Aftermath, result of Aum Shinrikyo Sarin attack: deaths and injuries Wikipedia

Aftermath, result of Aum Shinrikyo Sarin attack: deaths and injuries
Wikipedia

Aftermath[edit]

On the day of the attack, ambulances transported 688 patients and nearly five thousand people reached hospitals by other means. Hospitals saw 5,510 patients, seventeen of whom were deemed critical, thirty-seven severe and 984 moderately ill with vision problems. Most of those reporting to hospitals were the "worried well", who had to be distinguished from those who were ill.^[1]

By mid-afternoon, the mildly affected victims had recovered from vision problems and were released from hospital. Most of the remaining patients were well enough to go home the following day, and within a week only a few critical patients remained in hospital. The death toll on the day of the attack was eight.^[1]

Injuries[edit]

Witnesses have said that subway entrances resembled battlefields. In many cases, the injured simply lay on the ground, many with breathing difficulties.^{[citation needed]}Several of those affected by sarin went to work in spite of their symptoms, most of them not realizing that they had been exposed to sarin. Most of the victims sought medical treatment as the symptoms worsened and as they learned of the actual circumstances of the attacks via news broadcasts.

Several of those affected were exposed to sarin only by helping those who had been directly exposed. Among these were passengers on other trains, subway workers and health care workers. A 2008 law enacted by the Japanese government authorized payments of damages to victims of the gas attack, because the attack was directed at the government of Japan. As of December 2009, 5,259 people have applied for benefits under the law. Of those, 47 out of 70 have been certified as disabled and 1,077 of 1,163 applications for serious injuries or illnesses have been certified.^[16]

Surveys of the victims (in 1998 and 2001) showed that many were still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In one survey, twenty percent of 837 respondents complained that they felt insecure whenever riding a train, while ten percent answered that they tried to avoid any nerve-attack related news. Over sixty percent reported chronic eyestrain and said their vision had worsened.^[17]