CHIBA – Tokyo Electric Power Co. agreed Friday to pay ¥13.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit filed over the death of a woman who was forced to evacuate from a hospital during the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, a relative of the woman said.
During the trial over the ¥31 million damages suit, the utility accepted the Chiba District Court’s opinion that Tepco was at least 75 percent responsible for the deaths of many patients who were forced to leave Futaba Hospital to avoid the radiation being released by the core meltdowns at the plant.
The suit said the woman, then 83, failed to receive appropriate care because Futaba Hospital had its lost water, electricity and gas supplies just after the devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled Tepco’s aging power plant.
The woman later died of dehydration at an evacuation facility.
Her relatives filed the lawsuit last November, claiming her death was attributable to the nuclear disaster because it made it impossible for her to receive appropriate care.
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