Seventeen years ago, Song Xuewen graduated from a technical school and had just started his career as a pipeline repairman at a chemical factory in Jilin province. It was an enviable job. But Song's plans took a devastating turn upon his arrival at work one day when a seemingly innocent find resulted in severe radiation poisoning that left him crippled for life. But that hasn't stopped the 35-year-old from finding love, carrying on with life and providing a public service that otherwise wouldn't be there.
How did the accident happen?
The nightmare began on January 5, 1996. I was heading in to work when I spotted a small chain on the ground. It looked like a silver chain for a pager. I asked around, but no one claimed it, and I put it in my right pants pocket.
After half an hour, I started to feel dizzy. I thought it was caused by food poisoning or a bad cold, so I took a nap in the lounge of the office building, but started to vomit upon waking up. At about 11am, I got permission from my supervisor to leave, and I returned to my dormitory.
Everything deteriorated fast, and I was vomiting every three minutes after I got back to my room. My legs were trembling uncontrollably. I felt so sick and powerless that at about 6pm, I crawled down the stairs to seek help. My supervisor and colleagues arrived and tried to get me up. My supervisor seemed to realise something and asked whether I had found anything in the factory, such as a small chain or ball. I said 'yes', and he ordered all my colleagues out, saying there might be a radioactive item that the research department had lost. [It was an iridium-192 isotope used in industrial radiography, often to take X-rays of metal objects.]
How did the treatment go?
