A hospital in Osaka revealed on Wednesday it found perforated intravenous drip bags that were to be used for patients only months after fatal drip poisonings at a Yokohama hospital in September.
Kitano Hospital in the city of Osaka said no patients were harmed because it found the perforated bags before they were administered to patients. The hospital submitted a report to police the same day.
According to the hospital, a nurse who prepared drip bags for patients in the obstetrics and gynecology ward found a wet floor on Dec. 28. The nurse then found a drip bag that had been scratched and was leaking its contents.
Another nurse on Sunday found a different leaking drip bag as it was being carried on a tray. The bag had a small hole in the center.
Both bags contained glucose and were to be given to patients on the ward. Drip bags are kept inside a shelf at a nurse station where only hospital workers are allowed to enter. But the shelf is not locked.
There are 35 nurses in charge of obstetrics and gynecology and more than 10 nurses worked on both days. "We will improve the management system further and keep the hospital safe," the hospital said in a statement.
At Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama two elderly patients died in the span of a few days in late September after receiving IV drips allegedly laced with disinfectant.
In November police renewed their investigation into a hospital in Fukuoka Prefecture following the discovery of a small hole in an intravenous drip bag after perforations were found in three IV bags there in October.
No patients at the Hospital of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health were harmed, and the intravenous drip bag was not used.