~TANOARD FORM NO. 64
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Office Mendrandum + untrep svaTES GOVERNMENT
DATE: April 6, 1955
TO
—: John Hall, Director, IA
FROM
: John Ce Bughers MeDes Director
SUBJECT:
SYMBOL:
CG
Division of Biology and Medicine
ys
,
402717
CAUSE OF DEATH OF
EM:JCB
The essential facts with respect to this case are theses
le
was esposed to the fall-out of the March 1, 195k
Bikini detonation as were the others of the crew of the Fukuyru
Marue He had serious general body exposure combined with local
radiation burns of the skin;
2e
He apparently was recovering from his radiation injury quite
satisfactorily, and at the time of his death no recognizable
internal radiation damage was reported and radio~chemical
examination of tissues and the skeleton showed extremely low
radioactivity; in fact, approaching levels which would be
considered negligible from a health standpoint;
3e
At a time when he was convalescing satisfactorily from his
radiation injury, he developed hepatitis which was presumably
of infectious type caused by a filterable viruse Fron fhis he
grew steadily worse with severe Liver pathology and pettecle
jaundice. After a prolonged illness, he died from the effec
of hepatitis;
he
Such hepatitis is not in itself a direct consequence of radiation
injury and does not constitute a part of such injury.
In this
case, however, the nepatitis is considered a complication of the
iliness caused by the radiation exposure and tms related to it
in the secse that had the deceased not been involved in this
accident, he would probeoly be alive today. Discussions as to
the precise mode of acquisition of the hepatitis virus would
be fruitless. Such infections are common and occur in all
degrees of severity;
In view of the above, I would not wish to contend that the
a
severity of the hepatitis was entirely unrelated to the previous
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illness caused by the radiation exposure.
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may have contributed to the severity of the complicating hepatitis,
and tims have contributed to his death. While it is most likely,
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It is impossible to
make any firm statement concerning this relationship. It is a
reasonable line of argument that the prior injury and illness
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