Burning pain for 83 days...the most egregious death in history
Feb 11, 2025
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The British media Daily Mail described it as a `most horrible death in history' Japanese man.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, suffered unimaginable pain for 83 days after being exposed to record amounts of radiation at a Japanese workplace.
A worker at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, he worked with two colleagues on September 30, 1999 to mix 16 kilograms of uranium into a metal barrel.
At that time, the amount of uranium was about 6.7 times higher than the safety limit of 2.4 kg.
The three people working said they saw a blue flash before the radioactive alarm started going off and were immediately sick.
Standing on top of the processing vessel at the time, Ouchi was exposed to radiation of 17,000 mSv (millisieverts), the highest radiation exposure dose recorded by a person at any one time.
The radiation exposure safety standard is 20 mSv per year, and 5000 mSv is considered lethal.
Other colleagues were exposed to radiation of 10,000 mSv and 3000 mSv, respectively.
Those who were taken to the hospital began their hellish lives.
In particular, Ouchi suffered breathing problems as his skin fell during treatment and fluid accumulated in his lungs. In addition, the intestinal cells were necrotic, causing extreme gastrointestinal pain and discomfort, and they had 3 liters of diarrhea every day.
The internal organs were followed by bleeding and required up to 10 transfusions per day.
Skin loss continued to deteriorate, eventually leaking liters of body fluid through exposed flesh.
The medical staff tried various treatments, such as skin transplantation and stem cell transplantation, but failed. Even powerful painkillers were useless.
What was particularly terrible was that the eyelid fell off, causing severe pain in the eyes.
According to local reports at the time, he begged doctors to stop treatment, saying it was `too painful.'
Then, his heart stopped on the 59th day of hospitalization. However, he woke up again with CPR three times according to his family's wishes.
After suffering again, he eventually died of multiple organ failure on December 21, 1999, on the 83rd day of hospitalization.
A few months later, in April 2000, one of his colleagues also died. However, relatively less exposed employees were discharged after three months of hospitalization.
Following this tragic incident, the operational safety of the nuclear energy industry in Japan as well as around the world has been strengthened.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
