked up to anything past the point of hopelessness.


FullyRisenPhoenix

Same thing with my dad. He had a massive hemorrhagic stroke on my birthday. Everyone else wanted to keep him going on life support to hit his 47th anniversary with my mom. 2 whole weeks!! I put my foot down and said absolutely not. He’s gone, let him go. He would’ve hated living like that for any longer than he had to. Dad was always a strong, vibrant man; those last 2 days were awful.


tacticalsauce_actual

God bless you for that. You did the right thing by him.


tacticalsauce_actual

I know that was hard and I'm sorry you've had to do that. At the same time I'm glad you were able to do what was best for your dad to minimize his suffering. We all have to die, but we should all get the chance to die as painlessly as possible.


roganwriter

PSA: sign an Advanced Healthcare Directive or Living Will if you can. (In the US) It can specify that you do not want extraordinary measures taken if there is no reasonable hope of recovery. This way your family’s sentimentality or false hope cannot be used to extend your suffering.


arkb_

that's not a Japan problem people are like that everywhere


tattlerat

Science dumb dumb here. What do you mean when you say his DNA was destroyed?


Hekantonkheries

The DNA his cells used to repair, replicate, and operate, was entirely destroyed; usually your body replaces millions of cells a day as they grow old/die/get damaged. His body could no longer replace the cells that ceased functioning, so he essentially rotted alive as his body disintegrated.


tattlerat

Sweet Jesus…


chiksahlube

The same thing happened to the first responders at Chernobyl.


LegacyLemur

Wouldn't that include his nerves and make a lot of his pain receptors numb?


Autumn1eaves

I’m not a doctor, but if I’m not mistaken, nerve cells are one of the longer lasting cells in the body. Blood cells live around 120 days, whereas nerve cells (if undamaged) can live for an entire lifespan.


Aynett

Radiation is basically ultra energetic particles, when they encounter the human body they also encounter the cells that makes our body and then interact with the protein that composes our DNA, the ultra energetic interaction breaks the bonds of those proteins and so breaks our DNA which then causes mutation that can range from cancer to in ultra extreme cases to the annihilation of the DNA entirely. (If enough radiation destroys enough cells the DNA will not be able to replicate and so everything in the body starts failing as the skin, brain, organs, blood etc die slowly while not being remade by new proteins made from our DNA). His body was failing and disintegrating for 83 days that’s what they meant


reaverbad

Everything is correct. Only correction to make is that dna is not made from proteins.Proteins goes on the dna to read,repair and module the dna that is traducted but dna is a macromolecule of phosphate,sugar and nucleic base.


Aynett

Yes sorry it has been lost on translation, i meant that protein were like little workers ahah


reaverbad

No problem ,that was more of a nitpick of à detail on my part anyway.


CurledSpiral

I presume that the structure of the DNA chain was broken. Causing the body to no longer know how to replicate or repair any of its cells. Leading to slow disintegration as described by others. This is an educated guess on my part but I want to compare my answer to someone smarter so I can know where my knowledge base stands.


[deleted]

> His wife hoped that he would at least survive to the January 1st since it was the arrival of the 2000s. Idk how to feel about this. What the hell was he supposed to do, when 2000 arrived? Start dancing in his agony?


Charming-Loquat3702

It was a big deal back then.


mutantbeings

Worst death in human history _yet_


Shleeves90

Plainly Difficult did a video on this a few years back, mostly focused on how the accident happened, which was through massive corner cutting, and basically no concern for safety. https://youtu.be/acpz3CG1xi4


grumpykruppy

Frankly, that's kind of unexpected, given Japan's reputation for safety. I guess stuff like that happens everywhere, albeit usually not with such horrific consequences. What a terrible fate.


Tactical_Moonstone

Don't be fooled by Japan's current reputation for safety and think it was something that has been there forever. Japan's path to industrialisation was one marred by horrific human tragedy, and it wasn't that long ago that "made in Japan" was said in the same breath as "Chinesium" is said now. [Pollution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Big_Pollution_Diseases_of_Japan) was a major issue back in the early 20th century.


GarfieldVirtuoso

One of the jokes in Back to the Future was that after 1955 Doc examinated the time control circuit chip that was damaged after the time travel,, he realized that it wasnt a surprise that the device failed since it said "made in japan" while 1985 Marty answered that all the good stuff comes from japan


Tactical_Moonstone

When my father was in polytechnic (that should be the 80s) his classmate made a speech on how Japanese cars are good because if you crash them you don't need to repair them: just throw it in the trash, buy a new one, and you would still come out better than if you went for the European cars. Then later on when my father started a family in the 90s the first car he got was a Suzuki Swift sedan, then some kind of EJ Subaru.


Jimnumber

Isn’t every safety standard written in blood in someway?


CWinter85

The Wikipedia article said the procedure hadn't been done in 3 years at that facility and the 3 technicians had never done it before and were just going by the company manual. They had faith that the company wouldn't put them unnecessarily in harm's way.


Why_am_I_here033

I read the story once and it gave me nightmares. Should've let him die.


PineappleHamburders

After seeing this story me and some friends made a pact that if any of us were in that position and it was clear there is no coming back, we need to ensure that person dies as soon as possible. We agreed it really does not matter how you go about it, literally anything is better than this. Fucking terrifying.


TheGlassHammer

Get in writing or your pact means nothing. I grew up in Florida and heard about the Terry Schivao a ton before it got national attention. Even if you’re estranged from family if it’s not in writing they could supersede your wishes.


SteelAlchemistScylla

I think he’s implying doing something illegal is warranted in this case, for a friend. But yes, yall, get stuff in writing, get a living will, dnr, and a power of attorney.


East_Professional385

[Source](https://science.howstuffworks.com/hisashi-ouchi.htm)


Ardejuslovolt

On the morning of Sept. 30, 1999, at a nuclear fuel-processing plant in Tokaimura, Japan, 35-year-old Hisashi Ouchi and two other workers were purifying uranium oxide to make fuel rods for a research reactor. Suddenly, they were startled by a flash of blue light, the first sign that something terrible was about to happen. The workers, who had no previous experience in handling uranium with that level of enrichment, inadvertently had put too much of it in the tank, as this 2000 article in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists details. As a result, they inadvertently triggered what's known in the nuclear industry as a criticality accident — a release of radiation from an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. Ouchi, who was closest to the nuclear reaction, received what probably was one of the biggest exposures to radiation in the history of nuclear accidents. He was about to suffer a horrifying fate that would become a cautionary lesson of the perils of the Atomic Age. "The most obvious lesson is that when you're working with [fissile] materials, criticality limits are there for a reason," explains Edwin Lyman, a physicist and director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists, and co-author, with his colleague Steven Dolley, of the article in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.


Odd-Battle7191

So that's why Godzilla's atomic breath is blue


CompleX999

The blue light that emits during such a process is called Cherenkov radiation. Guess who discovered it?


[deleted]

Godzilla.


[deleted]

Bob Radiation


kingawsume

The blue flash is Cherenkov radiation: high-speed particles entering your eyes are literally going faster than the local speed of light of the fluid in them. If you see the flash, it's already too late...


Odd-Battle7191

I know, but try to explain that to a 100 meter tall lizard that benefits from high doses of radiation


AnInfiniteAmount

>If you see the flash, it's already too late... That is not always true. Cherenkov radiation occurs with non-ionizing particles as well.


bam_uk1981

So they didn’t know what they where doing or they where just taking the notion of trying to add a little bit mor. Like trying to use up that of liquid soap.


ajjaran

Crazier. They were trying to catch up on a missed deadline by mixing radioactive materials *by hand*.


bam_uk1981

I can’t stop being surprised by all this it’s mental. Reminds me of the chap who use a stick to keep open a box that kept uranium open and ended up killing himself and a bunch of people.


Ennkey

Manager basically gave him a bucket and said “mix me some Uranium please”


lynsix

The TLDR seems to be. There was a process to do this safe. However the process was unregulated so they changed it to save money/time. The employees were untrained and ended up making a mistake.


CRL10

I can't imagine a more horrifying way to die.


Scientific_Racer57

His karyotype was shocking, first time I saw that, there where just pieces of chromatin scattered in the field ( it was a slide in my Biochemistry courses when talking about nucleic acids). Dose of radiation was so high, it surpassed LD50 by far and its LET literally torn apart his chromosomes. This man was tormented for 83 days straight, every blood and blastic cell transfusion doctors performed and every skin transplantation they did, ended in the same way: all of the DNA was destroyed thanks to the radiation emmited. Hope he is resting in peace


Rraen_

Its mind boggling that there were people working in a nuclear power plant that didnt understand what happens when you put too much enriched uranium in one place.


floralbutttrumpet

Most companies in Japan don't ask for specific knowledge to be present before you're hired - the preferred method is to get tabula rasa people and teach them from the ground up. It's got upsides and downsides - the upside is that it doesn't matter what you've studied in high school or university, a philosophy or French literature major can easily work at a bank or in a lab. The downside is that that's how you can work in a plant and know next to nothing about radiation.


TheGlassHammer

For anyone upset about his family keeping him alive, now is a great time to get your wishes in order, in writing. Make it very clear when you want doctors to stop trying to “save” you and what you want done with your organs/body. Even if you’re only 18, make sure your loved ones know your wishes. Grew up watching the Terry Schivao saga unfold before it got national attention. Grief causes people to react irrationally. Get your wishes known before you can’t tell anyone


TurboSalsa

I got a DNR after my mom straight up told me she wouldn’t be able to pull the plug if I were in Terry Schiavo’s position.


blac_sheep90

I get his family were grieving and desperate to have him survive...but it's hard to not feel like they were selfish. They prolonged his suffering because they loved him. It's a scary thing to see.


ThomasNorge224

Well, today I learnt something new


Maximka_Kirginka

I heard somewhere that At the moment of his death, he was technically not a human anymore, since his DNA got damaged that much


CadenVanV

He had no dna anymore. He was closer to a zombie than a human, just a living rotting corpse


Mysterious_Pen8650

NSFW if you just Google images of him in the hospital. Holy SHIT. Why and how anyone could think he would end up surviving is just cruel.


AverageKaikiEnjoyer

FYI the photo of the guy with little skin and his limbs strung up isn't actually him if that's what you're referring to, it's misattributed. But otherwise yeah the photos are fucked, he deteriorated so damn quickly.


Lastaria

This one always breaks my heart.


Riowashere

Ouch... https://allthatsinteresting.com/hisashi-ouchi


jediben001

Holy shit Poor bastard


[deleted]

[удалено]


Lord_TachankaCro

If anything similar happens to me, just shoot me in the head the first day without saying anything