QUOTE
A doctor accused of professional negligence resulting in death after failing to notice a chopstick lodged in a boy's brain was declared not guilty in a ruling at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.
Hideki Nemoto, 37, a former doctor at Kyorin University Hospital, had faced charges over the death of 4-year-old boy Shunzo Sugino. In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Masaaki Kawaguchi said there were doubts over the connection between Nemoto's handling of the incident and the boy's death.
"The doctor was negligent in his responsibility to predict what could have happened and to avoid the result of that, but the possibility that the boy's life could have been saved or extended was extremely low and rational doubts remain over the causal relationship between the defendant's negligence and the boy's death," Kawaguchi said.
An ambulance rushed Shunzo to the hospital on July 10, 1999, after he fell over at a festival while carrying cotton candy on a chopstick and the chopstick went through his throat and into his brain.
Nemoto, the ear, nose and throat specialist who was in charge of the boy at the time, was accused of causing Shunzo to die by failing to find out from his mother what happened and neglecting his responsibility take a tomography scan. He sent the boy home without realizing that the chopstick was lodged in his brain.
Shunzo died the following morning from brain injuries.
Hideki Nemoto, 37, a former doctor at Kyorin University Hospital, had faced charges over the death of 4-year-old boy Shunzo Sugino. In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Masaaki Kawaguchi said there were doubts over the connection between Nemoto's handling of the incident and the boy's death.
"The doctor was negligent in his responsibility to predict what could have happened and to avoid the result of that, but the possibility that the boy's life could have been saved or extended was extremely low and rational doubts remain over the causal relationship between the defendant's negligence and the boy's death," Kawaguchi said.
An ambulance rushed Shunzo to the hospital on July 10, 1999, after he fell over at a festival while carrying cotton candy on a chopstick and the chopstick went through his throat and into his brain.
Nemoto, the ear, nose and throat specialist who was in charge of the boy at the time, was accused of causing Shunzo to die by failing to find out from his mother what happened and neglecting his responsibility take a tomography scan. He sent the boy home without realizing that the chopstick was lodged in his brain.
Shunzo died the following morning from brain injuries.
nothings safe..
