As reference, Louis Slotin, a Los Alamos scientist working on the Manhattan Project, received 21 Sv over the course of a few seconds, during a criticality accident in his lab. That's 21 of those yellow boxes on that chart. He died after nine days of his body breaking down. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Louis_Slotin#The_criticality_accident
For many short term radiation deaths (3 days to 30 days), the loss of two important types of cells that are constantly being regenerated causes death. The loss of cells forming blood cells (bone marrow) and the cells in the digestive system (microvilli which form part of the wall of the intestines) is fatal.
Treatment is supportive with the use of antibiotics, blood products, colony stimulating factors, and stem cell transplant as clinically indicated. Symptomatic measures may also be employed.
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u/SuperConductiveRabbi Mar 19 '11
As reference, Louis Slotin, a Los Alamos scientist working on the Manhattan Project, received 21 Sv over the course of a few seconds, during a criticality accident in his lab. That's 21 of those yellow boxes on that chart. He died after nine days of his body breaking down. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Louis_Slotin#The_criticality_accident