The American Doctor at Chernobyl, Part II: Dr. Robert Gale

PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine

As you heard last time, Dr. Gale (a bone marrow transplant specialist from UCLA) rose to international prominence after being the first American physician invited by the Soviet Union to treat patients suffering acute radiation trauma, only days after the horrific incident at Chernobyl. Our journey continues as Dr. Gale is flown in by helicopter to personally survey the Chernobyl nuclear power-plant. This only weeks after the meltdown of reactor number four. We'll see what it was like walking through the eerily empty streets of Pripyat. This was literally one of the most dangerous and heavily restricted areas on the planet. For an outsider, especially an American, to be personally inspecting this area, actually treating patients, all during the height of the cold war, was simply unthinkable... until it actually happened. For those of you who enjoyed the recent hit HBO series on Chernobyl, we'll spend a little more time there. Then we'll move on to subsequent nuclear incidents such as Tokiamura and Fukushima, and Dr. Gale's first hand experience with those. We'll discuss his lessons learned and his thoughts on the future of nuclear energy. We'll also see what he's up to today. It's an incredible part II for this rare series. With that said, let's get started.