Man ‘burned from the inside out’ for 83 days in one of most painful deaths ever

The chilling details of a man who suffered one of the most agonising deaths ever recorded have come to light. Hisashi Ouchi, 35, from , endured an excruciating ordeal that saw him “burn from the inside out” for 83 days after being exposed to a record-breaking amount of radiation at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo.

On September 30, 1999, Ouchi and two colleagues were preparing uranium for nuclear fuel when a catastrophic error occurred. His workmate Masato Shinohara and supervisor Yutaka Yokokawa mistakenly added 16kg of uranium into a processor, far exceeding the safe limit of 2.4kg.

Almost instantly, radiation alarms began to blare as the men Ouchi was subjected to a staggering 17,000 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation, the highest dose ever recorded by a single individual. Shinohara absorbed 10,000 mSv, while Yokokawa, who was only yards away at a desk, was hit by an estimated 3,000 mSv. The safety limit is 20 mSv per year, with 5,000 mSv considered lethal.

All three men were immediately rushed to a local hospital, reports

During this period, Ouchi’s condition deteriorated over 83 days as the radiation caused his skin to peel away and his eyelids to ‘fall off’ due to tissue death. He began experiencing breathing difficulties as fluid accumulated in his lungs, necessitating a medical ventilator.

The cells in his gut that aid in food and medication absorption also perished, resulting in severe stomach pain and producing three litres of diarrhoea daily. His condition was so severe that he required up to 10 blood transfusions daily to survive due to internal bleeding in his gut.

As his skin loss accelerated, he leaked litres of bodily fluids through his exposed flesh. Despite attempts at skin grafts and stem cell transplants, there was no improvement. Even potent painkillers failed to alleviate his suffering. His eyelids fell off, causing his eyes to “cry blood”. The pain became so unbearable that he asked medics to stop treatment. On his 59th day in hospital, Ouchi’s heart failed but he was resuscitated thrice.

However, on his 83rd day in hospital, December 21, he succumbed to multiple organ failure. A few months later, in April 2000, Shinohara also died of multiple organ failure at the age of 40. Yokokawa was hospitalised but was discharged after three months with minor radiation sickness.