Actually, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome), “bleeding due to low platelets” is a symptom of acute radiation sickness.
Also, the wikipedia text has only one reference to hair loss as ‘very large skin doses can cause permanent hair loss’.
It would be almost unheard of for radiation to be acute enough to cause a constant nosebleed, but without any other symptoms, including hair loss (which doesn’t have to be permanent).
Bleeding from acute radiation poisoning often is accompanied by death.
It is more likely that a nosebleed be the result of excessive nose-blowing because of allergies, although as the doctor said, you’d need to do a blood test. Since the nosebleed stopped, and the mother reports no other symptoms, it again suggests a seasonal allergy — you don’t normally recover from acute radiation symptoms while still exposed to the same level of radiation that caused the symptoms.
Of course, we are assuming that the mother accurately reported the symptom, and the translation is accurate. Did the nose bleed “constantly”, or was there just lots of nose bleeds over the time period? Were there other symptoms the mother didn’t notice?
It was, in essence, a purely anecdotal article. The doctor isn’t reported to have scientifically observed a single symptom of radiation illness, and no results of blood tests were reported.
Telling is the doctor’s comment that they needed the blood test “to keep a record”. I would think you’d want the blood test so if you had been poisoned, you would get treatment. You keep records if you are trying to build up information for a big lawsuit, or to push to shut down an industry.
Which seems likely — set up a clinic, advertise for radiation treatment, get every scared parent to show up with whatever sicknesses are common among children, and try to put together enough evidence to make for a good legal filing.
If you read the chart under “Signs and Symptoms” at the URL you provided, you would have see under “2-6Gy” in the box marked “Illness” the following:
“Leukopenia, purpura, hemorrhage, infections, epilation.”
Epilation means “hair loss.”
The text of the page says “...very large skin doses can cause permanent hair loss...”
Hair loss due to transient, acute radiation exposure is brought about by the same mechanism that causes leukopenia/infections and hemorrhage: damage to the cells from ionizing radiation at a rate faster than the body can repair.
The chart on WP’s page bears out what I said earlier: By the time diarrhea sets in, hair loss is beginning.
Now, as to the nosebleeds: I’ve had more nosebleeds in a week than some people will have in their entire lives. They vary greatly between people, and without any prior history, a doctor can’t make a determination as to the cause. As a kid, I had nosebleeds that in two cases, went on for more than one day.
As a kid, I thought I was a freak. After reaching middle age and talking to friends who were now middle-aged, I come to find out that chronic nosebleeds are far more common in kids than I ever thought. The “solutions” that the medical community proposed in our age group were so inept that most of us who had these just started to keep them hidden, because we weren’t all that keen on getting a soldering iron up our noses or a dose of acid squirted up there.
So a kid comes into a clinic in an area with heavy flooding with a parent complaining of nosebleeds and diarrhea. Could it be acute radiation exposure? Yes, possibly. It is statistically more likely that the kid has ingested some untreated water and might have had nosebleed problems before, or might have been exposed to mold spores or other contaminations.