DNA Destroyed in Nanoseconds - Most Radioactive man

DECOMPOSED, alive gruesomely by extreme levels  of radiation. Hisashi Ouchi found himself in one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents  in history. What began as a routine day at the nuclear facility ended in unimaginable suffering  and a prolonged 83-day battle for his survival.

On September 30th, 1999, at the Tokaimura  nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Japan, technicians Hisashi Ouchi, Masato Shinohara,  and their supervisor, Yutaka Yokokawa, began their regular routine of preparing  and handling dangerous uranium materials. Many people understand the  toxicity of work culture, but no one understands it better than  the Japanese. Hisashi Ouchi and his colleagues were caught in a deadly pursuit  of deadlines, thanks to corporate greed, cutting corners, and a deeply-ingrained Japanese  work culture that often disregards worker safety.

At that time, Japan’s energy economy relied  heavily on foreign imports until it realized that the country needed to expand its energy  sources. This put extreme pressure on the energy industry, which put workers like  Ouchi at risk and increased suicide rates. The Tokai Nuclear Power Plant was Japan's first  nuclear power station.

Fuel for the plant was processed at the Tokaimura facility, operated  by the Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Company, JCO. At Tokaimura, workers converted uranium  hexafluoride into enriched uranium dioxide. This was then further processed into pellets at other  facilities.

The pellets were placed into tubes, sealed, and assembled into fuel rods, which is  the primary fuel used to generate nuclear power. But what transpired isn’t as simple  as carelessness. The lack of proper knowledge and care for worker safety would  soon become their ultimate nightmare.

On that fateful day, Ouchi and his colleagues  began their day as usual. One of the nuclear plant technician's main responsibilities  is managing uranium mixing in three crucial steps. First, in the dissolution tank, the  automated system mixes a 5% concentration of uranium powder and nitric acid.

The second step involves a cylindrically shaped buffer tank designed to prevent the  uranium from reaching accidental criticality, also known as a nuclear fission chain reaction.  Additionally, this tank controls the drip of uranium into the third and final step, the  precipitation tank. The reactions during this process create an intense amount of heat that  must be removed.

Using a cooling water jacket that surrounds the tank to remove the heat, the  technicians oversee the system as it carefully mixes the uranium in this final step. However, three years before the accident, JCO altered their procedure to speed up production  of this highly dangerous material by skipping crucial steps due to the increasing demand for  fuel rods. To meet expectations, JCO bypassed regulatory approval and allowed them to illegally  mix the uranium powder in stainless steel buckets instead of using the automated equipment.

To make it even worse, JCO was behind schedule with the production of fuel  rods, putting even more pressure on the already overworked technicians. So they decided to perform an already hastened process even more recklessly. They also  took efficiency to a new level by completely removing their protective equipment and  wearing only casual, comfortable clothing.

This is when things got extremely dangerous. At approximately 10:35 a. m.

unaware of the  impending danger, Ouchi and Shinohara began mixing the uranium powder into a steel bucket but  instead exceeded the legal concentration limit by seven times. Yokokawa watched from an office desk,  overseeing the process as Ouchi leaned his body over the precipitation tank while Shinohara stood  on a platform to assist in pouring the solution… Suddenly, the gamma radiation alarms began  to sound. They had made a horrifying mistake, triggering an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. 

A flash of blue light, known as Cherenkov radiation, lit up the room as it released  massive amounts of energy and gamma particles, which proceeded to bombard the surrounding  area with lethal doses of gamma radiation. The sudden burst of energy from the nuclear  chain reaction caused charged particles like electrons to move faster than the speed of  light in the surrounding medium, generating a blinding blue shockwave and confirming  the occurrence of an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction with catastrophic results. The safe exposure limit for technicians and those working around nuclear materials is 20 to  50 millisieverts per year.

The crew received a massive dose of approximately 30,000 millisieverts  combined. Ouchi received the most radiation, absorbing over 17,000 millisieverts, since he  was closest to the explosive reaction, while Shinohara received 10,000 millisieverts. Being  much further away, Yokokawa only received a dose of 3,000 millisieverts.

While the three-person  crew fled the scene immediately, none of them could get far, thanks to the excruciating  pain now searing through their bodies. As they rapidly became nauseous and short of  breath, Ouchi and Shinohara rushed towards the decontamination room, where Ouchi vomited  and ultimately lost consciousness. Once the fuel processing plant officials realized the  situation, they immediately evacuated the rest of the employees to prevent more radiation exposures.

Officials took the three men to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba. Yet,  once they realized the nature of Ouchi’s case, they decided to transfer him to the University  of Tokyo Hospital, where there are more qualified staff along with advanced equipment  to treat and support Ouchi’s recovery On the evening of September 30th, Ouchi  arrived at the hospital in good spirits and, at least on the outside, seemed fine. But as they  soon learned, looks can be deceiving.

Nurses noted his swollen arm and seemingly sunburnt skin,  but several believed he would go home soon. But little did they know, this was only the beginning of one of  the most gruesome deaths in history. Adding insult to injury, JCO officials painted  Ouchi and his colleagues as fools who wanted to leave work earlier.

They claimed they mixed  the uranium powder in buckets of their own free will to save time. Despite Ouchi's  positive attitude, his condition was dire. When the hospital staff learned  about his workplace accident, they ordered a biopsy of his bone marrow.

The  human body steadily replaces old cells over time, thanks to the chromosomes inside our body.  Chromosomes contain our DNA and the blueprint for the repairing process.  Without this natural mechanism, we wouldn’t survive and neither would Ouchi.

As the doctors received the test results, they realized that this fundamental mechanism  in his cells was damaged beyond repair. Ouchi’s chromosomes were either fused together abnormally,  or broken into small pieces from the radiation blast, showing no signs of their expected shape.  His DNA was so badly damaged that the repairing process was nonexistent.

Their grim discovery  made them soon realize that Ouchi’s case was no mere case of minor radiation sickness. Despite Ouchi looking fine, this period of good health would be short-lived as the  doctors described him as being in what is called the “Walking Ghost Phase. ” During  this phase, the patient may appear healty but is actually in a very fragile state, which  could potentially last for hours or even days.

In short, Ouchi was a ticking time bomb and  his excruciating suffering was about to begin. Imagine living in a world where every door handle  is potentially lethal and a simple handshake could be your last. This is the constant,  nerve-wracking reality for someone with an almost nonexistent immune system.

The emotional  toll is immense—every interaction, every outing, every meal becomes a calculated risk. For Ouchi, this was his new reality, and to combat this new danger, the head  physician, Kazuhiko Maekawa, decided that a sterile environment was his best chance at  survival. Having zero white blood cells, the 35-year-old technician’s immune system was useless  in a fight against many once harmless pathogens.

But with the constant threat of infections out  of the way, his medical team knew that he needed a healthy supply of fresh chromosomes to help his  body heal. Fortunately, there was an experimental cancer treatment called a Hematopoietic Stem Cell  transplant. His body needed the biological fuel to create new cells and replace his damaged ones.

The experimental treatment would take donor bone marrow cells and inject them into Ouchi. The idea  is that these new cells would give his body the materials needed to start producing healthy  bone marrow cells again. Being experimental, successful treatment required someone with an  immune system that closely matched Ouchi’s.

Fortunately, the medical staff were able to find  a suitable donor in Ouchi’s sister. With those formalities out of the way, the team went to  work administering the experimental treatment. Although Ouchi was the first person in  the world to receive this treatment, the doctors were hopeful.

Yet, they did not want  to mince words with Ouchi’s family. They needed to understand the gravity of his situation  and the likely result of his exposure. Ouchi himself didn’t fully grasp the gravity  of his situation.

He asked the nurses if he could go home soon and also asked about  the risk of developing leukemia from such high radiation exposure. However, he did not  have the luxury of time to develop leukemia and the effects of radiation poisoning  began to set in sooner rather than later. Ouchi’s skin lost its youthful elasticity, peeling  off as medical staff removed the medical tape holding the many machines hooked up to his body. 

This meant that his doctors couldn’t use medical tape or adhesives of any kind on his skin. Soon  after, the poor man’s lung filled with fluid, stifling his ability to breathe or speak. As the fluid continued to build up in his lungs, it sapped his remaining strength, keeping him  bedridden.

Though he couldn’t move or speak much, Ouchi still expressed his love for  his wife and family members who had yet to leave his side. But his condition  worsened again, the fluid in his lungs robbing of his ability to breathe on his own. Ouchi’s medical team set him up on assisted breathing, holding on hope that his treatments  would begin to heal his damaged body.

About ten days after the stem cell transplant, Dr Maekawa  performed another test to see if the treatment was successful. Miraculously, his sister’s  stem cells were seen throughout his body, indicating that the treatment had worked. In the following days, his white blood cell count reached normal levels again.

This  was good news, but like the “Walking Ghost Phase,” it was short-lived. In the next week,  Ouchi’s condition started to get worse again. This is when things got really out of hand.

Frustrated, Dr Maekawa performed an endoscopy  to find out what had gone wrong and why the treatment failed. What he discovered revealed  the true nature of Ouchi’s struggle and what he was about to endure. The endoscopy revealed  that the protective membrane in his intestine had died and was sloughing off.

Without the healthy membrane, the human body can’t absorb water, nutrients, or  get any nourishment from food. This meant that either death from starvation or dehydration  would be Ouchi’s end. Even this news wasn’t the worst of what was in store for Ouchi.

Dr Maekawa and his team investigated further, focusing on the transplanted stem cells. Because  of the radiation blast, the exposure left residual radiation in Ouchi’s body, which corrupted  the healthy transplanted cells, ultimately failing to regenerate his immune system. Now,  Ouchi was worse than when he came in and his suffering was about to increase exponentially.

He began to suffer from intestinal issues, producing about 3 liters of diarrhea a day.  The fluid loss continued to get worse as he lost complete control of his bowels and began  to bleed internally. His bleeding had gotten worse due to the loss of the protective membrane.

The blood loss was so catastrophic that doctors had to replace it with ten blood transfusions  per day. This also meant that Ouchi was in constant pain, needing a drip of Fentanyl  to ease his suffering. His skin continued to blister and peel off to the point where his  body could no longer hold onto any fluids.

With the danger of dehydration looming, his  medical team worked tirelessly to replace 10 liters of fluid loss per day. The hospital  staff wrapped Ouchi in bandages to help preserve the fluids. But this only made it  worse as his skin peeled and seeped fluids.

His fluid loss became so severe that the  doctors had to measure just how much he was losing to know what to replace. The problem was  so terrible that replacing all of Ouchi's bandages took nearly half a day. Finally, Dr Maekawa  began to use skin grafts in a last-ditch effort to help Ouchi’s body retain fluids.

However, with severe dehydration, the skin grafts couldn’t adhere to Ouchi’s disintegrating skin.  His pain was unbearable, but his family remained hopeful that he would get better. At one point,  Ouchi couldn’t open or close his eyes and nurses even reported seeing him crying blood.

While they may have thought it, his medical team dared not to speak it  aloud: Ouchi’s time was running out. Dr Maekawa and his medical team  worked everyday to help Ouchi, but their efforts failed. Two months into their  work, Ouchi showed no signs of improvement and had been through unimaginable agony, but his  family still wouldn’t give up.

Yet, Ouchi could take no more and just wanted to be home. Finally, Ouchi’s pain became so overwhelming that the medical staff placed him in a medically  induced coma. His temporary improvement was again short-lived as the doctors realized that  his organs were shutting down.

First, his heart was pumping at twice the rate it should’ve  been due to the continuous stress on his body. Though he was in a state of rest, his heart was  beating as if he were running a 100-yard dash. It worked so hard during that time that it stopped  beating.

Because there was no do-not-resuscitate order in place, they brought him back. But once they did, his brain, though active, was barely hanging on by a thread. Shortly after, his  liver and kidneys shut down, leaving him entirely dependent on the machines to keep him alive. 

Realizing the end was here, Dr Maekawa spoke with Ouchi’s family, convincing them to sign the  do-not-resuscitate and end Hisashi’s suffering. Then, on December 21st, 1999, despite the  doctor’s best efforts, including revolutionary stem cell transplants, skin grafts, and blood  transfusions, Ouchi's body could not recover. He died from multiple organ failure.

With  an end to his suffering, the 35-year-old, hard-working family man could finally be at peace. Of the three-person crew, Shinohara also died from his radiation-related injuries. Though exposed  to dangerous levels of radiation, Yokokawa survived the incident, but his involvement in  the negligence landed him in heavy legal trouble.

About 49 workers were exposed to the  radiation blast. Six officials from JCO, including Yokokawa, were charged with professional  negligence and violating nuclear safety laws. The company paid 12.

6 billion yen to settle  compensation claims from affected businesses and local residents. Soon after,  JCO lost their business licenses.