Yokohama Hospital Murders
Unlike in the US, I rarely hear or read about murder in Japan. Recently stories about the murders of two 88 year old men in an eight bed room on the fourth floor of Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama has caught and kept my attention, probably because of my recent hospital stay (with an IV drip for three days) and because of the few murder stories here.
Two elderly men were murdered by disinfectant that was injected into their IV drip bags. In addition to the bags that killed these two men, ten other unused bags that had been tampered with were also found. Who would do such a thing and why?
I read one story that attributed the deaths to being on the fourth floor, because four is a bad luck number in Japan. I don't think of myself as superstitious, maybe it was good luck that the other ten bags were discovered before more people were murdered. An investigation is being conducted into these two murders and the deaths of 46 other patients who have died on this floor since July. How sad for this to happen anywhere, but especially here in Japan.
4 comments:
Very sad. Do let us know if you hear any more about this story. xx
The police seem to think it is an 'insider job', that some staff member is the culprit. If this is the case it is very scary, of course.
However, if we try to think of the causes behind such action, what would we find? A harsh working environment, power harassment, long working hours, low pay... Caring for the elderly IS a very stressful job. (Someone I know worked in a home for the elderly and was singlehanded in charge of 18 people!!!)
It has also come to light that the IVD bags were kept in an area anyone could have had access to, which means an outsider could have been involved.
Patients have died, the murderer must be found and the hospital's administration investigated.
This will be in the news for a lot longer.
Wow. We watch a lot of Investigative Report stories on TV and there is a story like this one every so often. Perhaps someone thinks they are a guardian angel to "put sick elderly out of their misery". How sad. Hopefully the culprit will be caught. Please post if you hear more.
xx, Carol
What a sad and disturbing thing!
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