Japanese police investigate sudden spike in deaths at Yokohama hospital, suspect foul play

A hospital in Yokohama's Kanagawa Ward that has been central to two suspected cases of patients being murdered through the use of intravenous drips (IV), has, according to local media reports Thursday, seen 46 more patients admitted since July to the same floor as the deceased.

The Oguchi Hospital said there had been no outbreaks of infections that could have accounted for such a massive spike in the number of deaths that occurred between the middle of August and a month later when four or five people died.

Hospital officials were quoted by local media as saying that they believed the sudden increase in deaths was attributable to the facility dealing with more patients who were seriously ill.

The deaths of the patients will be investigated at the hospital that specializes in internal medicine, hospice care and rehabilitation of the elderly, but police sources said that it may be difficult to determine the exact cause of the deaths as the bodies that need to be examined have already been cremated.

"We see many people pass away due to the nature of this hospital, but had the impression that the number of those dying was increasing a bit," a hospital official was quoted as saying Thursday.

It was on Sept. 20 that the hospital first suspected foul play and alerted the police to the fact that some of its intravenous drips may have been tampered with.

Following investigations, the police found that two 88-year-old patients had been poisoned by what is believed to be a surfactant compound.

Widely used in cleaning products, surfacing agents are highly toxic to humans if ingested or if the agents were to be injected into a human by way of an IV drip. Endit