The Tokyo District Court sentenced a heart surgeon Monday to a suspended one-year prison term for destroying evidence related to the malpractice death of a 12-year-old girl in 2001.
Kazuhiro Seo, 48, a former surgeon at Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital in Shinjuku Ward, was found guilty of falsifying medical records on the death of Akika Hirayanagi of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, during an operation at the hospital on March 2, 2001.
This was the first case in which doctors were arrested for malpractice, seriously damaging the hospital's reputation as a top heart center and prompting the health ministry to strip it of its designation as an advanced treatment center.