Vasily Ignatenko

Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko (Василь Іванович Ігнатенко; Васіль Іванавіч Ігнаценка; Василий Иванович Игнатенко; 13 March 1961 – 13 May 1986) was a Soviet firefighter who was one of the first responders at the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, on the night of 26 April 1986.

Chernobyl disaster
Ignatenko was among the firefighters that got closest to the exposed reactor core as they attempted to extinguish fires on the roof of the nuclear power plant and in the reactor hall itself. Having absorbed a large and almost surely fatal dose of radiation, estimated in 1,600 roentgens (14 Grays), he soon began to display symptoms of a very serious acute radiation syndrome (ARS). After a brief stay at the Pripyat city hospital, on the same day of the accident he was transported to Hospital Number Six in Moscow, a state-run structure specialized in radiobiology and radiation accidents. He was joined by his wife, Lyudmila, who stayed by his side and witnessed the painful agony of her husband and other affected victims. He died from ARS complications two weeks after the accident, on 13 May 1986.

Ignatenko was laid to rest at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow along with others—first responders and plant personnel—who died in the Chernobyl disaster. Like the other ARS casualties, he was allegedly buried in a sealed zinc coffin and in a concrete shielding, due to fears that radioactivity could leak out and contaminate the grounds. His widow Lyudmila was seven months pregnant at the time. She went into labor two months later, as she was visiting her husband's grave at the Moscow cemetery, and she gave birth to a daughter, whom Vasily had wished to name Natashenka. The baby girl died just four days after she was born, due to congenital heart malformations and cirrhosis of the liver; Lyudmila stated that these issues were caused by radiation emitted by her dying husband's body, to which she was exposed as she cared for him in the hospital. However, in 2019 doctor Robert Peter Gale, an American hematologist who was directly involved in the treatment of the Chernobyl ARS victims, denied that such an event might have taken place, as Chernobyl victims were not radioactive themselves; this was also confirmed in a 2019 video interview with Vanity Fair by Ukrainian medical responder Alla Shapiro.

According to Technical Report on Inhalation Risks  from Radioactive  Contaminants,  created by International Atomic Energy Agency, burning radioactive material is creating airborne particles. If the fireman was directly exposed to such smoke and mist, this highly radioactive material would have been aspirated and lodged inside bronchioles and lung alveoli. Such particles could not be removed. After Chernobyl disaster large amount of material was exposed to fire, also containing isotopes I-131 and Cs-137 (Chernobyl radioactivity), emitting gamma radiation that can penetrate from human body. Inhalation of radioactive material should not be compared with typical exposition and ARS in other patients.

In 2006, Ignatenko was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of Ukraine, the highest national award in the country. Ignatenko's story was told by his widow in Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich. It became an inspiration for the related storyline in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl. Vasily Ignatenko is portrayed by the British actor Adam Nagaitis, and his wife by the Irish actress Jessie Buckley. His wife, Lyudmilla Ignatenko describes the ordeals and the effects of the radiation. In order for her to see her husband, she has to bribe one of the hospital workers. The radiation on her husband was so bad she could not come near her husband. She said, "He started to change; every day I met a brand-new person. The burns started to come to the surface. In his mouth, on his tongue, his cheeks - at first there were little lesions, and then they grew. It came off in layers - as white film ... the colour of his face ... his body ... blue, red, grey-brown. And it's all so very mine!"

Awards

 * Hero of Ukraine (2006)