The Kyoto Municipal Government's firefighting office repeatedly ignored emergency calls from a man who had suffered a stroke because officials thought they were prank calls, it was learned Tuesday.
Three days after the 59-year-old man had the stroke, he managed to crawl out of the entrance of his home in Kyoto. Neighbors found him and called an ambulance, which took him to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, officials said.
The man had the stroke on the morning of Aug. 11 at his home, where he lives alone. He made an emergency 119 call but was unable to speak clearly to describe his condition, the officials said.
An official who received the calls rang the number back but thought they were made by a prankster because the voice that answered was unintelligible, they said.
Japanese firefighting offices deal with both medical and other emergencies.
Records show that the man made 16 emergency calls on Aug. 11 and four the following day.
The man is now in stable condition but still has difficulty speaking, they said.
Kenichi Kinomura, head of the emergency section of the Kyoto firefighting office, told reporters that it was extremely regrettable that the office did not react properly to the calls.
"We will do our utmost not to repeat such a thing," he said.
However, he also said that it is not possible to dispatch ambulances in response to emergency calls without first confirming they are genuine.