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Woman killed by train after falling from platform at Nakameguro Station had influenza

30 Comments

Tokyo health officials and police are questioning whether physical complications from being infected with the influenza virus caused a woman to fall from a platform at Nakameguro Station and be fatally struck by a train earlier this week.

The incident occurred at around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The 37-year-old woman was heading to work when she fell from the Hibiya subway line platform and was hit by an oncoming train, Fuji TV reported. 

According to police, the woman had contracted the flu virus two days earlier. Witnesses recount seeing her walking unsteadily along the platform.  

Japan is in the peak season for influenza outbreaks, which commonly occur in January and February.

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30 Comments
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go to work with flu?

I am not sure on which planet is there a country called Japan where people can take sick leave when they are sick? I have worked in a few Japanese companies and in all of them you had to take your normal days off even if you had a flu or any other contagious disease. Now if you catch the flu twice a year and you want to stay home for let's say 3 days (which is a very conservative number) there you go, you already used half of your vacation days (I never had granted more than 11 vacation days in Japan).

So this kind of attitude is victim blaming at it's finest.

Why don't you blame the companies or the government who don't care about sick leave? You don't usually hear about 2 million sick people in other countries which have proper sick leave.

(And yes I am aware that you can get sick leave if you get to prove with a doctor's recommendation that you are better to stay at home for 3 days or more, but again this is a complete nonsense and it puts the burden on the already sick person to put up with administrative obstacles and there is no guarantee your doctor will grant you this favor)

This story is just simply tragic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Masks are ugly. Why not just carry a handkerchief to sneeze into?

Anyway, a regretable tragedy that no white paper face doily would have prevented.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I am afraid that if I need time off because if feel like **** so be it ill have a day or two off. if the boss is not to happy, well that's his problem!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I remember a few years ago, they were blaming Tamiflu which was the strong drug used by doctors to treat influenza. It supposedly caused a few people to jump off buildings/platforms. Anyways Rest in Peace and prayers to her loved ones.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

“Witnesses recount seeing her walking unsteadily along the platform.”

Dang!! Don’t Japanese workers accrue sicktime / vacation time? How hard is it to call in & say your sick? Common sense people, if you go man-down you gotta recuperate.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Surgical masks arent effective to prevent contraction because they don't filter microscopic particles.

True, they do not filter anything as small as a virus, but they will block small droplets of you-know-what in which the viruses are swimming. They also prevent you from touching your nose and mouth.

Masks are not a guarantee, but I think they do help.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

cold, flu or any other semi infections disease... stay home! I dont care whatever happens to you , but dont infect everyone else around you...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

RIP to this poor woman. If her company pressured or forced her to come in, they should be held liable.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Most probably pressured into going to work, despite having a contagious disease.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Where I work in Japan you’re still expected to come to work if it’s just the common cold but people stay home when they have the flu. They really don’t have a choice anyway as it knocks you out.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Ditch the masks and stay at home if you have the flu!!!!!!!!!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

My father in law had crazy hallucinations the last time he got the flu. At one point he got up, put on his coat and grabbed his keys and tried to get into his car to go to work. We stopped him though, because it was 11pm and he had been retired for a couple of years. Not sure if this was the Tamiflu or just a crazy side effect of the flu but it was scary.

Just because she was headed to work doesnt mean her boss was forcing her to work, or that she even wanted to go to work. Perhaps she just didnt have anyone watching over her to make sure she stayed in bed with some warm soup. Poor woman, poor family.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Ugh my bad. I'll go hide in my cave for today.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Who said she was going to work? Maybe she was heading to the hospital or somewhere else.

"The incident occurred at around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The 37-year-old woman was heading to work"

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Could this be considered a case of ‘karoshi’? (Working oneself to death) She should have been at home in bed.

Who said she was going to work? Maybe she was heading to the hospital or somewhere else. Either way, sad that she lost her life so young.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Extremely sad. Reminds me of those who'd been dosed with sarin who still felt compelled to report to work.

I've been out with the flu all week and two days in I know I'd have been wobbly too. Tragic loss of life and for what, so her colleagues wouldn't be miffed about covering for her?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Could this be considered a case of ‘karoshi’? (Working oneself to death) She should have been at home in bed.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Poor woman. This is horrific. I wonder why she felt she had to go to work when she was that sick? Oh wait...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It's gotten to the point where the vast majority of train strikes in Japan seem to be accidental. That's terrific compared to the days when someone intentionally jumping in front of a train was a normal weekday. I think that all the transportation companies operating in Tokyo need to be made to bite the bullet and make platform gates ubiquitous throughout the city.

Cost and time consumption be damned, the lives of riders are worth so much more. Gates would have prevented something like this from happening. At worst, she would have slumped over the railing.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

not sure how accurate that really was

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In the reenactment that they showed on the news this morning, they showed her acting as if she were dizzy, and then falling onto the track so that she would have been cut in half by the train

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Poor woman - my heart goes out to her family and close ones, who now miss her terribly, and wonder what they could have done differently. Lots of regret when someone close to you dies suddenly. Very sad.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Those that have had influenza will know the absolutely debilitating symptoms and get help quickly

The thing is, those absolutely debilitating symptoms can affect your common sense, too. Normally I know well enough what to do with the flu, but one time I had it just at the time my son was due to leave for his exchange year. I didn't have the sense to stay home; getting him on the plane was the only thing in my head, and as we bustled about (he bustled, I floated in a daze) at Narita getting him checked in and sent off, I must have been infecting lots of folk around us (luckily the airport wasn't that crowded, or I could have been a walking one-woman epidemic). By the time son arrived at his destination it was obvious that I'd infected him, and he spent the first few days of the new term in quarantine in his professor's rooms. Meanwhile I dragged myself home and spent the next week in bed.

Thinking back now, it was totally stupid and irresponsible, but at the time I was obviously not firing on all cylinders, physically or mentally. Maybe this woman was also suffering from the same kind of loss of judgement due to the infection. It happens.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Tragic.

The most effective way to prevent the spread of influenza is to frequently wash your hands with WARM soapy water. Given that very few dudes wash their hands after using the restroom and you'd be hard pressed to find warm water in public places, we'll continue to see these massive outbreaks.

Surgical masks arent effective to prevent contraction because they don't filter microscopic particles.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Those that have had influenza will know the absolutely debilitating symptoms and get help quickly-this poor woman obviously had made work the higher of the priorities.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

go to work with flu?

13 ( +13 / -0 )

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