The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office has indicted a 33-year-old nurse for professional negligence resulting in death in the January 1995 death of an infant at a Tokyo hospital, it was learned Wednesday.
Miyuki Kawashima, a nurse at Toho University Ohashi Hospital in Meguro Ward, was indicted for not exercising sufficient caution when allowing the baby to sleep face-down, prosecutors said. The baby suffocated to death.
The indictment was dated Aug. 7, two days before the statute of limitations would have run out on the case.
According to the indictment, Kawashima placed 3-day-old Yusuke Inoue on his stomach on the morning of Jan. 8, 1995, using a towel as a pillow. The negligence charge is based on her failure to anticipate that the towel might block the infant's nose and mouth.
The baby's mother soon entered the room to breast-feed the boy and found he was no longer breathing. Although he began breathing again after efforts to revive him, he suffered cerebral paralysis and died Aug. 9, 1995.
The boy's parents, actor Tatsuya Inoue and his wife, Ritsuko, filed a civil suit with the Tokyo District Court demanding compensation from Toho University.
The university argued that sudden infant death syndrome was the cause of death, but the court ruled in March 1998 that the boy likely suffocated and ordered the university to pay roughly 48 million yen. The defendant is currently appealing the case.
SIDS is seen as being very difficult to diagnose, even by experts. Critics charge that this at times leads hospitals and child-care centers to blame SIDS when a child dies in their care.