2 dentists in Osaka Pref. referred to prosecutors over boy’s death after anesthesia

OSAKA — Two dentists at a clinic in Osaka Prefecture were referred to prosecutors on Aug. 26 for allegedly putting a patient with special needs into a hypoxic state during teeth extraction under general anesthesia in 2023, causing his death about a month later.

Osaka Prefectural Police sent prosecutors papers on the 55-year-old male director of the dental clinic for people with severe disabilities, located in the city of Sakai’s Sakai Ward, and a 34-year-old female dentist on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death. Police added an opinion to seek “severe disciplinary action,” requesting indictment, on the grounds that the two failed to accurately grasp the situation of the intubation using an oxygen tube and that their subsequent action was also improper.

The deceased was Yuta Tomikawa, then 17 and a third-year student at a special-needs school run by the Osaka Prefectural Government.

The clinic was opened in 2008 and operated by the Sakai Dental Association. It serves patients who have difficulty being treated at general dental clinics, such as those who cannot sit still during treatment. According to his family, Tomikawa had a developmental disorder and visited the clinic to have two wisdom teeth removed.

The female dentist administered general anesthesia to Tomikawa and inserted an oxygen tube through his nose into the trachea shortly after 1 p.m. on July 13, 2023. She is accused of failing to take appropriate measures, such as reinserting the tube, even though an alarm sounding from a device notifying abnormalities in Tomikawa’s breathing shortly afterward. Despite being in a position to supervise the female dentist and being a certified anesthesiologist himself, the male director allegedly lagged in calling emergency services after learning of Tomikawa’s abnormal condition.

According to the prefectural police’s first investigation division, the female doctor believed that Tomikawa’s abnormality was caused by bronchial spasm and administered drugs, but his symptoms did not improve. They called for an ambulance at around 2:25 p.m., after Tomikawa had suffered a cardiac arrest. According to a source close to the matter, Tomikawa’s blood oxygen saturation level, which normally would be 96% or higher, had dropped to the 20% range. He died on Aug. 9, about a month later, at a hospital where he was transported. The cause of his death was hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

According to the investigation by the prefectural police, it is believed that the oxygen tube was initially properly inserted into the trachea, but the tip of the tube was later disconnected from the trachea for some reason. The cause could not be determined. However, after hearing opinions from about 40 dentists, police concluded that if appropriate measures had been taken, Tomikawa could have been saved.

A representative at the Sakai Dental Association told the Mainichi Shimbun, “We haven’t heard that the prefectural police sent papers on them, so there’s nothing we can say.”

(Japanese original by Mizuki Hayashi and Tomoe Saito, Osaka City News Department)