Photo/Illutration Tokyo Women's Medical University hospital in Shinjuku Ward where a 2-year-old boy died in February 2014 after receiving a powerful anesthetic agent for 70 hours straight (Emi Iwata)

Six doctors at Tokyo Women’s Medical University hospital are facing criminal charges of professional negligence resulting in death after a 2-year-old boy died from a lethal dose of anesthetic.

The case was referred to prosecutors on Oct. 21.

The medical team administered the anesthetic agent propofol to the child over nearly three days in February 2014 after he was placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. He had undergone surgery to remove a lymphatic vessel tumor in his neck.

Tokyo police said they suspect the doctors did not pay sufficient attention to the boy’s condition after his health deteriorated, which likely contributed to his death.

A committee of external experts set up by the hospital released a report in February 2015 that said the boy died after he was given propofol for 70 hours. The anesthetic agent is normally banned from use on children on ventilators in ICU because of concerns about side effects.

A 60-year-old former associate professor at the university who was overseeing the boy’s care after surgery, along with other doctors, had decided to administer propofol to prevent the tube to his ventilator from unexpectedly falling off.

An autopsy found the cause of death to be acute circulatory failure.

It also found that the boy had been given 2.5 times the amount of propofol that an adult would receive.

In February 2015, the boy’s parents filed a criminal complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo. Police questioned hospital staff and outside experts during the course of their investigation.

According to investigative sources, the six doctors between the ages of 30 and 69 caring for the boy did not stop administering propofol or switch to other medications, even though the ECG and color of his urine indicated something was badly amiss.

The report by the hospital’s outside panel said the doctors did not have an adequate sense of the dangers involved with administering an anesthetic that the drug manufacturer itself had prohibited for use on children on ventilators for long periods and in large dosages.

It concluded there was a high possibility that prolonged use of propofol was directly related to the boy’s death.

The panel also said the doctors had inadequately included use of the anesthetic in the boy’s medical record.

The hospital head at the time released a statement saying it would make efforts to prevent a recurrence.

But in June 2014, the hospital released information about 63 children under the age of 15 who had been given propofol in the past, even though they were also hooked up to ventilators.

The health ministry then investigated the hospital and ultimately deemed its safety management to be inadequate. That led to the government rescinding approval for the hospital to provide advanced medical care.

Yasuyuki Suzuki is in charge of surgery and intensive care at the National Center for Child Health and Development hospital, and was also a member of the Tokyo Women’s Medical University hospital committee that looked into the boy’s death. He said the medical team had not functioned properly because the doctors and other personnel did not have a shared understanding of the possible dangers involved in using the drug.

The same anesthetic led to Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 after he used it for insomnia.

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