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: 'Irritated' nurse admits breaking bones of 6 patients in Hyogo hospital
SAYO, Hyogo -- A nurse who has admitted breaking the bones of six patients because she felt "irritated" has been arrested, police said.
Saori Hamuro, 26, a nurse at Sayo Common Hospital in Sayo, was arrested on suspicion of inflicting injuries on an 85-year-old patient at the hospital between Jan. 13 and 19, 2009, by pushing down on her chest with both of her hands and breaking one of the woman's ribs.
Six patients suffered broken bones at the hospital between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, and when questioned over the incidents, Hamuro reportedly admitted responsibility for all six incidents.
"I was irritated over my work relationships," the 26-year-old was quoted as telling investigators.
Police said the six victims were aged between 75 and 99. All of them were bedridden, and were not well enough to express themselves. All six patients have since died, but the relationship between the broken bones and the causes of death remains unclear.
The hospital noticed abnormalities with one female patient in December 2008, and discovered that she had a broken rib. Later, five other patients were found to have broken bones. Hamuro was the first to report the injuries in three of the cases and she emerged as a suspect after work shifts were examined.
Hospital officials said that Hamuro was hired in September 2006. She later left her job temporarily but returned in April 2008. She took leave in September 2009 after she became pregnant.
"She had a serious and quiet personality, and there were no complaints about her from the patients. We want to apologize for the trouble caused for those involved," hospital official Toshio Nishiura said.
In other cases involving violent treatment of patients at hospitals, a nursing assistant allegedly hit a schizophrenic patient at a hospital in Wakayama in 2002, causing the patient to fall down and die, and at a hospital in Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture in 2008 a male nurse allegedly broke the arm of a male psychiatric ward patient.
