The plaintiff is a physician. His wife was diagnosed left ureteral stone from hospital A and hospital B in Ibaraki. Afterwards, the plaintiff decided to treat his wife by himself with different drugs from what B hospital had described. Two days later, his wife was sent to the C hospital’s emergency room, her body temperature reached 40 degrees, her symptoms met 3 out of 4 criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and her CRP value was more than 30mg / dL. But at that time the physician D did not diagnose sepsis. Although his wife was then transferred to E hospital, she still died of septic shock a week later. After that the plaintiff pressed charge to the Mito Court against hospital C and hospital E and demanded a total of 64 million yen compensation.
At the first trial the Mito Court determined that while doctor D in C hospital failed to diagnose sepsis, the plaintiff as a physician himself should have paid more attention to his wife, so he must bear 40% responsibility. At the second trial the Tokyo High Court changed the judgment for the plaintiff’s responsibility to 20%, for the plaintiff and his wife had never established any official or legal doctor-patient relation.