Dying is inevitable for all human beings. No matter how rich, famous, or poor you think you are, all living things have one fate-death.
Though painful, a person's death is nothing but a normal part of the wonders and biology of life. So every death seems like nothing but ordinary, not until the death of a 69-year-old man from Arizona happened in 2017. That was when doctors found out that his body probably might put other people at risk.
The man died after he was admitted to a hospital and has been given low blood pressure treatment. Unfortunately, as stated by a research letter published in JAMA, the doctors have no idea that prior to his death, the man has also been admitted at the Mayo Clinic Arizona where he was given lutetium 177, a radioactive material. This radiopharmaceutical was administered to him so his body can fight off his pancreatic cancer.
Several days after he was given the treatment, the man succumbs to his illnesses and died. Without any knowledge of his prior medication, experts who looked on him before he died didn't make a big deal out of his death. However, the first hospital who treated him have no idea what happened to him.
"For this particular therapy [giving lutetium 177 to the patient], patients can receive up to four treatments separated by eight weeks," explained Kevin Nelson, a radiation safety officer at the Mayo Clinic and co-author of the research letter. Nelson was one of those who cared for the patient before he died. He also added how his death came as a surprise to them. He added that they are still expecting the patient to come back several weeks after before they heard the news.
Some states in America don't allow other chemicals such as radioactive material to be included in the cremation of the remains. Unfortunately, there are still others that don't have any regulations that protect crematorium staffs against risks of exposure to radiotherapy and other things that could put them at risk, as reported by TIME.
To ensure their safety, the operator and the crematorium were tested for radiation exposure. The result revealed that though lutetium 177 level is low, another radioactive material is also present that the operator could have been exposed to.
"It's plausible that he was exposed to it while cremating other human remains," Dr. Nathan Yu, a radiation oncologist at the Mayo Clinic and co-author of the new research. This is why it is a must to inform operators whether or not they will be dealing with dead bodies exposed to radioactivity even if it means digging up to the deceased past medical history.
