4th anniversary of Kelly's passing
We tried to publish a letter to the Editor, but instead the Dominion Post/Stuff interviewed us and published an article about the 4th anniversary of Kelly's passing, which came out today. Here's what we said in the letter, and the link to the article is at the bottom.
To the Editor:
May 17th marks the fourth anniversary of the passing of our son, Kelly Savage, who died a week after suffering a cardiac arrest at Yamato Psychiatric Hospital on May 10th 2017. Kelly was admitted to the hospital 10 days earlier after undergoing a severe psychotic breakdown related to his Bipolar Disorder. From the time he was admitted until his fatal cardiac arrest he was strapped to a bed. A likely cause of death is that Kelly suffered a blood clot in his legs as a consequence of the restraint for 10 days, and this blood clot travelled to his lungs.
After repeated refusal by the authorities at Yamato Psychiatric Hospital for an explanation of and an investigation into Kelly’s death, we have undertaken a public campaign to draw attention to the ongoing policy within Japanese psychiatric hospitals that continues to restrain patients for long periods of time, putting them at risk of fates similar to Kelly’s. A study of police autopsies revealed that 47 deaths were suspected of being caused by mechanical restraints in psychiatric hospitals in the three years from 2016-2018, even though Tokyo was not included in the study (ref: 読売新聞「身体拘束 突然死の危険, 1 Sept. 2019 (Yomiuri Shinbun, “Body Restraints: Danger of Sudden Death, in Japanese)”.
Most other developed countries around the world only use mechanical restraints in extreme circumstances, and only for a few minutes to hours at a time. Recent research has revealed that mechanical restraints are used in Japan more than 150 times as often as in the US and 1900 times more than in New Zealand. (Newton-Howes, G., Savage, M., Arnold, R., Hasegawa, T., Staggs, V., & Kisely, S. The use of mechanical restraint in Pacific Rim countries: An international epidemiological study. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 29, E190. doi:10.1017/S2045796020001031, 2020.)
We and other concerned individuals and institutions continue to document and focus attention on the ongoing practices and attitudes within the Japanese psychiatric profession and government agencies that allow the barbaric practice of long-term restraint. These efforts include:
• A documentary on NHK’s Heartnet TV, May 2019, “Toward a country without physical restraint～A Report from New Zealand”, now available to borrow on DVD in NHK’s Fukushi Library (ハートネットTV 身体拘束のない国へ～ニュージーランドからの報告～: https://www.facebook.com/NHK%E5%8E%9A%E7%94%9F%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E4%BA%8B%E6%A5%AD%E5%9B%A3-548888338522224/
• Radio New Zealand’s video “Death Bed: The story of Kelly Savage (https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/kelly-savage.../index.html
• Numerous reports mentioning Kelly have appeared in the mainstream print media.
• A petition to the Japanese government (https://www.change.org/.../so-my-son-s-death-won-t-be-in to reduce restraint use has garnered more than 13,000 signatures.
• A petition asking the Japanese government to reduce restraints was signed by 31 leading psychiatrists from around the world. This action resulted in a complaint about Japan to the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association in 2019.
• After more than doubling in a 20-year period, the number of people in mechanical restraints in Japanese psychiatric hospitals on June 30 each year reached its highest point of 12,528 in 2017. That number has fallen slightly to 10,875 in 2019, perhaps because of our efforts. But it is still much too high.
None of these efforts will bring back our beloved son, but hopefully they can help to prevent other families from going through similar horrific experiences.
Signed:
Michael Savage and Martha Savage
Wellington, New Zealand
May 15, 2021