Doctors did not resuscitate Ouchi at family's request

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Doctors did not resuscitate Ouchi at family's request

Kyodo News Service  

TOKYO, Dec. 22 (Kyodo) - Doctors who treated Hisashi Ouchi, who on 
Tuesday became the first person in Japan to die from a nuclear-power 
accident, did not resuscitate him in line with a request from his 
family, they said Wednesday. 

The medical team at the University of Tokyo Hospital told a news 
conference late Tuesday they did not take measures such as heart 
massage to resuscitate Ouchi, 35, after his heart failed. 

They said his family had wanted his death to come peacefully. 

Ouchi died of multiple organ failure at 11:21 p.m. Tuesday, 83 days 
after being exposed to a massive dose of radiation at a uranium-
processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sept. 30. 

It was the first death in Japan caused by a nuclear power accident. 

Police are investigating the plant's operator, JCO Co., and its 
parent company, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., to determine criminal 
responsibility for the accident. Investigators examined Ouchi's body 
at the hospital and performed a legally ordered autopsy from 4 a.m. 
Wednesday. 

Doctors also conducted a pathological anatomy with the family's 
consent. The body was then taken to Ouchi's home in the village of 
Kanasago, Ibaraki Prefecture. 

Ouchi's family said in a statement they were greatly saddened by the 
death and wished that similar accidents will never be repeated. 

Ouchi's chief doctor, Kazuhiko Maekawa, said the victim's pulse 
gradually weakened from Tuesday evening despite a massive dose of 
several drugs to increase blood pressure. 

''We learned a lot from 81 days of unprecedented treatment, but were 
also made aware of the limits of today's medical science,'' Maekawa 
said. 

Ouchi was transferred to the university hospital Oct. 2 to receive 
the world's first transfusion of peripheral stem cells in treatment 
aimed at recovering his body's ability to produce blood. 

Maekawa said a nuclear accident like the one in Tokaimura ''should 
never be repeated.'' He said the people responsible for conditions at 
the plant ''made light of human lives'' and urged them to ''seriously 
reflect'' on the incident. 

Hospital director Yuji Taketani said at the news conference that the 
doctors ''respected Ouchi from the bottom of their hearts'' for his 
efforts to survive in a such a severe physical condition. 

Ouchi was exposed to an estimated 17 sieverts of radiation, about 
17,000 times the maximum annual permissible exposure in Japan. He and 
two other JCO workers poured an excessive amount of uranium into a 
processing tank, triggering a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. 

Ouchi had been seriously ill since the accident. On Nov. 27, his 
heart failed for about 70 minutes. He made a weak recovery but fell 
into an extremely serious condition Sunday as his blood pressure 
destabilized. 

In addition to Ouchi and the two other JCO workers, at least 66 
people, mostly JCO workers at the plant, were exposed to high levels 
of radiation in the accident. More than 20 others who volunteered to 
contain the accident were also exposed. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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