The Nurse Behind the IV Contamination Scandal: What Those Close to Miyuki Furukawa Say About Her

Brown substance found inside the IV extension tube

On July 15, Chiba Prefectural Police arrested Miyuki Furukawa (51), a former nurse at Kashiwa Tanaka Hospital, a general hospital in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on suspicion of murder. She is accused of mixing feces into an IV being administered to a hospitalized patient, causing his death from multiple organ failure resulting from sepsis.

The incident occurred in the early hours of January 30 this year. A male assistant nurse making his rounds found a 75-year-old man hospitalized in the internal medicine ward suffering with a pale face. His death was confirmed at 10:30 p.m. the following day, January 31.

After a hospital employee became suspicious and visited Kashiwa Police Station on February 1, telling officers, “A hospitalized patient whose condition suddenly deteriorated on January 30 has died. There is a possibility that a foreign substance was mixed into his IV,” police began investigating. A brownish substance was subsequently found remaining inside the IV extension tube, which would normally be transparent.

A forensic autopsy and analysis of the evidence reportedly found bacteria contained in feces in the victim’s body, and his cause of death was determined to be multiple organ failure resulting from sepsis.

At the time of the incident, only two staff members were working the night shift in the ward where the victim was hospitalized: Furukawa, who was the nurse in charge of the night shift, and the male assistant nurse who discovered the patient. Although Furukawa was not the victim’s assigned nurse, she was in a position to have contact with him as the person responsible for the ward. Police believe she somehow introduced feces into the IV tube while on duty, causing bacteria to enter the patient’s bloodstream and killing him. Furukawa denies the allegations.

The victim reportedly had difficulty walking independently because he was disabled in the lower body, but he was otherwise capable of eating and conversing normally. Police are carefully investigating whether there had been any trouble between the two, the motive, and who the feces belonged to.

“My gym clothes were flushed down the toilet”

Furukawa held licenses as both a nurse and a midwife. She had been working at Kashiwa Tanaka Hospital since January 2025, but resigned voluntarily on February 28, 2026, following the incident. She subsequently moved to a hospital in Tokyo. The director of a clinic where she had previously worked said, “There had been no reports of any problems,” and apparently there had been no behavior that would have raised concerns about her.

However, one of Furukawa’s former classmates from middle school said, “There were some strange things about the way she behaved and spoke.”

“During middle school, Furukawa-san was a member of the reading club and seemed like a quiet student, but there was an incident involving a hoax that caused a huge commotion throughout the entire grade. Her gym clothes went missing, and Furukawa-san claimed, ‘Someone flushed them down the toilet.’ Everyone started searching everywhere for them, but a few days later, Furukawa suddenly confessed that she had staged the whole thing herself. Everyone was completely dumbfounded, thinking, ‘What is wrong with her?’”

Another classmate who had known Furukawa throughout elementary and middle school recalled:

“I heard that her father worked at the Tokyo Detention Center, so they seemed like a very serious, respectable family. She herself was also a quiet and serious girl, which is why her former classmates were shocked when they heard about the incident. In our group LINE chat, people were saying, ‘Why?’ When we were doing a survey about future dreams for our elementary school graduation booklet, Furukawa told those around her that she wanted to become either a nurse or an announcer. She achieved her dream and became a nurse, so how could things have ended up like this?”

After graduating from her local middle school, Furukawa attended a private girls’ high school in Tokyo. After graduating, she enrolled in a vocational school for assistant nurses in Saitama Prefecture, but she reportedly caused trouble there as well.

“She dropped out during her second year, and the reason was poor conduct. Furukawa-san would completely change when she drank alcohol. We were living in dormitories at the time, and she was also known for being quite promiscuous and becoming overly physically affectionate with anyone when she drank. She frequently skipped classes when she was drunk, and eventually she was expelled. When I realized from the news that it was ‘Furukawa-san,’ I was honestly bewildered. Despite being expelled, she managed to become a nurse, so I kept wondering, ‘Why did this happen?’” — Former classmate from vocational school

According to residents living near Furukawa’s family home, Chiba Prefectural Police investigators visited the area between May and June this year to review security camera footage.

Could the unexpected side of Furukawa that she had kept hidden have, more than 30 years later, ultimately become connected to the worst kind of murder case?