Think we have it tough here? In Japan, they want a doctor who missed a fatal diagnosis to go to jail:

A doctor who failed to notice that a chopstick had pierced the brain of a 4-year-old boy brought to him and sent the boy home should be jailed for one year for his death, prosecutors told the Tokyo District Court on Monday.

The 37-year-old doctor, Hideki Nemoto, faces a charge of professional negligence resulting in death. In their concluding statements at the trial, prosecutors said it was clear Nemoto bore responsibility.

“As a result of neglecting an extremely fundamental responsibility, he failed to find out what the real problem with the boy was and sent him home, and it is clear that this led to his death,” a representative prosecutor said.

The boy was brought by ambulance to Kyorin University Hospital in Mitaka, western Tokyo, on July 10, 1999, after he fell and a chopstick pierced his throat.

The chopstick entered the boy’s brain, but Nemoto, the physician on duty at the time, failed to sufficiently question the boy’s mother or conduct a computed tomography scan, neglecting his responsibility as a doctor, prosecutors said. They said the doctor simply applied an antiseptic to the wound, and sent the 4-year-old home. The boy died soon afterward.