Yabe Hisao (Hisao Yabe)

Biography

2019: Leaving from a prison term after concealment of infections in the medical equipment

At the end of May, 2019 the former head of Olympus Medical Systems avoided imprisonment for concealment of the medical products given about infection made by the company.

The Olympus company was forced to answer to court for distribution of the duodenoscopes intended for reuse after cleaning or repeated processing in medical institution. However processing of products was difficult, and the duodenoscopes as a result infected became the reason of several outbreaks of the infections supersteady against action of antibiotics, in Europe and the USA. Among victims in 2012 there were 27 patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 3 patients infected with colibacillus.

The former head of Olympus Medical Systems avoided prison for concealment of infections in the medical equipment

In December, 2018 on listening of district court of the USA the former senior chief executive of Olympus company Hisao Yabe admitted the guilt that the company hid important information on ghost effects, did not submit reports to regulatory bodies and continued to sell the infected duodenoscopes. The judge Stanley Chesler rejected a request of the government to sentence Yabe to imprisonment for a period of six months, having noted failure of evidence of fraudulent intentions and that fact that Yabe voluntarily arrived to the USA on court session.

According to Chesler, during adjudgement he also considered "a personal and professional shame" of Yabe. Initially Yabe was threatened the maximum punishment in the form of one year of imprisonment and a penalty in the amount of $100,000.

In December, 2018 Chesler fined Olympus $85 million taking into account that the company admitted guilt. Olympus also undertook to observe the agreement with the Ministry of Justice according to which the company should modify production in order to avoid new problems.^[1]

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