Japan: ‘killer’ nurse injected disinfectant into IV drips
Ayumi Kuboki suspected of killing upwards of 20 patients to avoid bereaved families
A former nurse has confessed to poisoning at least 20 patients at a Japanese hospital by injecting their intravenous drips with disinfectant.
Ayumi Kuboki, 31, was arrested on Saturday by police investigating a string of suspicious deaths at Yokohama’s Oguchi hospital in 2016.
Under questioning, she admitted poisoning 88-year-old Sozo Nishikawa by injecting his IV drip with antiseptic solution.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Traces of benzalkonium chloride, a compound used in common hospital disinfectants, were found in his body, as well as in the body of another elderly patient who died in the same hospital room two days later. The discovery sparked a police investigation focussed on the possibility that a staff member was behind the deaths.
Kuboki confessed to “repeatedly” tampering with the drip bags of around 20 patients, but investigators suspect she may have fatally poisoned dozens more.
Between July and late September 2016, 48 patients who died at the hospital were found to have disinfectant chemicals in their system, “including five patients on a single day in late August and four on one day in early September”, the Japan Times reports
According to The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Kuboki “allegedly accelerated their deaths to avoid the task of explaining the circumstances of the patients’ deaths to relatives falling on her”, telling police she found such interactions “troublesome”.
She is said to have told detectives that she targeted sick, elderly patients whom she feared would die during her shift.
The timing of Nishikawa’s death suggests that he was poisoned when Kuboki arrived early for a scheduled night shift. When he died a couple of hours after, a day nurse broke the news to his family.
Other unusual incidents were also recorded at the hospital during this timeframe, including the disappearance of a patient’s records and a nurse who claimed her bottled drink had been spiked with bleach.
A former colleague from a previous hospital said that Kuboki was “considered competent”, but that fellow nurses found it “hard to figure out what she was really thinking”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing U.S. campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138M
Speed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Gaza hospital blast: What the video evidence shows about who's to blame
Speed Read Nobody wants to take responsibility for the deadly explosion in the courtyard of Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital. Roll the tape.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Giraffe poo seized after woman wanted to use it to make a necklace
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Helicopter sound arouses crocodiles
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Woman sues Disney over 'injurious wedgie'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Emotional support alligator turned away from baseball stadium
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Europe's oldest shoes found in Spanish caves
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Artworks stolen by Nazis returned to heirs of cabaret performer
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published