Tuesday 13 March 2012

Suing a Doctor in Japan

There are two groups of people that it is virtually impossible to successfully sue. They are policemen and doctors. They close ranks; and worst of all, the judiciary seems to go out of its way to protect and shield these people. Public servants are, and should not be, exempt from prosecution for malpractice, abuse etc.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120313zg.html

Please follow this link to read the story of a good friend of mine. He is a New Zealander that I worked with when I first came to Japan. Unlike me, he lived a healthy and responsible life - did exercise, went to bed early during the week and studied Japanese in his spare time.

He had attacks of dizziness. He went to see a supposed Japanese specialist who wrongly diagnosed him as having Sylvian aqueduct syndrome. To make matters worse he put my friend, Douglas, on a course of benzodiazepines. This is a highly addictive drug that the leading clinicians around the world regard as an abhorrent prescription drug.

Needless to say the misdiagnosis and the addictive drugs eventually derailed Douglas. By the end of it he could no longer walk. He left Japan.

After a long and painful fight with his addiction to benzodiazepines Douglas came back to Japan. He tried to sue the motherfucker who prescribed the wrong drugs and who misdiagnosed his problem (which turned out to be acute vestibulopathy).

Douglas lost the case, but decided to take his fight all the way to the Supreme Court. They refused to hear the case.

Please read the story in the Japan Times and pass the link on to your friends. The case was lost, despite overwhelming medical and expert testimony. What is left now is to warn people about the dangers of benzodiazepine drugs. I only wish I could name and shame the doctor involved. Ironically, if I did he could sue me - that is if he could find me.