Death by... X-Ray

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

“Do you have regrets, Mrs. Smith?” one reported shouted from the crowd outside the courtroom.

“What do you have to say about the defence’s allegations that you are sick from dental x-rays and not due to the job?” asked another.

Annie slightly lifted her head. The noise was becoming unbearable. They called a break because she collapsed on the stand, couldn’t they give her a moment’s rest? She wanted to shout at them, but the thought of it only aggravated the pain she felt in all her joints.

“They call us the Living Dead,” she finally whispered. Her daughter, who sat on her lap, shifted and Annie let out a low moan. It hurt to hold her child but she didn’t want to let her go. She didn’t know how much time she had left. Bending over, she kissed her daughter’s hair with her toothless jaw. Her teeth had fallen out long ago.

“I don’t have time for regrets,” she added. Eight years of painting with radium… who knew this would be the outcome? A skeleton of a form and not yet thirty. There was a time she loved her job in the watch factory. She would lick the paint brush end to form a tip before dipping it in the radium. They even painted their nails and lips to surprise their husbands in the dark before bed.

Who knew.

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

The previous Death By … story is based on:

The ancient Greeks typically attributed remarkable deaths to famous persons in keeping with their characters. Milo of Croton was walking in a forest when he came upon a tree-trunk split with wedges. In what was probably intended as a display of strength, Milo inserted his hands into the cleft to rend the tree. The wedges fell from the cleft, and the tree closed upon his hands, trapping him. Unable to free himself, the wrestler was devoured by wolves.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_of_Croton