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Tokyo cops: Shinjuku doctor gave false STD diagnoses

Michinari Hayashi
Michinari Hayashi

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the 69-year-old head of a clinic in Shinjuku Ward who allegedly gave false diagnoses of sexually transmitted diseases, reports Nippon News Network (Jan. 17).

Michinari Hayashi, the director of Shinjuku Central Clinic, is suspected of altering the results of tests performed at a private lab on blood taken from patients to indicate that they were infected with chlamydia.

Between September and December of 2012, the suspect falsely told one male patient, 68, that he had “chlamydia based on the results of an exam” and fraudulently took some 26,000 yen in medical treatment fees.

The fraud was revealed after the victim visited another clinic, whose test found him to be free from the disease. The victim subsequently lodged a complaint with the Yotsuya Police Station in April of 2014, according to Sports Hochi (Jan. 18).

The victim told the Nippon News Network: “When you’re diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease, you can’t talk about it with your family, of course, and you can’t tell your friends either. It’s embarrassing. [It was a matter] of exploiting people’s inferiority complexes to sell things.”

When approached by the network, Hayashi blocked a camera with his hand when asked, “Didn’t you do something illegal by making a false diagnosis?”

“It’s chlamydia”

After the false diagnosis by Hayashi, the victim paid the unnecessary treatment expenses.

“It was a hot summer and my private parts had turned red, so I was worried because it’s an important area [which is why I visited the clinic],” the victim remembered. “[Hayashi] didn’t even look at the affected area and took a sample of urine and blood. I went back a week later and I was told ‘you have a sexually transmitted disease. It’s chlamydia.’ I had no idea about that, me being old and all.”
The victim was prescribed medication on multiple occasions for over two months.

“There were about five or six kinds [of drugs],” the victim said. “I took those in the morning, at noon and at night. Think about it, [the patient] has to cover 30 percent, so that’s 30,000 yen or so in one month.”

A doctor unrelated to the case said chlamydia takes “about a week, maybe two at most to recover, so cases that go longer than that can only be deemed an exception. For chlamydia, there is only one kind [of medication].”

“You are packed with bacteria”

Hayashi has been sued for fraud by a total of six patients, including the aforementioned victim, in the Tokyo District Court. In February of last year, the Supreme Court ordered the suspect to pay compensation to two of the patients.

Another male victim, given a false diagnosis by Hayashi, was told by the doctor, “You are packed with bacteria. When I look under a microscope, bacteria are standing shoulder to shoulder.”