Chernobyl Heart
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred when a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, releasing 90 times the radioactivity of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sixteen years later, award-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo took her camera to ground zero, following the devastating trail radiation leaves behind in hospitals, orphanages, mental asylums and evacuated villages. The Academy Award®-winning documentary short debuts immediately after the America Undercover special “Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable”.
Following Adi Roche, founder of Ireland’s Chernobyl Children’s Project, CHERNOBYL HEART opens in the exclusion zone, the most radioactive environment on earth. From there, Roche travels to Belarus, home to many of the children she seeks to aid. The film reveals those hardest hit by radiation, including thyroid cancer patients and children suffering from unfathomable congenital birth and heart defects.
Despite the fact that 99% of Belarus is contaminated with radioactive material, many people refuse to leave their homes behind. Asked why he would not move, the father of a radiation victim replies, “To leave the motherland where you were born and raised, where your soul is connected to the earth – I would not want to. To move to a new place is difficult, especially in terms of a job in Belarus and abroad.”
In Belarus, only 15-20% of babies are born healthy. Roche comforts children who are born with multiple holes in their heart, a condition known in Belarus as “Chernobyl heart.” A lucky few will have their heart problems fixed by Dr. William Novick, who heads the International Children’s Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with congenital or acquired heart disease in developing countries throughout the world. After saving the life of a young girl suffering from Chernobyl heart and being humbled by her parents’ gratitude, Dr. Novick affirms, “I appreciate this is a bit of a miracle for them…but we have a certain responsibility to these kids.” (Excerpt from hbo.com)
Watch the full documentary now
I thought Children of Bulgaria was the most disturbing doc I had ever seen. The Children in ‘Chernobyl Heart’ have an indescribable existence. People will need to see this doc in order to grasp the atrocities. These poor people need a government funded birth control program. Overwhelmingly sad.
Were is Doctors without borders??
if you think this is bad, you should see what the US army did to Iraqi children in the gulf war, with all the deplated uranium dropped over iraq, nature will need more than 4 billion years to resolve it
Guys!
Alex here is not the Christian Alex, of the Zeitgeist threads.
By the way “Alex”, God bless you!
(You have a nice name I must say :) :))
Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238 (U-238). DU is useful because of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3. Civilian uses include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, and containers used to transport radioactive materials. The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of numerous questions about potential long-term health effects. Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by uranium exposure, because in addition to being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic metal. DU is less toxic than other heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury.
Im pretty sure you used to be able to buy Uranium in childrens “chemestry sets”. Is it going to take 4 billion years for nature to resolve what United Nuclear Scientific Supplies will send you in the mail? We fear what you do not understand, sadly you fear a lot.
Very touching documentary. I understand the risks of having kids there, but they are wiling to take the chances, because it’s a basic human desire to have kids. As long as they are living there, the birth defects will continue, yes. It’s so heart wrenching. I wish had had never discovered nuclear power sometimes. I wish relocation was an option for them. There just isn’t any easy answers.
Damn!
Wow, I don’t even much like children, (I’m crotchety), and this is one of the saddest docus I’ve ever seen. The amount of terrible things that have, and will come from the Chernobyl meltdown is frightening and appalling. It’s unfortunate to know that humanity will continue to pursue some technologies without ever considering the far reaching implications.
i think the saddest thing of all this is that it was human doing all these people are suffering because we think this is the way to advance in tech. and the government is now pushing for us to build more nuclear plants so we have alternative energy can you imagine more Chernobyls nuclear has been a failure from the beginning and all these peoples lives that have been ruined is a testimony to this.. so next time your government pushes for more nuclear power have the images of these little kids and think twice.
You know, it’s truly sad to see children with such horrible conditions. I have 4 of my own and i couldn’t imagine anything half as bad as what we see in this documentary happening to 1 of them. That said, some of the statements made in other posts really have me concerned. Are we so easily deceived? Most of the horrible conditions we see in this film cannot be attributed to radiation in any way. Yet the producer deceptively included these children in her film on purpose to mislead us and tug at our hearts. Apparently, she did her job effectively. Please don’t misunderstand. EVERYONE of these children needs our hearts and our compassion!! But we need to keep the facts straight. Instead of just being lead by our noses to believe whatever she wants us to believe, do a thorough study on both sides of the issue of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Look up an article by Stephen Mulvey: Wildlife defies Chernobyl radiation. Keep in mind he doesn’t like nuclear power anymore than most of you. But view the effects of the disaster on the animals. If the effects are not as catastrophic on the animals, and only lasting for one generation, as his article demonstrates, then i suggest the results are probably the same with humans as well. That’s just one report. Look up the many on both sides of the issue. There is no denying it was a horrific event!! But are there people who are trying to make it larger than it actually was? And, if she did knowingly use children in her film in those conditions, who are NOT the victims of radiation, just to strengthen her “cause”, she is a despicable human-being and should be stripped of her award for this film to say the least. Also, if nuclear waste is as bad for the earth and the environment as they say it is, then why are those who are against using nuclear energy, the safest and cleanest energy to date, saying they might like to put the waste in the middle of a tropical forest just to keep humans away? I know the statement was not meant to be taken in earnestness, but the point was still made that nuclear waste is relatively safer for nature than was originally thought. Geesh, stop believing things just because there are people out there saying, “oh this is bad!!” and/or, “oh they are destroying the earth.” Go find out for yourself the truth of the matter. And don’t just look at what they are saying, look at what the opposition is saying too! and why! Otherwise, you’re your own worst enemy, and you wind up hurtin the earth instead of helping it.
Oh dear, someone forgot to take their anti-psychotic medication today.
LOL! Maybe, can i borrow some of yours. :)
Fortunatly, today many of the problems associated with nuclear energy have been mitigated due to advances in nuclear technology and safety procedures. However, there still is a small risk, and of course, the problem of radioactive waste. We should do all we can to convert as large a portion as possible of our energy generation to renewable, alternative enrgy technologies like wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal. The only problem is that they are still relatively expensive and non-constant to provide for all of the world’s energy needs, and until the cost comes down and a grid energy storage system is developed, this slack will have to be picked up by nuclear because it does not emit CO2 and can be safely handled, though it still has its risks. For the short term, nuclear energy is the lesser of two evils, the greater being coal power, due to its long-term effects on the climate.
Dan, that is completely absurd. Sure, I will check the article, and yes, it is true, nature has not become more alive, but rather swelled as a result of the radiation. There is genetics that are undeniable. The statistics are overwhelming.
What a crazy piece of evidence that we are not the responsible species we should be. That place is like a teabag of death.
let us not count nuclear as green energy.IT IS NOT. the waste is a terrible thing whatever the EXPERTS say.but one thing is sure solar is the energy of the future,followed by wind ,geothermal,hydraulic.and the advance made recently in the “solar panels “is very promising.don’t believe the story of the wildlife in Chernobyl.
It pisses me off that nuclear energy is getting more and more support as the pressure mounts to find alternative energy sources and no one will man up to use sustainable energy. Do people need another Chernobyl before they understand? It is far too easy to shrug off the disaster by saying that it was because of poor management in a poor country. Euphemisms spring up, trying to disguise the fact that the nuclear energy we support today is no different than it was in Chernobyl. When will people get it? Saying the pros outweigh the cons is like saying you don’t mind playing Russian roulette as long as you get your **** sucked. Pull your heads out of your asses and do what what needs to be done. Find realistic, safe and sustainable energy alternatives!
this is the most touching video i have ever watched,ive never cried so much at something in my life,shasa with his little hands and feet,made want too go out there and help and give them the love and help they need,ive started too donate to chernobyl but would like too more too help if i knew how too,it needs too be made more aware off and people around the world need too get more involved and need too learn more about chernobyl
Can anybody tell me where I can find a reconstruction of the chernobyl disaster ?
Heart wrenching. I wish more doctors would volunteer their time. People seem to have forgotten their is still a need for help in many ways. When the plant falls down, I am sure there will be more injured.
My grandma used to tell me “all in excess or extreme is bad”. I think that this saying would be easily applied today to everything the so-called superior species on Earth does. We deplete our oceans from its resources, we burn entire forest just for the sake of it, we pollute our atmosphere and still think that it won’t be any effects in the long term, we use all kind of energy sources to make our life-styles more human-like comfortable. Is nuclear energy safe? Sure it is, when properly used. However, for the last six decades, the world has come to see how beneficial as well as how destructive this energy could be, and its effects are long-lasting. Three generations later and there are still genetic defects on those people lucky enough to survive the catastrophe. There are 2 or 3 big nuclear plants close to New York city (within 35 miles), and one of them with more power than the one in Chernobyl. can you imagine what could be the effects if one of those plants would suffered a melting down accident? Would you like to live in the area nearby? What about you Dan? Would you be scared? I guess not. Since you seems to have all the answers. I’ll be scared, and I’ll try to get away as soon as possible. Simply put, I don’t want to be part of the statistics. I agree with you in something, tough. We must be prepared for the worse, and we must get educated. We need to hear both sides of the aisle. We need to be cautious when dealing with powerful sources of energy. We don’t need another Chernobyl.
Peace out!
ALCON,
I found interesting information in this papewr. It is a PDF document written by Cindy Folkers & Mary Olson, August 2004.
Please chekc this link.
http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radiationandchildren.pdf
dan is a *** hole
Carlo, I live a lot less than 35 miles from a nuclear plant, and no I’m not scared. Would I be if there’s a meltdown? Duh! But facts are what facts are, it IS the safest energy to date.
Slaney, whether your statement is true or not, i’m not sure how it pertains to the discussion at hand. However, i studied the issue from multiple sources for and against my point of view, studied the facts and presented them here. I voiced my opinion from a non-closed minded perspective (I examined both sides first to find out what to believe). If you think I’m an ******* for being open-minded and exercising my right to express my opinion, then what does that say of you?
I’d prefer renewable energy, too, but to power New York City, the entire state of New York would have to be covered with windmills. It doesn’t make sense. And try to find a 5-star solar device on Amazon to charge anything, like a car battery or cell phone. Solar doesn’t satisfy even these small needs. Nuclear energy is the best option we have, after all these oil spills this year I can’t see how anyone who has educated themselves on the safety of Nuclear energy would see otherwise.
wow….just wow…this is heart breaking, i think the part where the Irish woman told off that nurse who was manhandling the baby shows the Irish womans desire to try and help these children as much she can
Hey, whats the deal here? The advertisment said this was a documentary called cocain cowboys 2 about some guy writing some cocain queen in prison. Then I click on it and it takes me to this documentary about Chernobyl. I wanted to watch the one about coke, my favorite breakfast food. Thats a joke before you guys get all in a tissy about it, I dont use cocain- i smoke crack!! (ha ha ha) Seriousely though were is the other doc?
O.K. I finally found the one I wanted to see. If anyone else is interested in cocain cowboys 2 just go to the search function and you can find it.