Nurse Cleared Over Death Of Elderly Given Doughnut
A Japanese high court has overturned a lower court ruling that found a nurse guilty of giving a doughnut to an elderly woman who later died after choking on it.
The 60-year-old practical nurse works at a special nursing care home for the elderly in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan.
She was charged in 2013 with professional negligence resulting in death for failing to check what the 85-year-old resident should be given to eat.
A branch of the Nagano District Court found the nurse guilty and ordered her to pay a fine of about 1,900 dollars. She appealed the ruling and again claimed innocence.
At the Tokyo High Court, presiding judge Okuma Kazuyuki annulled the district court's ruling on Tuesday, saying it failed to weigh the risk of the victim suffocating on the doughnut.
The judge stressed that meals and snacks are essential not only for one's health but also for happiness and a sense of fulfillment.
He pointed out the nurse could not have known in the course of her regular duties that the type of snack had been changed.
He said the nurse is unlikely to have known beforehand that elderly residents could suffocate on a doughnut and die, and therefore cannot be said to have been inattentive.
The appellate ruling drew the attention of medical and welfare personnel across Japan.
A petition signed by more than 270,000 people was submitted to the Tokyo High Court.
It asked that the nurse be cleared of the charges, claiming a guilty ruling would put more pressure on nursing care providers.
