Family of dead New Zealand man calls for Japan to improve care of psychiatric patients

Record ID: 903341

  • Title: Family of dead New Zealand man calls for Japan to improve care of psychiatric patients
  • Date: 19th July 2017
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (FROM LEFT) PROFESSOR OF KYORIN UNIVERSITY, TOSHIO HASEGAWA, MOTHER OF KELLY SAVAGE, MARTHA SAVAGE, AND BROTHER OF KELLY SAVAGE, PATRICK SAVAGE, DURING A NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOTHER OF NEW ZEALAND MAN WHO DIED IN JAPANESE HOSPITAL, MARTHA SAVAGE, SAYING: "So we don't want this tragedy to happen to anybody else and so the main thing we want, we're not gonna try to, well we don't think we'll try to sue the hospital. We just really want to stop this from happening to anybody else. So we want Japan to change the way that they treat psychiatric patients." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROTHER OF NEW ZEALAND MAN WHO DIED IN JAPANESE HOSPITAL, PATRICK SAVAGE, SAYING: "How can the country that's hosting the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics claim to represent equality for all humans when it's violating U.N. policies regarding the human rights of mentally ill patients on a massive scale. The world needs to know what's happening, and Japan needs to act immediately to stop it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS YAMATO CITY, KANAGAWA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS YAMATO HOSPITAL WHERE SAVAGE WAS HOSPITALISED SIGN READING (Japanese) "Yamato Hospital" WINDOWS AT YAMATO HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2017 11:58
  • Keywords: Japan New Zealand hospital death heart attack restraint
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • City: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016QDU0QT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:The family of a New Zealand man who died at a Japanese psychiatric hospital after being restrained to a bed said on Wednesday (July 19) Japan needs to improve its treatment of psychiatric patients.
    Twenty-seven-year-old Kelly Savage died of a heart attack after being restrained for 10 days to a bed at Yamato Hospital in Yamato city, Kanagawa, where he was admitted on April 30 following a manic episode with psychotic features.
    Savage's mother, Martha, and his older brother, Patrick, said Kelly had never been restrained before at other hospitals and called on Japanese hospitals to review the way treat psychiatric patients.
    There are around 290,000 patients in Japanese psychiatric hospitals, of which 200,000 are hospitalised for over a year, according to Toshio Hasegawa, a professor at Kyorin University who researches the use of physical restraints of psychiatric patients.
    Savage was said to be teaching English in Japan for about two years before his pre-existing psychiatric conditions acted up.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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