Police in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, on Friday arrested the former director of a hospital and another doctor on suspicion of covering up the murder of a patient by another hospitalized man in 2023.
According to police, on the night of March 12, 2023, a man who was hospitalized at the time for alcoholism at Michinoku Kinen Hospital, stabbed Seietsu Takahashi, 73, in the face with the handle of a toothbrush multiple times while he was sleeping in the room they shared, Kyodo News reported.
A nurse heard a noise at around 11:45 p.m. and went to the room, where she found Takahashi bleeding on his bed. He was confirmed dead at around 10:10 a.m. the following day on March 13.
The hospital did not report the incident to police, but police were tipped off by a hospital employee at around 6:20 p.m. that same day. An autopsy attributed the Takahashi’s death to intracranial injuries and blood loss.
On Friday, police arrested Takashi Ishiyama, 61, who was the hospital director at the time, and his 60-year-old brother Satoshi Ishiyama, who was the Takahashi's attending physician, on suspicion of covering up the crime.
Police said the two suspects listed pneumonia as the cause of death on the death certificate given to the family of the murdered man. They told the family that Takahashi had fallen out of his bed.
The man who killed Takahashi was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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garypen
For stabbing a man to death. In his face. While he slept. Obviously premeditated, as he crafted a shiv from a toothbrush. (A common prison weapon. Perhaps the murderer had spent prior time there?)
I've got 100yen that says the hospital director and his doctor brother get suspended sentences for the coverup, and don't see a day in prison.
Bobby Franks
Crazy story!
I guess the doctors might have been concerned the hospital, and perhaps themselves, could have been deemed liable for recklessly housing an elderly patient with murdering alcoholic.
Why, why, why did they make such a negligent, foolhardy decision?
The doctors’ actions defy common sense.
IMadeAnAccountJustForThis
Wow... Just wow.
Pillars of the community running a hospital...
WoodyLee
PURE EVIL, as ugly as it could get.
iron man
oops, how did the nurse know it was a common type prison weapon, the report says C.O.D was due to intercranial injuries. I never done congee time so I would not know about it, GP 100yen about a hospital cover -up. Nah comment.
Btang
3RENSHO
"...the report says C.O.D(sic) was due to intercranial(sic) injuries."
"C.O.D." = Cash On Delivery...?
*Note: 'intracranial' and 'intercranial' are NOT the same...
MarkX
This scandal is just getting bigger and bigger. The local news is reporting that the death certificate was signed by a 91 year old doctor who is also a patient in the hospital who has dementia. They have found numerous death certificates all with his signature claiming pneumonia as the cause of death!