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Radiation Sickness
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Radiation sickness comes from the body absorbing large doses of radiation, usually over a short period of time. The amount your body absorbs will determine how sick you will be from this. It can be due to a nuclear accident or nuclear bomb but generally isn't associated with low dose radiation, such as X-ray exposure or CT scans. Radiation is often fatal but doesn't have to be. It is relatively rare and can be associated with an occupational exposure to radiation.
The amount of radiation absorbed is measured in Gray Units or Gy units. X-rays you receive in a chest x-ray causes an exposure of around 0.1 gray units. You begin to get symptoms of radiation sickness if you receive at least 1 Gy of exposure. Doses of 6 Gy or more are highly symptomatic and result in death by about two weeks out. It all depends on the duration and dosage of the radiation exposure.
The first signs and symptoms of radiation sickness are nausea and vomiting. If it happens close to the time of exposure, this means the exposure was a great exposure. If it happens days afterward, the exposure to radiation wasn't that great. Generally there are no symptoms for the days after you have nausea and vomiting and then you develop more serious symptoms. Symptoms occur more readily and quickly if you have had a larger dosage of radiation. Nausea and vomiting can come within ten minutes along with diarrhea, headache and fever. Later symptoms happen within one to four weeks and include dizziness, disorientation, fatigue, weakness, vomiting bloody emesis, hair loss, low blood pressure and poor wound healing.
Radiation sickness can come from an accident at a nuclear industrial plant, an attack on a nuclear industrial plant, detonation of a radioactive device such as a dirty bomb or a weapon that is nuclear in origin. The most sensitive organs in the body to radiation sickness are the cells that make bone marrow cells in the bone marrow and the lining of the intestinal tract, including the mouth, small intestines and colon.
It's important to know what the radiation dose was in the individual. This can be done by determining the actual exposure, if known, finding out when symptoms like vomiting and related symptoms occurred in relation to the exposure time, blood tests that can determine when the white blood cells begin to decrease from bone marrow suppression, the use of a dosimeter which can measure the absorbed dose of exposed radiation, or a Geiger counter that can look for places on the body that are exposed to radiation.
Radiation exposure and radiation sickness, if survivable, doesn't generally cause long term illness. The biggest long term risk of radiation exposure is the development of cancer later in life. The type of cancer can be any kind of cancer, including blood-related cancers. Other long term risks include mental health issues coming out of things like survival guilt, fear and related anxiety. It can be hard to worry about the risk of developing cancer later in life and the trauma of the accident or injury can lead to PTSD.
The treatment of radiation poisoning begins with decontaminating the affected individual as soon as possible. It means removing contaminated clothing and shoes, which gets rid of about 90 percent of contamination that comes externally. Washing the body with soap and water is a good idea because it gets rid of skin contamination. Then comes treating the bone marrow that has become damaged by radiation exposure. This can come in the form of Neupogen or Neulasta that trigger the production of white blood cells and can prevent infections from developing. Blood or platelet transfusions can help restore the amount of blood and platelets in the body. White blood cell transfusions are also possible.
Potassium iodide is given as a way of protecting the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine. Radioactive iodine can destroy the thyroid gland permanently, leading to a hypothyroid state. Prussian blue is a dye that binds to radioactive elements like cesium and thallium and allows the radioactive particles to be passed through the feces. A substance called DTPA binds to radioactive elements that are metallic in nature, and allow them to pass out of the urine and therefore reduces exposure.
Supportive treatment can include treatment of bacterial infections, fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, dehydration and headache. End of life care happens when you know the person is dying and they need comfort care measures to control symptoms that ultimately lead to death.