A doctor accused of performing unlawful euthanasia on a male patient at Kawasaki Kyodo Hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture erroneously told the patient's family that he was brain dead, an interim report of the hospital's in-house probe said Monday.

The interim report was submitted to Kawasaki Municipal Government on Monday afternoon and made public.

The report said that the doctor's explanation may have misled some family members to give their consent to remove a tracheal tube from the patient.

The patient, 58, was brought to the hospital in early November 1998, following an asthma attack on his way home from work. Although his heart function recovered, he remained in a coma and needed the tracheal tube to breathe, the report said.