‘Chernobyl Heart’ Will Make You Cry

(This post was updated on March 7, 2018.)

I recently watched a documentary called Chernobyl Heart about the young victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident when a nuclear reactor exploded. Although the film was made in 2003, the problems it illustrates remain today. Children who weren’t even alive at the time of the accident are being born with a heart-valve disease, which requires a small patch to fix. Without the patch, most of these children will die. Physicians volunteer their time to perform the surgeries, but there are not enough of these doctors to go around.

In the documentary, a nurse roughly handles a very sick baby in a crib. The baby is clearly in pain and the Irish volunteer who is being followed in the film pleads with the nurse to handle the baby more gently. The nurse is oblivious.

At the time of the accident, 100 times more radiation than Hiroshima was released from the plant. Amazingly, only 3% of the reactor’s radiation was released at that time. First responders to the site received 800 times the maximum amount of radiation a human should receive in a lifetime. A “sarcophagus” was quickly built over the damaged reactor and it is today in serious disrepair. Rain leaks through the roof onto astounding amounts of unstable radioactive material.

Ninety-nine percent of Belarus is still contaminated with unsafe levels of radiation. Cesium levels are 40 times higher than the recognized danger limit. Residents make jam from contaminated berries and eat contaminated mushrooms.

In Belarus, the infant mortality rate has risen by 300% since the accident. Only 15% to 20% of babies in Gomel are born healthy.

Radiation affects immune and genetic systems. In addition to heart problems, thyroid cancer runs rampant among children in Belarus and surrounding areas. Most of those children will not survive, but scientists take heart that this is a good opportunity to study thyroid cancers.

Many children whose brains are affected live in “mental asylums.” Most of these asylums have no forms of therapy or recreation for the children. They languish in cribs or rock back and forth in common rooms.

One baby’s brain developed outside of his skull. He is alive, but has no future. Another baby has microcephalus, which means his brain is extremely small. A high number of children have hydrocephalus, which in the US is treated with shunts, allowing those afflicted to live normal lives. That care is not available for the Chernobyl victims and as fluid accumulates in their skulls, it causes irreversible brain damage.

A non-profit organization called the Chernobyl Children’s Project International provides medical care and humanitarian aid to the children affected by the disaster.

For more info, visit: https://www.chernobyl-international.com

On FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/ChernobylChildrenInternational

This post was updated on March 7, 2018.