~TANOARD FORM NO. 64 a f or 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 oO illness caused by the radiation exposure. > & = O i may have contributed to the severity of the complicating hepatitis, and tims have contributed to his death. While it is most likely, 1S <f ww 5 '.s G ™] x” ‘olleetion DM So 43 as It is impossible to make any firm statement concerning this relationship. It is a reasonable line of argument that the prior injury and illness US 9)T \DALVES STATUS VERIFIER 04./CL RV ao Pale Aw. amen ttiLTARY 8ESCARCH & APPL. oe . ah-tes NONCCRP fosSi