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Poison injected into drip bags in Japan hospital?

Article (news)

Kyodo News

YOKOHAMA - A surfactant compound that police believe was used to kill two elderly male patients at a hospital in Yokohama, Japan may have been injected into intravenous drip bags through holes made in their rubber plugs, investigative sources said Tuesday.Police found small holes in seals on the rubber plugs of multiple unused drip bags stored at a nurses&#x27; station at Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama&#x27;s Kanagawa Ward, the sources said.The police suspect the latest finding could indicate serial murders targeting unspecified patients.Sozo Nishikawa and Nobuo Yamaki, both 88, died of poisoning in the hospital on Sept. 18 and 20, respectively, after medical drips were administered.There were no apparent holes or ruptures in medical drip bags attached to Nishikawa, in whose body a surfactant compound was found in an autopsy, the sources said.Hospital officials brought all of the drip bags that were to be used during a three-day weekend ending Sept 19 to the nurses&#x27; station on the fourth floor on the morning of Sept. 17, according to the investigative sources.In the wake of Yamaki&#x27;s death, the police checked around 50 drip bags that had not been used and discovered holes in seals on the rubber plugs of some of the bags, the sources said.Nishikawa died on Sept. 18 after a nurse found his heart rate was falling around 4:50 p.m. that day, according to the police. He was hospitalized on Sept. 13.The hospital initially concluded he died of illness. But the police decided to conduct an autopsy on his body after Yamaki was found to have died of poisoning last week. The two patients had been confined to their beds and medical drips including a nutrition supplement had been administered.The police are examining the inside of some of the drip bags attached to Nishikawa, although no holes were found, according to the sources.The police have detected a surfactant compound in one of the drip bags attached to Yamaki that is of the same composition as that contained in disinfectant stored at the nurses&#x27; station on the fourth floor.

YOKOHAMA - A surfactant compound that police believe was used to kill two elderly male patients at a hospital in Yokohama, Japan may have been injected into intravenous drip bags through holes made in their rubber plugs, investigative sources said Tuesday.

YOKOHAMA - A surfactant compound that police believe was used to kill two elderly male patients at a hospital in Yokohama, Japan may have been injected into intravenous drip bags through holes made in their rubber plugs, investigative sources said Tuesday.