
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990                   TAG: 9007030458
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SEATTLE                                LENGTH: Short

CHERNOBYL PILOT DIES IN SEATTLE

Anatoly Grishchenko, a Soviet helicopter pilot who contracted leukemia after what was hailed as a heroic effort to try to douse the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, has died at age 53.

Grishchenko had been in critical condition with a lung infection for more than two weeks at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where he had received a bone-marrow transplant April 27 in an attempt to conquer his leukemia.

He died late Monday of cardiopulmonary failure, said spokeswoman Susan Edmonds. His wife of 27 years, Galina, was at his bedside.

Grishchenko in 1986 repeatedly flew his heavy-lift copter through the intensely radioactive gases spewing from the Chernobyl plant, dumping sand and cement in an effort to cap the crippled reactor.

Despite lead shielding on the aircraft and other protective gear, Grishchenko suffered radiation sickness and was found to have radiation-related leukemia last year.

He arrived in Seattle on April 11 for the marrow transplant, which was performed after chemotherapy and radiation treatment to kill his own marrow. The transplant went smoothly, but his condition suddenly deteriorated in mid-June. Antibiotics had failed to knock out the lung infection, which Grishchenko developed before coming to Seattle.

by CNB