Police are investigating suspected professional negligence at Teikyo University Hospital in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward after a 66-year-old heart patient there died soon after being hooked up to an intravenous drip machine to raise his blood pressure, authorities said Monday.
Police suspect that nurses may have failed to administer the drip properly, forgetting to put the medicine through a pump that controls dripping speed.
The man's body has been sent for police autopsy.
According to the police, the man was administered anti-thrombosis drips and blood pressure-raising drips at around 8 a.m. on Aug. 13. The man used the restroom at around 12:40 p.m. before complaining of sickness. His condition then rapidly deteriorated, and he died shortly after 4 p.m. the same day.
Police said drips were administered to the patient by several nurses under the instruction of a doctor, and hospital officials immediately notified police after the man's death.
The man received treatment at the hospital for a heart condition from mid-May to early June. He was hospitalized again on Aug. 7.