Asian Recovery?

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Wed Apr 21 21:43:23 PDT 1999


Thursday April 22 1999 SCMP

Asian Focus

Outrage at Japan's

hospital foul-ups

MARI YAMAGUCHI of Associated Press

Instead of fixing a 74-year-old man's heart

problem, surgeons removed part of his right

lung. Then they gave the 84-year-old with the

lung problem heart surgery.

But that's not all. Eight hours later, as the

mis-identified patients were receiving post-op

transfusions, the hospital staff realised their

error. Fortunately, the patients both had the

same type blood - or the transfusions might

have killed them, too.

Few cases of medical bungling in Japan have

received as much publicity - or generated so

much outrage - as this one at the Yokohama

City University Hospital earlier this year.

Many experts, however, say there is little being

done to address the underlying problems:

overworked doctors and a dangerously cavalier

attitude towards the quality of care.

"Patients are treated like machine parts on a

conveyer belt. Doctors often don't care about

each patient, they don't even remember their

faces," said Makoto Kondo, a radiologist at

Keio University Hospital, one of the best

medical facilities in Japan.

Since the botched surgeries in this city just

south of Tokyo were revealed in January,

Japan's media has focused on similar, and at

times worse, mistakes around the country:

In February, a 58-year-old housewife died

after a nurse accidentally injected her with

disinfectant instead of blood medication.

Also in February, a 61-year-old housewife

went into shock after receiving transfusions of

the wrong blood type.

In March, a seven-year-old boy had to

undergo an operation to remove part of a

surgical instrument mistakenly left inside his

skull.

Doctors say fatigue from chronic overwork

contributes to such errors.

But critics of the medical status quo in Japan

say such problems would not be so bad if

more was done to supervise doctors.

Medical records, for example, are usually

off-limits to patients. Doctors need not even

renew their licences. Rarely are mistakes made

public.

Shunya Ito, a member of Medio, a civil group

investigating malpractice, said the medical

community's treatment of patients reflects its

hierarchical structure - with patients on the

lowest rung.

"We patients feel so intimidated that it's even

difficult to ask doctors any questions," he said.

Mr Ito's 72-year-old father died six years ago

at a hospital an hour after beginning to receive

an intravenous injection containing potassium.

Mr Ito sued, and had medical experts saying

the injection may have contributed to his

father's death. The hospital denied any

wrongdoing, and Ito lost the suit.

Shigemi Oshida, professor of forensic

medicine at Nihon University of Medicine, said

hospitals routinely destroy evidence of

operating room foul-ups.

"Japanese hospitals haven't tried to learn from

mistakes," he said. "And by covering up, they

fail to share valuable lessons."

Because of the secrecy and difficulty in

obtaining documents, victims of hospital

mistakes are rarely able to take legal action.

But according to the latest Supreme Court

statistics, more are willing to try. Malpractice

suits have nearly doubled to 2,700 in 1998

from 1,508 cases 10 years ago.

Shamed into action, the government has

formed an investigative panel and is expected

to announce its recommendations later this

month.

Staff at the Yokohama hospital, meanwhile,

are taking more care to clearly identify their

patients.

"We learned an important lesson," said

spokesman Nobuo Uchida. "Next time we

make a mistake, there will be no future for our

hospital."



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list