A family member angrily accuses Minamisoma City General Hospital of “surgery that should have been easy…” “I will not forgive Minamisoma City General Hospital.

The director’s outburst got him into trouble in court.

If only I hadn’t gone to that hospital, my wife wouldn’t have died. ……

Tetsuyoshi Mori, 78, a construction worker in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, bit his lip as he said this. Mori is seeking 117.32 million yen in damages from the city government and the hospital’s then-director, Mr. A, on the grounds that the death of his wife, Asako (68), after surgery was caused by a mistake made by the hospital.

The tragedy occurred in March 2009. Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital was the last stronghold of local medical care in Minamisoma, which was turned into an “isolated island on land” after the Great East Japan Earthquake. In March 2009, Mr. A was the director of the hospital, which was repeatedly reported as the closest hospital to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and he was also Asako’s doctor.

It all started when Asako began to experience increased forgetfulness. She was diagnosed as “normal” at several hospitals, but Mr. A declared that she had an aneurysm in her brain and that there was a risk that it would rupture and kill her tomorrow. Mr. A told Mr. and Mrs. Mori that the surgery would be a simple 30-minute procedure and that they would be able to play their favorite game of park golf in no time.

Asako was so passionate about park golf that she had won the national championship twice.

On the day of her hospitalization, my wife loaded her favorite clubs into the trunk of the car so that she could hit the course as soon as she was discharged,” said Mori.

When she was young, Asako gave up her higher education to become a barber in order to support the family finances. She had been cutting her husband’s hair since they were dating, and to Mr. Mori, who laughs, “I’ve never been to a barber shop.

On March 2, 2009, the day of the surgery, an e-mail from Asako arrived shortly after 10:00 a.m., saying that she would be going to the operating room before noon, was her last message. The surgery, which began just before 1:30 p.m., did not end even after several hours had passed, let alone 30 minutes. When Mr. Mori was called into the director’s office a little past 4:00 p.m., he was told in incredibly light-hearted terms.

She said, “Oh no, mister, I’m sorry. I have a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

When Mr. Mori was upset and asked for a detailed explanation, Mr. A said to him, “You are suffering from a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

You don’t know what a subarachnoid hemorrhage is, do you?

He was making fun of her. Around 6:30 in the evening, she was called back to the operating room and found Mr. A standing in front of the entrance wearing a bloody surgical suit. Blood was dripping on the floor. There, Mr. Mori was forced to give his consent.

To save your wife, you have to cut off one-third of her brain and throw it away.”

He did not immediately understand the meaning of “throw away the brain,” but was simply horrified. All he could do was cry out to the blood-covered doctor in front of him, “Please help me.

I told you I was sorry!

On March 19, 17 days after the surgery, Asako passed away without ever regaining consciousness. When the body was being cleaned and wiped clean, the necrotic skin and flesh crumbled away. The question was, “Why did an operation that took only half an hour turn into a major event of brain removal? There must have been a medical mistake. These doubts arose in Mr. Mori’s mind as he looked at his wife’s changed appearance.

The nurses were crying,” he said. The nurses were crying, saying, ‘We can’t stand to see her like this. When he bowed his head to his wife at the morgue, Mr. A bowed his head in front of us, his family, and said clearly, ‘It was a medical accident. It was a medical accident.

Later, however, Mr. A insisted that the intraoperative bleeding was only an accident and that his response was appropriate. He also denied that he had said anything about a “medical accident.

However, his suspicions deepened in an unexpected way. When he visited another hospital for a checkup for his chronic illness, he heard the following comments from doctors and nurses: “Why did you perform such a dangerous surgery?

Why did you perform such a dangerous surgery?

There are rumors in the operating room of the city hospital that the treatment was terrible.

When Mr. Mori questioned the truthfulness of these words, Mr. A became agitated.

He said, “Who is saying such things?　I’ll strip those doctors and nurses of their licenses and take their fees. I will take you to court!”

In fact, “they repeatedly pressed me to tell them the source of my information,” Mori said. When asked for a sincere explanation at a later meeting between the hospital and the bereaved family, Mr. A raised his voice, saying, “That’s why I’ve apologized so many times.

I’ve already apologized to you many times!

His son, who was present at the meeting, even tried to punch him in the face for his heartless words.

The two parties’ arguments ran counter to each other, and in December 2012, Mr. Mori filed a lawsuit claiming damages. Preparatory proceedings have been held more than 10 times.

In the midst of all this, a new allegation surfaced. According to the guidelines on unruptured brain aneurysms, the risk of intraoperative rupture or hemorrhagic complications in Asako’s case was 5%, placing her in the high-risk group. Considering her advanced age, “it was by no means an easy surgery,” Ms. Mori and other family members insist.

In fact, the “Patient Medical Record” of the city hospital obtained by Mr. Mori states that a subarachnoid hemorrhage was confirmed at 2:56 a.m. after the catheter broke through a normal blood vessel during the operation. A craniotomy had to be performed immediately, but because he did not have an anesthesiologist with him, anesthesia was finally administered at 4:41, and surgery did not begin until after 5:00.

According to other doctors, the annual rupture rate of aneurysms in my wife’s case was at most 0.9%, so the need for surgery was infinitesimally low. The fact that there was no anesthesiologist on call was also a problem, and the surgery was unnecessary and highly risky,” said Mori.

What is the hospital’s view? When asked about the facts regarding the surgical procedure and Mr. A’s words and actions, the hospital responded, “We will refrain from answering this question, as it is related to the details of the medical treatment and the ongoing lawsuit.

After Mr. A retired from the post of director at the end of March 2013, he remained at the hospital as an advisor while also assuming the post of regional medical policy supervisor in the city. This position was newly created in the same year. Mr. Mori is outraged.

I want to clear Mr. A of his crimes and avenge his wife’s death.

Fifteen years have passed since the disaster. Fifteen years have passed since the disaster, but has the “light of hope” that protected the community at that time been extinguished?

From the March 27/April 3, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY