Woman arrested for injecting contaminated water into daughter's IV drip

Wednesday 24th December, 04:50 PM JST

KYOTO —

A 35-year-old woman from Gifu Prefecture was arrested Wednesday for allegedly attempting to kill her 1-year-old daughter by adding contaminated water to the intravenous drip the child was being administered at Kyoto University Hospital in Kyoto, police said.

According to investigations, the woman used a syringe to inject contaminated water into an intravenous drip hooked up to her fifth daughter at the hospital’s intensive care unit between Monday and Tuesday.

Her daughter could have died due to blood poisoning, but her condition is improving following treatment. The woman’s second, third, and fourth daughters all died of illness by the age 4.

The fifth daughter was transferred to Kyoto University Hospital in early December from a Gifu hospital. Her condition was worsening due to blood poisoning, and tests detected the presence of the fungus candida albicans, which is not normally found in the bloodstream.

Suspecting child abuse, the hospital consulted the police and checked on the woman’s movements. They found she had mixed a sports drink with water and waited until the liquid went bad before using it in the case, according to police. She also possessed a syringe, they added.

Police officials said that doctors reported to police that the IV had been tampered with once before on Dec 11. A surveillance camera, set up in the ICU, recorded the mother injecting the drink into the IV drip.

The father lives in their house in Gifu Prefecture, and the mother has commuted to the hospital to take care of the daughter since she was transferred from another hospital in Gifu at the beginning of December.

Wire reports

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

weatherjp at 11:10 PM JST - 24th December

Azrael: Yeah, that's the the first thing I thought about, too, when I read that her three other daughters had died like that.
Taka313 at 12:30 AM JST - 25th December

The first thing that leapt to my head after reading this was munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Glad the child will recover and hope she never has to see her mother again. I also hope they look into getting the first child away from this woman, as well.

Taka
Taka313 at 12:31 AM JST - 25th December

Oops. I hadn't read Azrael post.

Taka
WilliB at 02:16 AM JST - 25th December

Mental case. What about the first child?
telecasterplayer at 03:35 AM JST - 25th December

From the JT Article it seems like a clear-cut case of Munchhausen's syndrome. She must be prevented from having/harming any more children.
zaichik at 04:55 AM JST - 25th December

I thought Munchhausen by Proxy too - sounds like the JT readership would make better doctors than the ones treating this woman's children!
flammenwerfer at 06:53 AM JST - 25th December

Yep, seems like a clear case of "Munchhausen by proxy" at first sight. If you aren't sure what that is try the movie "sixth sense" where the mum poisoned the little girl who consequently died. Not quite a satanic monster by a psychologically unstable woman who should be sterilized.
sensei258 at 08:03 AM JST - 25th December

Did the investigation reveal the true contents of what she injected? Earlier it was reported to be "expired energy drink".
beavis at 12:04 PM JST - 25th December

Hope there is a syringe waiting for her in the near future.
soldave at 12:52 PM JST - 25th December

smithinjapan - Yup, this has "suspended sentence" written all over it.
martyman at 02:11 PM JST - 25th December

This little girl is fortunate that her life is spared from this mentally sick woman. Her other three sisters were not as lucky. Her first born may have been a boy and not on the mothers list to murder. The father may have been the root cause of it all, but we may never know. The children should be removed from this dangerous environment and the woman needs to be legally institutionalized. If she can be cured of this mental condition, then charge her with three counts of pre-meditated murder and one count of attempted murder. Sorry, I was a bit on the loopy side, once a nutjob, always a nut job. She will get her sentence suspended due to mental illness at the time she allegedly tried to murder her children.
Nessie at 05:44 PM JST - 26th December

What Zai said.
Nessie at 05:45 PM JST - 26th December

She will get her sentence suspended due to mental illness at the time she allegedly tried to murder her children.

As you said, the most important thing is to get the remaining two kids into safe hands.
elbudamexicano at 12:51 PM JST - 27th December

This woman needs somebody to contaminate her own IV drip with some horrible, like plain old air, once that air gets to her heart, she will be quickly be put our of her misery.
cuddles20008 at 09:12 PM JST - 27th December

What was the cause of death in the other 3 cases, is there actually anyone in the police force taking notice of these incidents other than checking illegally parked bikes.

The other night walking home about 7:00pm there were 3 burly police officers agressivly checking bikes in my neighbourhood, WOW you guys are really run off your feet fighting crime.

Do they actually go through any training in the police school other than bike checking?

I hope the first child and this one year old daughter get the life they are entitled too, and far away from this SICK women.

Cheers