OSAKA (Kyodo) The Osaka High Court on Thursday reduced a doctor's prison sentence for failing to provide adequate treatment to a girl bed-ridden after being given the wrong injection in Kyoto Prefecture in 2001.
Michiteru Hori's prison term was commuted to 10 months from one year.
Hori, who had been in charge of 11-year-old Mika Kato at Ujigawa Hospital in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, had pleaded not guilty to charges of negligence resulting in injury at the Kyoto District Court.
In the appellate court, he owned up to negligence but argued the lower court gave him too heavy a sentence in a rare ruling that convicted a doctor of malpractice, and sought a suspended prison term.
At the high court, presiding Judge Kazuhisa Shirai noted the defendant avoided admitting his responsibility in the court of first instance but commuted the sentence, given that Hori gave up his medical license in November.
On Jan. 15, 2001, nurse Chiyoko Minami gave Kato, who was being treated for hives, an injection of potassium chloride solution, believing it was the calcium chloride solution she needed, the court said.
Hori left Kato for about 20 minutes, making no effort to resuscitate her even though her cardiac and respiratory functions stopped after the shot. This resulted in the girl's brain being deprived of oxygen, paralyzing her entire body, it said.
Hori and Minami, both of whom were convicted by the lower court for professional negligence, appealed the rulings. In October, the Osaka High Court reduced Minami's prison term to eight months from 10.
The girl and her parents sued, and the Kyoto District Court in July ordered the defendants and the hospital to pay 250 million yen. The ruling was not appealed.