Re: Japanese Nuclear Victim Takes Turn for Worse

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

The text below appeared in Daily Yomiuri today (Nov. 28).
bcradsafers@hotmail.com  Bjorn Cedervall
--------------
JCO employee's condition worsens
Yomiuri Shimbun

Hisashi Ouchi, the JCO Co. employee who suffered the greatest exposure to 
radiation during the criticality accident that occurred at the company's 
nuclear reconversion plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sept. 30, is 
now in critical condition, doctors said Saturday morning.

Ouchi's heart stopped beating at 7:02 a.m., but began beating again at 8:14 
a.m. after doctors at Tokyo University Hospital administered a heart 
massage, electric shocks and medication to the 35-year-old man, they said.

Ouchi's pulse had been high for more than 50 days since the accident, which 
caused him to suffer a cardiac arrest, according to doctors.

His blood pressure plunged from 110 to zero within minutes, they said. After 
resuscitation, Ouchi began to breathe again on his own. Doctors have been 
controlling his blood pressure with medication.

Ouchi was involved in dissolving uranium oxide powder in nitric acid at 
JCO's nuclear reconversion plant on the morning of Sept. 30. He was exposed 
to strong radiation when a self-sustaining chain reaction occurred after too 
much uranium was poured into a tank.

Although Ouchi was rescued immediately, he has lost consciousness many times 
and has been in consistently poor condition since the accident. He was taken 
to Mito Hospital and eventually transferred by helicopter to the hospital of 
the Science and Technology Agency's National Institute of Radiological 
Sciences, before being finally taken to Tokyo University Hospital.

Ouchi was exposed to about 18 sieverts of radiation, about 18,000 times the 
average annual exposure in the nation.

The accident severely damaged Ouchi's intestinal tract, as well as causing 
him to suffer respiratory difficulties and weakening his immune system. 
Following the accident, he developed a rash that covered his entire body.

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