Located in a power plant, a man had an insane chemical reaction and was living in agony.
He was kept alive although he was in pain, and doctors noted down that the technician had “cried blood” and his “skin melted”.
The victim, Hisashi Ouchi, had been helping one of his colleagues help pour uranium into a vat located at the Tokaimura Nuclear Power Plant back in 1999.
Because of a miscalculation, the dangerous liquid had reached “critical point” and had released radiation and gamma rays into the atmosphere that surrounded the two, making it dangerous to inhale and become exposed to.
None of the men who had been affected by the chemical liquid were able to carry out a task because of its delicate precisions. Later, professionals had found out that they were trying to move a total of 16kg of uranium, but they had surpassed the limit by a lot since the legal limit was 2.4kg.
Workers had been manually transferring the solution themselves, and there was no way for them to actually measure how much had been used.
One of the technicians, which is Ouchi, had been exposed to the radiation the most and suffered severe burns. He started to become dizzy and vomited multiple times after the incident. This was only the beginning.
His 83 days of torture had revealed that he had taken in the highest level of radiation, which is 17 Sieverts. This is more than twice the amount that can kill a person in the first place.
He was rushed to the hospital and the area that was near the plan had been put on lockdown. After the exposure, it was revealed the Ouchi had a lack of white blood cells, which resulted in needing skin grafts and blood transfusions in order to keep him alive.
Albeit their efforts and his sister donating stem cells to help his immune system on the road to recovery, the exposure left him “crying blood”. Ouchi begged them to stop.
He tells the doctor that he couldn’t take it anymore and that he was not a guinea pig. On the 59th day, his heart gave out three times. He had died as a result of multiple organ failure.
The company had to pay a $121 million settlement to people and businesses affected by the tragic accident.