KITAKYUSHU (Kyodo) A former nurse was sentenced Monday to six months in prison, suspended for three years, for removing toenails from two elderly patients at a hospital in Fukuoka Prefecture in 2007.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-month prison term for Satomi Ueda, 42, arguing she caused the two female patients to bleed by clipping their toenails too deep with a nail clipper — an act "not considered proper treatment."
The presiding judge in the Fukuoka District Court trial said Ueda was obsessed with cutting nails and disregarded the effects on the patients.
Ueda was fired by Kitakyushu Yahata Higashi Hospital after the incidents, and according to prosecutors made false reports to doctors and the patients' families.
Her lawyer argued she had no intention of causing bleeding and there were no problems from a medical standpoint observed in the patients.
According to a complaint filed with the court, Ueda removed the right big toenail of an 89-year-old patient and removed the right big and middle toenails of a 70-year-old patient, both in June 2007.