Open Wide, O Earth: Burying the Dead
Dec. 15th, 2022 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerThe title of the third episode of HBO's miniseries Chernobyl, "Open Wide, O Earth", would seem to describe the valiant efforts of coal miners ordered to dig a tunnel under the destroyed reactor to prevent a China Syndrome disaster. I see a second meaning in the title. Burying the dead is often described poetically as the final embrace of the earth. Episode three shows how the plant engineers and emergency workers who suffered fatal doses of radiation in the immediate aftermath of the explosion were buried.
Approximately 30 people died from severe Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS). They were buried in metal-lined coffins that were welded shut. Concrete was then poured around the coffins. The reason for this is that the bodies of the dead were considered highly radioactive. Scientists disagree about how radioactive the body of a person who's absorbed a large dose of radiation is... particularly a few weeks after exposure.
It's worth elaborating on "a few weeks after exposure". Most of the people who died from severe ARS did not die immediately or within hours. Instead they died 2-3 weeks later. That's way worse, because those 2-3 weeks are excruciating. The episode showed that progression with a few of the characters introduced in episode 1.
ARS progresses in basically 3 stages. The first stage outwardly resembles burn trauma. The skin is reddened, or in severe cases, blackened; there may be swelling and lesions. It's painful.
In the second stage the surface burns subside. Patients would seem to be on the mend... but they're not. Internally, the radiation has killed bone marrow, destroyed the immune system, and killed cells in vital organs.
In the third stage these symptoms manifest externally. Flesh rots. Organs fail. Bacterial and viral infections run rampant. The pain is immense, and things are going wrong faster than modern medicine can keep up.
I mentioned that episode revisits some of the characters from the first episode: Ignatenko, Toptunov, and Akimov. They've all been moved to a hospital in Moscow for special treatment.
Ignatenko, the firefighter, has burns all over his body. He can't move and can barely speak. Light hurts his eyes. He's moved to an isolation tent before he dies. The scenes dramatized in the series come from accounts of his wife, who spent time at his hospital bedside.
Toptunov, one of the control room engineers, has his face practically melted off. The show is careful to show this only briefly so as not to verge into making "horror porn" out of a real-life tragedy. The description that his facial features were melted off comes from written and oral accounts of people who saw him in the hospital.
Akimov is the worst off of the three. The directors decided not even to show his condition directly. Instead they showed a scientist interviewing him. Her look of horror conveys a lot. Historical records indicate that his body was basically charred black, like coal— and that was days before he died.
My next blog in this series: The Happiness of All Mankind
Approximately 30 people died from severe Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS). They were buried in metal-lined coffins that were welded shut. Concrete was then poured around the coffins. The reason for this is that the bodies of the dead were considered highly radioactive. Scientists disagree about how radioactive the body of a person who's absorbed a large dose of radiation is... particularly a few weeks after exposure.
It's worth elaborating on "a few weeks after exposure". Most of the people who died from severe ARS did not die immediately or within hours. Instead they died 2-3 weeks later. That's way worse, because those 2-3 weeks are excruciating. The episode showed that progression with a few of the characters introduced in episode 1.
ARS progresses in basically 3 stages. The first stage outwardly resembles burn trauma. The skin is reddened, or in severe cases, blackened; there may be swelling and lesions. It's painful.
In the second stage the surface burns subside. Patients would seem to be on the mend... but they're not. Internally, the radiation has killed bone marrow, destroyed the immune system, and killed cells in vital organs.
In the third stage these symptoms manifest externally. Flesh rots. Organs fail. Bacterial and viral infections run rampant. The pain is immense, and things are going wrong faster than modern medicine can keep up.
I mentioned that episode revisits some of the characters from the first episode: Ignatenko, Toptunov, and Akimov. They've all been moved to a hospital in Moscow for special treatment.
Ignatenko, the firefighter, has burns all over his body. He can't move and can barely speak. Light hurts his eyes. He's moved to an isolation tent before he dies. The scenes dramatized in the series come from accounts of his wife, who spent time at his hospital bedside.
Toptunov, one of the control room engineers, has his face practically melted off. The show is careful to show this only briefly so as not to verge into making "horror porn" out of a real-life tragedy. The description that his facial features were melted off comes from written and oral accounts of people who saw him in the hospital.
Akimov is the worst off of the three. The directors decided not even to show his condition directly. Instead they showed a scientist interviewing him. Her look of horror conveys a lot. Historical records indicate that his body was basically charred black, like coal— and that was days before he died.
My next blog in this series: The Happiness of All Mankind
