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Effects of radiat

A true measure of exposur

The Harry K. DaghlianAccident

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Who is HarryDaghlian?

He was an Armenian-American physicist with

the Manhattan Projectwho

accidentally irradiatedhimself on August 21, 1945,

during a critical mass experiment at the remote

Omega Site facility at Los Alamos NationalLaboratoryin New Mexico, resulting in his death 26

days later.

Wh i H

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Projecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irradiationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexicohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexicohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irradiationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

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Who is HarryDaghlian?

Daghlian was irradiated as a result of a criticality

accidentthat occurred when he accidentally dropped

a tungsten carbidebrick onto a 6.2 kg delta phase

plutonium bomb core, and later nicknamed the

"Demon core", also resulted in the death of Louis

Slotinin a similar accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accidenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accidenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accidenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident

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The Demon Core

The sphere

of plutonium

neutron-refl

carbidebloc

enactment oDaghlian's 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutoniumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium

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90 minutes after the exposure: He experienced immediate hand swelling and

numbness when he first arrived at the hospital.

Overwhelming and unrelenting nausea.

24 hours after the exposure: Daghlian suffered from severe nausea and repeated

bouts of retching and vomiting, at times continuously.

The nausea persisted throughout the second day, butwithout vomiting; instead, he now had to endureprolonged episodes of hiccups. After these initial twodays, his appetite returned and he was able to eat wehowever, other symptoms soon became apparent.

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36hrs. after the exposure: A small blister had appeared on the ring finger of

his right hand.

The nailbeds had taken on a bluish hue, indicating

poor circulation.

Within a day's time, numerous blisters had

developed on the palm and back of the hand, as

well as between the fingers, which increased

rapidly in size and became painfully distended with

fluid.

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36hrs. after the exposure: Also, the skin of the left hand and abdomen began to

redden (erythema). For relieving pain and increasing

circulation and manual flexibility to the right hand,

Daghlian's primary attending physicians at Los Alamos

Hospital decided on the third day to perform a

paravertebral block on the right side and to open the

blisters and remove the necrotic skin (dbridement)

under general anesthesia; the wounds were then

covered with Vaseline gauze and a pressure dressing.

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Day 4 after the exposure:

the entire right hand continued to blister and

had developed an intense blue-purple color.

Codeine and morphine were given to control

the pain, which had also increased

substantially; however, these drugs provided

only partial relief, and the hands were furthernumbed by chilling with ice packs.

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Day 9 after the exposure: From this point on, injuries to the right hand

would prove to be the forerunner for a complexspectrum of symptoms resulting from extensive

radiation-induced damage to Daghlian's body. The extent of damage to the skin and internal

organs became more ominous as reddeningadvanced up the inside surfaces of bothforearms and now included the neck and face,

resulting in a progressive loss of skin layers(desquamation) over these areas.

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Day 9 after the exposure:DaghliansRight Hand

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Day 10 after the exposure:

Daghlian experienced nausea and abdominal

pain after eating.

On examination, his abdomen was found to be

distended and painful when palpated.

Day 12 after the exposure: From day 12 onward, however, he suffered

from constant diarrhea.

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Day 15 after the exposure: After receiving a blood transfusion and intravenous

fluids on day 15, Daghlian became pale and his skin

felt cold and clammy, in spite of a rectal temperature

of 105 o F.

Due to his apprehension, his respiration rate became

rapid and shallow, and his blood pressure plummeted

to 70/50.

Rapid heart beat (tachycardia) of 250 beats/minute.

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Death He became irrational and slipped into a coma on the final day of

his life. Daghlian died at 4:30 PM on Saturday, 15 September,

1945; he had survived almost 26 days after the accident at

Omega.

By the end, his appearance had changed dramatically because of

a significant weight loss that had started on day 6 and had

increasingly worsened.

In addition, all of the epidermis of the abdomen and lower chest

had been lost, as well as the hair from his upper chest, beard and

temples (epilation).

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Radiation Dose Daghlian received a total-body radiation exposure of

approximately 480 roentgens (the unit of measurement for

ionizing radiation) of soft x-rays and 110 roentgens of gamma

rays. Because of the way the accident happened, though, the

distribution of radiation wasn't uniform. His left hand, which

dropped the brick, received 5,000 to 15,000 rem (roentgen

equivalent in man, the unit of measurement for a radiationdose), and his right hand, which he used to push the brick

away, received 20,000 to 40,000 rem.

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Memorial