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A man in his 50s who had mild symptoms of the coronavirus was found dead in his room at a hotel which was being used as a quarantine facility in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Friday night.
Prefectural health officials held a news conference on Saturday at which they said the man, who was found in his room in a state of cardiac arrest, died of acute bronchopneumonia, Fuji TV reported. The man’s death is one of the few cases in Japan of someone with mild symptoms dying while recovering in a quarantine facility with medical personnel on duty.
Prefectural health officials said the man, who had no known pre-existing medical condition, was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Dec 4 and admitted to the hotel on Dec 9. At the time, he told doctors he was suffering muscular and joint pain.
Medical personnel at the hotel check with occupants about their condition on the messaging app Line each day at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. On Dec 11, at 8 a.m., the man said he had a headache and felt fatigued. At 3 p.m. and again at 4 p.m., he failed to respond either on Line, his mobile phone or room phone. One more call was made at 6:30 p.m. but the man did not pick up his phone.
However, medical personnel did not go to his room until 8 p.m., at which time the man was unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he was confirmed dead.
At the news conference, prefectural health officials apologized for the fact that staff did not immediately check to see if the man was alright. They also said they are investigating to see why a doctor was not called to see the man when he complained about pain and fatigue during his 8 a.m. call.
© Japan Today
33 Comments
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Monty
That is really sad!
But we need more information about the excact circumstances.
I agree with Zoroto, if his case was mild, he wouldn't be dead.
JK
Why bother monitoring their condition if nothing is done if condition is going worse?
Bjorn Tomention
The CCP will pick up the tab for the cleaning of the room and the mans funeral, ......................................
Cricky
Sounds more like an immigration detention center.
n1k1
If his case was mild he wouldn't be dead if his case was serious he wouldn't have been in Atsugi.
Tobia
@Bjorn. Fully agree. China should pay billions of dollars of damages to the whole world for the loss of so many innocent human lives. Callous regime with a total disregard for human life.
AustPaul
At 8am it should have been covered off whether he needed medical attention. At 3pm when he didn’t respond they should have gone through the door.
Are there medical personnel on duty at these hotels for such an incident? If not maybe there should be.
Kag
Covid has been known to cause blood clots despite showing mild symptoms.
There also have been many cases showing long term issues after recovery currently has been termed as "long covid", if you don't have a need to visit anyone then don't do it and leave till everyone gets vaccinated.
Sven Asai
And again it’s underestimated with the corresponding and to expect consequences. If someone is shot into the lungs, he is treated at a hospital and monitored 24h., not stored unattended in a funny hotel room. We are on a war with that virus. By the way, those are not my words, but were said by two famous presidents, Trump and Macron , in spring of this year, although they already have forgotten too what they have said, as their countries’ numbers clearly indicate.
blahblah222
1 thing is for sure, unless the guy who died is from a prominent family, there will be no changes to procedures. And they will claim that they followed the procedures and therefore done everything right.
alceste
It might be a case of silent hypoxemia (1) where a COVID-19 patient with mild symptoms may exhibit very low oxygen levels without any dyspnea.
Quoting from NHK site (2):
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7397783/
(2) https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20201212/k10012761201000.html
thelonius
Clearly, these hotel "hospitals" are useless.
Japan's strategy for dealing with the virus: Don't get the virus.
Mickelicious
Might make you hesitant to present as Covid-symptomatic.
Saitou Yuu
Negligence of Japan's prime minister Suga who prioritized to defend his "GoTo campaign" than improving medical services before winter kills people with Covid-19 day by day.
Fuzzy
Wow. Just, wow.
JJ Jetplane
@Zoroto
Symptoms do not always accurately reflect the strain or damage that a virus has on your body. Also, while he may have had mild symptoms, where and how the virus progresses can change many things.
TrevorPeace
Incompetence, pure and simple.
gogogo
No wonder the death rate is so low in Japan, clearly he died of Covid yet that is not how they classed the death!!
therougou
I'm sure it will count as a covid death. But they have to state the actual illness that resulted in his death.
therougou
The difference is, people shot in the lungs absolutely need to be "treated at a hospital and monitored 24h", while the majority of people with COVID-19 do not. So if they accept every COVID-19 patient into their hospital, doctors won't be able to treat people that need it. Hence the need for hotels.
GW
OMG......WTF............GROSS......UTTER......INCOMPETENCE!!!
Way beyond the pale this one!!!
as_the_crow_flies
As I understand it, a blood oxygen saturation of less than 95% should mean he is being regularly monitored by qualified medical staff. It is not, and should not, be considered mild, as someone's condition can go downhill fast. Just dumping people in a hotel and labelling their cases mild is not an adequate response. It's a kind of 'out of sight, out of mind' way of trying to wish a problem away by mislabelling.
If the health system is now under this kind of pressure now, it was blindingly obvious they wouldn't be able to give enough symptomatic patients proper care, so what the hell were they doing encouraging unsafe behaviour for the past few months? Government inaction has created this situation.
Jim
8am- patient complains of deteriorating health condition
3pm ( 7 hours later ) - still no medical assistance given / just phone call without a reply should have been taken as something is wrong
4pm ( 8 hours later ) - still no medical assistance given!
6:30pm ( 10hours 30minutes later ) - no medical assistance given and no one even bothers to check up on the patient physically.
8pm- Doctor checks and declares the patients dead / behind the scene conversation “ Lets declare the cause of death any other cause but definitely not Covid-19! We have to keep the death rate due to Covid-19 to a minimum...” All nod their heads in agreement!
Few hours later an apology with bowing and that’s it!
Japan’s procedural action at its best...
kurisupisu
The system is flawed...
therougou
The idea is good. Putting them in hotels so they can't spread to others in a hospital or outside world. In this case the question is why didn't the doctor examine him if is oxygen levels showed that he needed an examination. And why didn't JT add that crucial bit of info to this article.
Alex
So will they class his death as heart attack or covid ?