Hisashi Ouchi Suffered History’s Worst Radiation Burns
Hisashi Ouchi Suffered History’s Worst Radiation Burns — Then Doctors Kept Him Alive For 83 Excruciating Days Against His Will After a fateful accident at Japan’s Tokaimura nuclear power plant in 1999, Hisashi Ouchi lost most of his skin and began crying blood before his agony finally ended. When Hisashi Ouchi arrived at the University of Tokyo Hospital after being exposed to the highest level of radiation of any human in history, doctors were stunned. The 35-year-old nuclear power plant technician had almost zero white blood cells and thus no immune system. Soon, he would be crying blood as his skin melted. The nuclear accident began before noon on Sept. 30, 1999, at the nuclear power plant in Tokaimura, Japan. With an obscene lack of safety measures and an abundance of fatal shortcuts, yet determined to meet a deadline, the Japan Nuclear Fuel Conversion Co. (JCO) told Ouchi and two other workers to mix a new batch of fuel. But the three men were untrained in the process and mixed...