Photo/Illutration Yuji Ando, the father of Chie Nagamura, who died after a painless childbirth procedure, speaks at a news conference in Osaka in October 2017. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

OSAKA--A doctor who administered anesthesia to a pregnant woman who died of related breathing complications after giving birth in 2017 is responsible for her death, a committee for the inquest of prosecution here concluded.

The Osaka No. 4 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution has decided that the prosecutors' decision in April to drop the case against the 61-year-old director of an ob-gyn clinic in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, was unjust, according to Naoki Tani, a lawyer representing the bereaved family.

The Oct. 10 decision will require the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office to re-examine the case.

It said the doctor was at fault and that his actions have "shaken patient confidence in doctors, to whom they entrust their lives, to its foundations."

Chie Nagamura, 31, underwent a painless labor to give birth to her second daughter at the clinic in January 2017. The child was born via C-section. Nagamura died from hypoxic encephalopathy 10 days later.

The doctor was accused of failing to take proper measures when Nagamura suffered respiratory problems after being too heavily anesthetized.

Tani said the decision was the first by an inquest panel in the nation to conclude that a determination by prosecutors was improper in a case involving a painless delivery.

"The citizens (who are members of the committee) decided that non-prosecution was wrong," Tani said. "I hope the prosecutors accept it sincerely and file charges against (the doctor)."

The panel's decision did not specify which of the doctor's actions are regarded as criminally negligent, according to Tani.

The case will be closed if the reinvestigation leads to non-prosecution.

Osaka prefectural police referred the case to the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office in October 2017 on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death. However, the prosecutors dropped it in April on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The office said it was difficult to determine at which point during the procedure the doctor would have needed to perform resuscitation on Nagamura.

Nagamura's husband, 36, and her father, Yuji Ando, 70, had filed a request with the committee to review the case in July, claiming that the doctor handled the complications in an improper manner and did not secure a clear airway, leading to Nagamura's death.

Nagamura had chosen to undergo a painless delivery procedure after injuring her back during the natural birth of her first daughter in 2014.

It is generally difficult to hold doctors criminally responsible over medical mishaps concerning childbirths because it has been argued that legal interventions will have adverse effects leading to pressure on people working in medical practices.