Photo/Illutration Michinoku Kinen Hospital in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture (Ryoji Koko)

HACHINOHE, Aomori Prefecture—Two men were arrested on Feb. 14 on suspicion of covering up the fatal stabbing of a patient at their hospital here by listing “pneumonia” as the cause of death.

The former director, 61, and a doctor, 60, from Michinoku Kinen Hospital are accused of falsifying documents to conceal a crime, according to investigators.

On the night of March 12, 2023, a 59-year-old patient at the hospital repeatedly stabbed his roommate, Seietsu Takahashi, in the eye with the handle of a toothbrush.

Takahashi, 73, died the following day. The murderer was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Despite being fully aware that a crime had taken place in the hospital, the director and the doctor failed to immediately report it to authorities.

They also gave Takahashi’s grieving family a fake death certificate listing pneumonia as the cause of death.

But just hours after Takahashi’s death, a hospital staff member, disturbed by the pair’s actions, contacted the police.

A subsequent autopsy confirmed that Takahashi died from severe head trauma and blood loss.

In April 2023, police searched the hospital for evidence of the falsified medical document.

According to the Aomori District Court’s ruling in the murder trial, the patient who killed Takahashi was hospitalized due to alcoholism.

Unable to endure being restrained by ropes tied to the bed’s rails, he believed that killing someone would result in his arrest and allow him to leave the hospital, according to the ruling.

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