77-year-old man arrested for strangling bedridden wife in Funabashi
CHIBA —
Police on Monday arrested a 77-year-old man for allegedly strangling his 77-year-old bedridden wife at their home in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture. Takeharu Hino, 77, was charged with strangling his wife Tomi, 77, with a rope around 7 a.m. Police said that Hino called them afterward and told them he had killed his wife.
Police found the victim dead in her futon. The suspect told police he had tried to commit suicide by inhaling gas after strangling his wife. He was quoted by police as saying, “I was so exhausted from taking care of her. I thought this would be best for you. Then I tried to kill myself as atonement but I couldn’t go through with it.”
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kinniku
Ah...another heartwarming, family oriented story.
It is a shame he couldn't also go through with strangling his wife. By the way, am I the only one who will notice the irony of him saying he was tired but strangling her would be best for her?
It's good he was thinking of her so much.
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lipscombe
best for him, not her. after probably 50 years of marriage it ends this way.
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Betting
We can only guess the circumstances of this story though. A truly tragic way to end your life. I imagine that they had very limited financial resources to fall back on and the day-in-day-out routine of caring for his wife with no one to help exhausted them both mentally.
My wife's mother in is a similar position. She has no financial support, looks after her own bedridden mother 24/7 (never a holiday of course) and to top that off she is going senile. Can you imagine yourself having to clean out someone's bed everyday because they don't have the ability to get out it to go to the toilet? Changing the sheets, clothes etc etc, it takes an enormous toll on you both mentally and physically.
Like I said, at the moment we don't know the real facts about this story but I imagine this is what has happened.
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cleo
It's a scandal that a 77-year-old should be the chief caretaker for another bedridden oldie. What's all this 'kaigo hoken' they add on to our health insurance premiums every week supposed to be for, if not to help care for people like this?
Someone needs a hefty kick up the backside, and it isn't the old man. He should never have been put in this position.
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lipscombe
I worked as a nurse in an elderly ward for 4 years a very long time ago and know exactly just how tiring it is, especially alzheimers sufferers. given the choice however I am sure the wife would have preferred not to have been murdered. If we are going to imagine then I imagine the murderer was too proud to investigate the numerous options of care support which are available or ask for any help at all.
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medievaltimes
Another day....another family crime.
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romulus3
community services are available in Japan. I see vans go round and pick up the elderly all the time and cart them off somewhere. the local ward office covers the costs. This old man just did not seek help, thats all. well, he should have called someone and said "I cannot look after my wife and am having negative thoughts". I am sure the answer would not have been: "ganbate or gaman".
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kinniku
That should have been...
'It is a shame he couldn't also not go through with strangling his wife.'
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Betting
They don't provide bedridden care, those vans that take people to these clubs are still mobile. And they only go there for the day, to be returned in the afternoon. Plus that service is not entirely free.
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mikihouse
yup, the service for bedridden is quite expensive. Unless they have enough money,there is nothing for the elderly here in Japan. There was a case few years back when an old man tried to get support from the government welfare but he was refused because he has a son who is doing baito at a convenience store. Of course the son does not live with his parents and besides baito pays 980Y per hour. To cut the story short, the old guy died from hunger. The gov't has no concrete plan on how to deal with the growing problem of aging population as far as I am concerned.
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usaexpat
Sad case, I'm sure he was exhausted from taking care of his bedridden wife. So what will they do with the husband, put him in jail for murder? I guess there has to be some punishment but that would seem pointless and cruel. It's too bad he couldn't go through with killing himself that probably would have been the least painful outcome.
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OhioDonna
He was exhausted why didn't anyone help him. I know my Father became exhausted while caring for my mother. We made arrangements for her too get a home health aid. The aid came everyday and took care of her so that my Father could at least get out of the house. This service was free!
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Himajin
TJrandom, my MIL is now using the kaigo hoken services. She pays about 7,000 a month in kaigo hoken fees.
Kaigo hoken users are divided into ranks. I cannot find my handbook right now but I will post what I can remember off the top of my head. MIL started of as-
Yoshien 1 (and they have 2 as well)-At this level severe impairment or handicap is not a pre-requisite. It is for those who are beginning to have trouble doing their shopping or some basic things alone. At this stage she had helpers coming three times a week. This is 6 years ago, I think the evaluations changed since then, they've raised the bar a bit.
Yokaigo- Still living alone, but in need of more help. She was in a bad way last fall, her Alzheimer's (which we only suspected) became really apparent. We had her re-evaluated and she went to yokaigo 3, but after they started her on Aricept D she was evaluated at yokaigo 1 this past April. I think yokaigo goes up to level 4.
kaigo- This level is for people who can no longer bathe, dress themselves,feed themselves,etc. As I said I do not have all the particulars at hand. There is overlap between the different categories and levels within those categories.
The system is based on units. You get so many units you can utilize per month according to your level. At yokaigo 3 MIL had 19,000 some-odd-hundred units a month, she now has 16,000 some-odd. One 1 1/2 hour visit is about 450. So theoretically we are eligible for roughly 35 hours of help a month. We're getting 12.
Despite the Alzhiemer's my husband and I have very little say as to when they come or how often. She is not so bad that she can't talk things over, and so they let her determine the terms of the home helper contract,but she needs all her medicine handed to her four times a day, can no longer cook (and so I bring her lunch and dinner daily)or clean. She lives just down the street. Three hours a week is just not enough. My days revolve around her meals and meds. She can get one more visit a week but since she doesn't think it's necessary we wont' get it. 'Still in your own home and independent at 80' is the theme of kaigo hoken.
The kaigo hoken covers a great deal, she has to pay just 10% out of pocket. You can also have your house remodeled (having a barrier-free unit bath put in is popular) with an upper limit of 50 man a year to eliminate dangerous level differences between rooms, make a house wheelchair friendly, or just have handrails put in, with the proper paperwork at city hall or your ku. You can also purchase kaigo goods (canes, seat cushions, bed mats etc) at a discount, within the 50 man yearly limit. For those in the kaigo category (from which level I'm not sure)you can have them come to the house with a portable collapsible bathtub and a team of 2-3 people will bathe a bedridden person. I'm sure there are rules for this (how many times a week etc) but I am not yet familiar with them.
Day service also uses the same units you have for the home helpers. A visit to day service is so many points and they will calculate it so you get both some day care and helpers if you need both. The rules are the rules, though. If one person of a couple has kaigo hoken nintei (eligibility) they come and take care of that person only, make that person's meals. I know a lot will fudge it a bit and make some extra so the spouse doesn't have to cook.
The paperwork would probably be daunting to an elderly person like the one in this article. I found the process a pain, and I'm 49 and can drive and fill out forms. Throw all that at an oldie, and I wonder if they could do it? This man seems to have been pretty much tied to the house. Add to this resistance by many women to having strangers in the house and you have a difficult situation. If the person who needs the help refuses to be evaluated, the system has no way to override that despite what the person may actually need. If they refuse, the city's hands are tied. I would like one more day a week, but as long as MIL says no, that's it.
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