Chernobyl Helicopter Pilot Dies -- Hailed Here As A `Hero Of The World'

Soviet hero Anatoly Grishchenko died last night at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where he had undergone a bone-marrow transplant April 27 for treatment of acute leukemia.

Grishchenko, 52, was a pilot on five flights over the damaged and radiation-leaking Chernobyl nuclear power plant for three days and was in the area for two months in 1986. He grew up in a nearby village.

A lung infection was diagnosed before Grishchenko's transplant, a hospital statement said. The infection initially showed signs of responding to antibiotics. On June 12, Grishchenko underwent exploratory surgery to determine the cause of the infection and to remove it. Three days later, his condition was downgraded from stable to critical and he was placed on a respirator.

Recently he had developed a fever and had difficulty breathing. He died at 11:20 last night.

Officially, 31 deaths have been attributed to the April 24, 1986, Chernobyl meltdown, but at least 40 other Chernobyl workers have died, and thousands have suffered from radiation sickness.

Grishchenko was the first Chernobyl victim to be treated by doctors in the United States. He and his wife, Galina, came here through the efforts of Cap Parlier, a fellow pilot and American benefactor.

During a news conference at the time,

Grishchenko was asked how he felt. He thought for a long moment, then replied through an interpreter: ``When I arrived here at Seattle, I felt I was home. A Russian proverb tells you that when you are at home, even the wolves can help you!''

Although he appeared to be robust and healthy, his blood was suffering the damage of nuclear-radiation exposure. The disease was destroying blood platelets, which are needed for clotting, and white blood cells, which fight infection.

Parlier, director of helicopter testing for McDonnell-Douglas Co. in Mesa, Ariz., said what Grishchenko and other Soviet helicopter pilots did ``was not only good for the Soviet Union, but for all of mankind. I call him a hero of the world.''

Flying the largest helicopters in the world, the Soviet pilots dropped 20- to 30-metric-ton loads of wet concrete to entomb the molten reactor, he said. Parlier likened the feat to maneuvering a weight at the end of a string into a teacup from a tall building.

Although the pilots wore protective gear and there was some lead shielding in their aircraft, all the pilots suffered some degree of radiation contamination.

Marrow from a French woman donor was given to Grishchenko during an eight-hour operation April 27 after Grishchenko's relatives were ruled out as donors.

The Hutchinson center and the National Marrow Donor Program, with headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., found the French woman through an international registry.

The marrow, extracted from the donor in Besancon, France, was packed in an ice cooler and rushed to the cancer center because bone marrow can lose its effectiveness after 24 hours outside the body.

The transplant began a short time later. It was relatively simple and involved hanging a bag containing about one quart of marrow and connecting it by catheter to Grishchenko's heart.