In April, 1986 I was sent to Chernobyl. I arrived a day and a half after the explosion. I witnessed both the corruption of the Russian officials in attempting to hide the information and the heroic efforts of many Russian people to save lives. I myself was exposed to very high levels of radiation. Many of the people I treated did not survive.
The mistakes that were made at Chernobyl were many and are well documented. With the help of scientists and consultants from the Western world, the situation with the reactor itself was finally solved. However, the health problems remain, affecting many people, particularly children —a lot of children.
I myself became quite ill, but was unable to get an accurate diagnosis regarding my condition. Officially, doctors were not allowed to diagnose anyone as being ill as a result of anything connected with the explosion. I was diagnosed as having a circulation problem. What I was suffering from was acute radioactive disease.
I started having tremendous physical and mental difficulties as a result of this exposure. I had difficulty remembering things. I couldn’t remember telephone numbers. I was forgetting names of people I was acquainted with. Even simple arithmetic became a problem. In 1989 I developed acute heart trouble. I was rushed to the hospital emergency room, where it took fifteen hours to stop the arrhythmia [irregularity in the rhythm of the heart’s beating]. I was between life and death. I was given pills and was told I would have to take them for the rest of my life and, though my heart appeared healthy, that the next attack would probably be the last one.
I had been on the medicine for about a year and a half when I was invited to visit friends in Boston, where arrangements had been made to perform an operation on my heart. However, before I made it to Boston, I found out about L. Ron Hubbard’s method of detoxification and was invited to participate in this program. I decided to come to Los Angeles and there I underwent Mr. Hubbard’s treatment for detoxification, completing the program in thirty-two days.
The results were remarkable. I started to feel better immediately. One day I forgot about the heart pills. I forgot to take them. And I don’t take them to this day. As I continued the program, a strange thing happened. People who were doing the program with me were having to leave the sauna. The toxins were coming out of my body and the smell was intolerable. Eventually the toxins and the effects of the radiation exposure were all gone and I was finished with the program.
When I returned to Moscow, I happened to see taped interviews of myself before I did the detoxification program. I was astonished to see, as result of my illness, that I had looked 65 or 70 years old. After the program I looked young again, and completely recovered my health. I was very happy, my memory returned, and I was again able to do my work.”
V.I.
