The Man Who Lived Inside a Dead Body, His Family Watched for 83 Days 

The Man Who Lived Inside a Dead Body, His Family Watched for 83 Days 

 After an accident at work, a man was transported to the hospital for severe radiation poisoning. He recalled seeing a blue flash and throwing up immediately afterward. At first, medical staff believed he was fine; one even thought he would be well enough to leave the hospital.

Despite his outward appearance, the man’s body was slowly changing— pushing doctors to apply a number of experimental procedures to save what was left of him. The human body is perhaps the most complex machine on Earth. An urban myth says that your cells replace themselves every 7 years, leaving behind the old you for a completely new person.

Although we’re capable of healing ourselves to a certain extent, this is not completely true. What would happen if we lost the ability to regenerate cells? And how much time would we have before our body is no longer considered “alive”? This is the story of Hisashi Ouchi, the most irradiated man in history, his family who couldn’t let him go, and his three month long battle for survival in a body falling apart at the seams.

And with that out of the way, let’s get into it! Nuclear energy is one of the ways for us as a species to wean off fossil fuels, and nowadays, reducing our carbon footprint is more important than ever. Hey? You look… different. Brew10: Thanks to Klima, the sponsor of our video, the actions of climate conscious individuals everywhere, we’re closer than ever to the best timeline.

Brew: Klima? What’s that? Brew10: Klima is an affordable monthly subscription service that helps you offset your carbon footprint by providing support to tree planting programs, green energy initiatives, and other projects that improve lives across the world. Brew: I do want to learn more about climate healthy living… Brew10: Klima makes it easy to educate yourself, and go carbon-neutral.

You can calculate your footprint in less than 3 minutes and start funding strategies that capture carbon, and reduce emissions! Your money will go to support communities across the globe, help the environment, and you get to do your part to make the world a better place! It’s a win/win/win! Brew: I’ve been trying to use less energy heating my home.

I even got solar panels last year! Brew10: That’s great! Klima’s priority is to help us make small lifestyle changes to the climate future we want to see! Brew: Go carbon neutral with us! Get Klima today and get 10 extra trees planted in your name! Just hit the link in the description and enter the code BREW10 to claim your trees and support our channel! Brew10: We can make our planet a better place.

Together. Brew: The Tokaimura Nuclear Plant was commissioned in 1988 in the small Japanese fishing village of Tokai. It was operated by JCO, formerly known as the Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Company, established in 1979. For ten years the nuclear plant supplied sundry research and experimental reactors for the Japanese scientific community, but wasn’t part of the actual energy grid.

The plant produced up to 3 tonnes of enriched uranium per year up until the accident in September 1999. Workers would dissolve uranium oxide powder using nitric acid in a dissolution tank, then pump the resulting substance, now called uranyl nitrate, into a storage column built with specific reaction preventing geometry for mixing.

Then, workers would pump the no exothermically reacting uranyl nitrate into a precipitation tank surrounded by water to cool it off, keeping it from hitting critical mass. However, a measly three years prior, in 1996, the company’s standards had been changed without the express clearance of the Japanese energy authority.

A change that would have a significant impact on the workers tasked to mix the nuclear material. Instead of dissolving the uranium oxide in the dissolution tank, workers were to just do it in stainless steel buckets to speed up the process. In addition to that, it was modified further, trading safety for speed, by pouring the uranyl nitrate directly into the precipitation tank.

Instead of mixing the substance in the storage column, it would happen in the precipitation tank instead, bypassing the systems intended to prevent criticality. Put simply, workers were asked to ignore the first and second tanks —the ones made specifically to prevent accidents— dissolve the uranium by hand, and then pour it into the final tank like it was a Uranium latte.

Sounds safe doesn’t it? On the morning of the 30th of September 1999, nuclear workers Hisashi Ouchi, and Masato Shinohara, were mixing up a batch of fuel, while their supervisor, Yutaka Yokokawa, sat at his desk about 4 metres (~13ft) away. Ouchi and Shinohara were supposed to mix up 2.4 kilos (~5.

2lbs) of enriched uranium, but instead they were manually mixing up 16 kilos (~35lbs) of the nuclear substance in the aforementioned steel buckets. This was, as we mentioned before, wildly dangerous. Then, at 10:35AM, a blue flash erupted from the middle of the room, and all three men were overcome in a wave of nausea. The flash was what’s called Cerenkov radiation, which is light that is emitted when electrically charged particles pass through a medium faster than light can.

In this case, the water in the precipitation tank slowed down light, but not the now reactive uranium particles. Then suddenly, FLASH, followed by a wave of gamma radiation. Their coworkers quickly jumped into action, donning hazardous material suits, before bolting into the room to rescue the three men, and rush them to a local hospital.

There, they determined the levels of radiation that each of the men were exposed to. Sieverts are used to measure the impact of low levels of radiation on the human body. For reference, the typical dosage of radiation that Chernobyl workers who died within a month of exposure was 6 sieverts, while the highest non-lethal exposure is about 1 sievert.

Yokokawa, Ouchi’s supervisor, received the least, at 3 sieverts, Shinohara received 10 sieverts, and Ouchi received the most, a whopping 17 sieverts. Soon after arriving at a local hospital, medical staff decided that they were ill equipped to help Ouchi, transferring him to the Tokyo University Hospital where more experimental methods could be attempted.

Dr Maekawa, the lead doctor in Ouchi’s case, heard about the accident on the news in the afternoon of the first day and was selected for the role because of his expertise in emergency radiation medicine. He said in an interview that he “noticed the staff of the NIRS [National Institute of Radiological Sciences] wore protective suits and masks.

Therefore I suspected the degree of the contamination might have been quite high.” Dr Maekawa noted that the amount of radiation that Ouchi was exposed to was definitely fatal, but when Ouchi met the team, he actually looked fine. He was able to speak, and respond to the medical staff. One nurse tending to Ouchi said that “His skin was reddish as if he had got a terrible sunburn.

His arm was badly swollen and he said he had a pain in that area” and another said that she thought that he would be well enough to leave the hospital. Despite this, the radiation began penetrating the chromosomes of his cells. Chromosomes contain the “blueprints” of our genetic information. They provide the code that tells our cells when and how to reproduce.

However, now that Ouchi’s cells were being destroyed by radiation exposure, his chromosomes were likewise damaged until they could no longer reproduce. The first sign of chromosome destruction appeared in his blood. His white blood cell numbers were dropping drastically. Now, something as little as the common cold could spell disaster.

He was quickly moved to a sterilized room, where he would lie alone for weeks, to make sure that didn’t happen, and Dr Maekawa and his team began searching for a possible cell donor that could give Ouchi’s body the ability to produce its own white blood cells once more. Almost miraculously, one of Ouchi’s siblings was that donor.

Dr Maekawa and his team collected her blood, then extracted their blood stem cells over the course of nine hours for two days straight. Her cells were then transplanted into Ouchi with hopes that his body would accept them, and produce white blood cells once again to improve his immune response. It took ten days to discover if the procedure worked.

In that time he was able to speak to his loved ones and familiarize himself with the nurses tending to him. One nurse asked him how he met his wife: “He told me that they had known each other since high school and they had married after … about seven years”. Later she remarked that she was impressed by his story, and told him “You married with a passionate love!” The radiation started to show itself on the surface of Ouchi’s body.

Another nurse, describing how they adhered gauze, IVs, and other medical equipment remarked that “it became more and more frequent that his skin was ripped off along with the removed tape. Eventually, we couldn’t use surgical tape anymore.” There is a photograph that nearly all sources for this story use claiming to be Ouchi in the hospital.

This is not Ouchi. It’s nearly impossible to find the original image, but it is NOT Ouchi. The man in this photo has had his right foot amputated, and Ouchi did not. At the same time, Dr Maekawa was trying to convey just how dire Ouchi’s situation was to his grieving family. He said “his appearance was changing drastically, so I had his family see his condition in order for them to accept the truth.

” Ouchi’s lungs began retaining fluids, making his breathing difficult to the point that medical staff considered putting him on a ventilator. This would mean he wouldn’t be able to speak to his family. At the time staff noted Ouchi’s words, things like “I can’t stand it” and “I wanna go home”. He even cried out for his mother.

One nurse said later that “Seeing that kind of scene made our hearts ache. It was true that nobody knew for sure what would happen to him, but we were able to imagine that his condition would get worse and worse.” Soon after, Dr Maekawa was forced to put Ouchi on a ventilator. He wasn’t breathing, so they inserted a tube into his windpipe, but despite this, Ouchi’s family still visited him every day.

A common practice in Japanese culture, senbazuru, the act of folding 1000 origami cranes, is thought to provide good health to the seriously ill. Since Ouchi’s white blood cell count was so low, they couldn’t bring any of the cranes into his room, but they folded them all the same. Ten days had passed since Ouchi’s blood transfusion, and his blood was tested to see if his sibling’s white blood cells had successfully implanted in his body.

Peering into a microscope, Dr Maekawa spotted two red dots in one of his blood cells, the chromosomes had survived! It was the first time that white blood cells producers had been successfully implanted into a victim of radiation. His white blood cell count was increasing back to normal levels. He was still intubated, so he couldn’t speak, but he was able to respond to his family’s calls with gestures.

A week later, however, small mutations were discovered in his blood. The chromosomes that Dr Maekawa had implanted in Ouchi were damaged. Doctors believed that the radiation in his body was so intense, some cells mutated harshly, causing his own cells to emit radiation on their own. Ouchi’s worsening condition was not limited to just his skin and blood.

The cells walling his intestines began to die as well, and without the ability to replace them, it would only be a matter of time until the bacteria in his guts made their way into his bloodstream, threatening sepsis. In the weeks following this development, the amount of diarrhea Ouchi produced increased every day up to three litres per day.

His intestines began bleeding, filling his stool with blood. In fact, he was losing so much blood that there were days where he received more than ten blood transfusions in half a day. Ouchi was moved to a bed that could tilt, made for critically ill patients to aid his circulation. His body was covered almost entirely with gauze, and his eyes began bleeding.

Another nurse described his condition at the time, saying that “there was a lot of exudate in his skin”, “It took almost half a day to treat it.”. Exudate meaning “body weeping” aka, his body was seeping moisture. Ouchi was also given a ton of narcotics to help him manage his pain, but despite that, he still looked like he was suffering terribly.

At this point, Ouchi was losing around 10 litres of water a day just through his skin and intestines, so it became imperative that they replenish the same amount of water each day. With the level of devastation, the only option left was a skin transplant. Medical staff cultivated skin cells in vitro, then grafted it to his body.

However, Dr Maekawa noted that the cultured skin didn’t adhere to his body because of his deteriorating condition. While it was obvious that Ouchi’s chances were slim, according to another member of the team, “if somebody had said that aloud, if somebody had had doubts about the active intervention in his life and the doubts had spread across the team, we would have lost sight of our purpose.

What the hell are we doing? For whom? For what? I guess we were afraid of having that kind of thought.” Another nurse added “I couldn’t … endure doing the treatment if I hadn’t had the conviction … I was doing it to protect his life.” Almost two months had passed since the incident, and after the massive blood loss and amount of transfusions, his heart was beating at a blistering 120 beats per minute constantly, about twice as fast as a resting heart rate.

It was as if he was running a marathon all day, every day. One morning, Dr Maekawa was doing his rounds when he saw it. A monitor displaying Ouchi’s condition showed that his heart had stopped. Dr Maekawa bolted to Ouchi’s room to start CPR. By the end of the day, Ouchi’s heart had stopped and started three times.

He was still alive, but the effects of his multiple heart failures were taking their toll on the rest of his body. He was no longer conscious enough to respond. Dr Maekawa said “some of the staff members, including me, had a feeling that we shouldn’t continue the treatment anymore. However, Mr.

 Ouchi’s family didn’t give up hope for his recovery until the very end.” Beside his medical bed, his mother called out for him, “Hisashi, hold on!” while his father leaned in close to give him some words of encouragement, “never give up!” But things were only going to get worse. His immune cells malfunctioned and began attacking his own body.

He needed to undergo even more blood transfusions to keep his body from tearing itself apart. Dr Maekawa admitted that “There were no workable solutions. My honest feeling was that we were in a complete deadlock.” On the 81st day after the accident at Tokaimura, well into December, Dr Maekawa called Ouchi’s family together and recommended that if his heart stopped beating again, they should not attempt to resuscitate him.

They agreed, so Dr Maekawa gave his medical team the Do Not Resuscitate order. The following day, Ouchi’s wife had a chance to speak with him. She dropped off another batch of paper cranes, which now numbered just short of 10,000, and said she wanted to ring in the new year with him. Two days later, Ouchi’s wife returned along with their son.

This was the first time in a long time they’d been able to see Ouchi without bandages covering his face. His son, who was in elementary school, said, with hope in his heart, “Dad, hang in there”. A nurse who was in the room said that this was the first time she’d seen his wife cry. “As far as I could see, that was the only time she cried.

Apparently, she was trying to suppress a cry. I thought she didn’t have to do that.” Later that evening, on the 21st of December 1999, Ouchi passed away. Dr Maekawa, upon reaching retirement age in the spring of 2000, retired from his work in hospitals. “This case made me painfully aware that the system made by human beings could cause terrible disasters with one wrong move.

There is nothing mere doctors like us can do about that. With any latest technology and equipment, we have no chance against the catastrophic effects of radiation. We learned that the hard way.” Moving forward, Dr Maekawa worked on establishing medical procedures for the treatment of radiation exposure. “People who passed away will never come back again.

There will be no next time for them.” The Tokaimura Nuclear Accident was the most severe nuclear accident in Japanese history, until 2011’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdown. Nowadays, in the aftermath of Chernobyl and Fukushima, which both left entire cities unfit for human life, nuclear power has a serious PR problem.

The world of the future is no longer a purely nuclear one, as envisioned by our Cold War forebears, but does this potentially dangerous technology still have a place in our future? Likely yes. For one, nuclear power accounts for at least 10% of the entire world’s power generation, and it’s also the second largest source of low carbon power generation, second only to hydroelectric power generation.

Japan relies on imports for approximately 80% of its energy consumption, and 90% of their crude oil imports come from the Middle East, so diversification of their energy generation was paramount. After the oil crises of 1973 and 1979, Japan’s energy sources included liquified natural gas and coal, alongside nuclear generation.

After 2011’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the share of Japan’s energy generation made up by nuclear power has dramatically decreased from a high of 30% in 2009 to a low of 0% in 2014. In 2020, it increased to 5% of Japan’s total energy production. It’s also good to mention that nuclear power is pretty old technology by 2020 standards, and we’ve been developing safety procedures since the 1940s.

Though, safety systems only work if we use them. There will have to be some hard conversations in the future considering the benefits and risks of nuclear power not just in Japan, but across the globe. Many believe that Nuclear power will cover enough of our energy needs to allow us to end our dependence on fossil fuels, like natural gas, crude oil, and coal.

But others believe that the risks of nuclear fission are too great, and we could spend our time and money on renewable energy like solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal power generation. See, while nuclear energy may be low-carbon, it’s not renewable. It still requires the input of finite resources and the storage of irradiated waste.

Though the amount of energy produced is far more efficient than coal, or even gasoline. We may have our opinions about how Ouchi was treated, about whether or not his family should have let him pass earlier, but at the end of the day, I don’t think many of us would be able to say for sure how we would feel were we in their position.