Food and Drug Administration in developing medical countermeasures against radiation exposure. In her memoir, Shapiro discusses not only the disaster, but also her experience immigrating to the United States with her extended family and her work as a leading expert at the U.S.

On the tragedy’s 35th anniversary, Shapiro shares her story from the frontlines of Chernobyl in a new book called Doctor on Call: Chernobyl Responder, Jewish Refugee, Radiation Expert. Shapiro treated traumatized children as she tried to protect her family.

Information about the explosion was withheld from first responders, who were not given basic supplies, detailed instructions, or protective clothing. Alla Shapiro was a first physician-responder to the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine on April 26, 1986. The high numbers are due to the fallout from the explosion, with winds carrying toxic particles as far away as Switzerland.ĭoctor on Call: Chernobyl Responder, Jewish Refugee, Radiation Expertĭr. A pproximately 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer were registered from 1991 to 2015 in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident, according to a report published by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Cancer, particularly thyroid cancer, would become a common link among survivors, including Shapiro, who, now in her late 60s, is a cancer survivor herself. Over the years, thousands of people would succumb to radiation contamination from the explosion, with the number of total deaths unknown since many people died years and decades after the fact. The accident killed two plant workers immediately, but soon dozens more would perish from acute radiation sickness, including emergency workers and firefighters who were sent to the scene. The result was an unexpected sudden surge in power due to excess steam building up in one of the reactors. during a routine maintenance check of the plant's electrical system, when operators went against safety protocols and shut down parts of the control system that were necessary to run the plant safely. In the days and weeks that followed, Shapiro discovered that the government was misleading the public about its handling of the explosion, which was caused by a flawed reactor design, according to the World Nuclear Association. Unfortunately, the Soviet government didn’t have any nuclear disaster protocols in place, and basic supplies were severely limited, leaving medical professionals to improvise and adapt. In the hours that followed, hundreds of children arrived at the hospital by bus seeking treatment.Īs a front-line worker, it was the first time that Shapiro and her colleagues were faced with treating patients during a disaster of Chernobyl's magnitude. But everything changed when she learned that an explosion had occurred 80 miles north at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, just outside the city of Pripyat. The pediatrician, then 32 years old, was at work in the Pediatric Hematology Unit at the Children’s Hospital in Kiev, Ukraine.

April 26, 1986, started off like any other day for Alla Shapiro.

Call of chernobyl