Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 308, The White Tower Trial

The people who came were Higashi Saeko, the daughter of the former First Surgery Professor Higashi, and Sekiguchi, the lawyer in charge of representing the deceased Sasaki Yohei in court.

This lawsuit has dragged on for a long time, and now it is in its second trial. The Tokyo High Court accepted the appeal, and the deceased's family has been left destitute due to the lawsuit and the boycott from the medical community and society as a whole.

At a crucial moment in the case, lawyer Sekiguchi submitted a new application for witnesses to appear in court, elevating the case to a new level and once again drawing widespread attention.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, Special Missions Unit, Special Investigations Division, has discovered that the forensic officer Uesugi Yohei, the deceased Sasaki Yohei, was the pathologist who performed the autopsy. He is about to testify in court!

His appearance was like a meteorite falling on a calm lake!
He is too famous and too influential. If he leans toward one side, the district attorney and the court will face enormous pressure.

Because he has never lost, all forces that have tried to oppose him in criminal prosecution and on-site evidence collection, no matter who they are, have failed.

The weather in Tokyo in December was bitterly cold. The lawyer Sekiguchi, wearing a heavy suit coat, looked tired with a stubble beard, while the delicate and charming Higashi Saeko wore a brown winter women's office lady style suit skirt with thick brown tights, and she was very clean and tidy. This made it impossible for the two of them to be lovers or husband and wife.

"Uesugi-san, we are extremely grateful that you are willing to testify in court!" Both lawyer Sekiguchi and Higashi Saeko bowed to Uesugi Muneyuki.

Uesugi Muneyuki smiled enigmatically, gesturing for the two to sit down: "You ran into a wall, didn't you? You've run into trouble, haven't you? I heard the first hearing of the second trial was very unfavorable to the plaintiff? You brought in Professor Higashi to testify and conduct a second appraisal, but the results weren't very good, were they?"

"…Please excuse my rudeness, Mr. Sugimoto," said the lawyer Sekiguchi helplessly. "It's because Professor Zaizen's father-in-law, Zaizen Matataichi, is the vice president of the Kanto Medical Association…"

“It has nothing to do with whether he is the vice president or not.” Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly, “In fact, regarding the case of Sasaki Yohei, even if you asked me to conduct a second examination, or even if you asked me to perform an autopsy a hundred times, I can only tell you that, first of all, Professor Zaizen did not misdiagnose, because it is normal to misjudge small shadows in the lungs. The deceased was a heavy smoker who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. It would be a problem if there was no inflammation in his lungs.”

"Secondly, it would be incorrect to say that Professor Zaizen's surgery had problems. Professor Zaizen's judgment was the most accurate at the time, and the surgical treatment plan he proposed was the best and most reasonable treatment plan at the time. Even Professor Okouchi commented that it was a near-perfect surgery."

Uesugi Muneyuki said to Higashi Saeko and lawyer Sekiguchi, "Not to mention that the third-party appraisal agency is also a doctor. Would any doctor like medical disputes? What are you going to rely on to win? Even if you bring in Professor Higashi, Ms. Saeko's father, for the appraisal, it won't be of any use. Moreover, if this happens, will Professor Higashi have to resign from his position as the director of the Nagoya Kinki Labor Association?"

"So you guys did this three times in a row, forcing Associate Professor Satomi to resign and go to Chiba University's Faculty of Medicine, forcing Professor Higashi to resign, and even forcing me to resign from my position at the College of Medicine and Dentistry. In fact, if Professor Okouchi hadn't been a recipient of the Emperor's Prize and qualified to attend the Seiryoden, he would have been forced to resign as well." Uesugi Muneyuki shook his finger: "Because you didn't find the right way. You were always inside the white tower, fighting against the white tower itself."

"What does Uesugi-san mean..." Miss Higashi Saeko asked cautiously, her eyes filled with hope.

In fact, Professor Dong only decided to testify in court after repeated attempts to reach a settlement failed. As a result, he had to resign from his position as dean. Even so, the plaintiff still failed to gain an advantage in the trial. Instead, Professor Dong not only lost his position, but also had a big fight with his wife.

In every sense, Uesugi Muneyuki was the plaintiff's last hope.

"Beyond the White Tower, are there no other towers?" Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly. "Professor Zaizen's medical skills are fine, but are his other actions also without problems?"

“It’s impossible for you to defeat Professor Zaizen inside the White Tower,” Uesugi Muneyuki said. “However, we don’t necessarily have to fight within the area they’ve given us.”

After saying that, Uesugi Muneyuki took out a document, which was the original file of the autopsy report that Tokyo Medical and Dental University had altered: "Do you know what a legal search is, what an illegal search is, what procedural justice is, and what substantive justice is?"

A slight smile appeared on the man's lips: "I'll do it."

"Please!" Sekiguchi and Higashi Saeko bowed to Uesugi Muneyuki in unison, their confidence in him growing stronger as they looked at him with a strange sense of assurance.

We might win this case!
Three days later, the Tokyo High Court held its second hearing in Professor Zaizen's medical malpractice case.

At midday in December, fresh snow blanketed the granite steps of the courthouse like a velvet curtain. The bronze dome of the Neo-Baroque building gleamed coldly, and the flutes of the Corinthian colonnade were piled high with snowflakes. Above the doorways, a statue of the scales of justice held a crown of half-melted snow. Breath condensed into tiny diamond dust in the air, settling on the undisturbed snow-covered surface of the black wrought-iron benches.

Unlike the first hearing, the second hearing attracted nationwide attention in Japan!

Uesugi Muneyuki is about to appear in court to testify!

The number of news media outlets surged from a dozen to over seventy in an instant. A massive crowd gathered outside the Tokyo High Court, and upon seeing Uesugi Muneyuki appear, all the reporters swarmed around him. "National Broadcasting Corporation, National Broadcasting Corporation, this is NHK Live Broadcast. The second hearing in the misdiagnosis case involving Professor Zaizen of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, which has garnered nationwide attention, is now underway. This time, Uesugi Muneyuki, the autopsy examiner for the deceased plaintiff, will personally testify in court!"

"Hello everyone, this is Fuji TV's live broadcast... According to information obtained by this station, the plaintiff's situation was very unfavorable at the first hearing of the second trial. The defendant's lawyer is none other than Kunihira, the ace defense lawyer from Nishimura Asahi Office, Japan's top law firm. In addition, third-party evaluations from Kyoto University School of Medicine and Osaka University School of Medicine both concluded that Professor Zaizen's diagnosis was correct. This is a war between Kanto and Kansai. Please look forward to it!"

"This is TBS Broadcasting Station... With the situation overwhelmingly unfavorable to the plaintiff, can Forensic Examiner Uesugi turn the tide? A 100% win rate versus a 100% case-solving rate! One side is bound to lose!"

"NTV reporting... Wow, Mr. Uesugi has arrived, and so has our familiar judo beauty policewoman. It's said that she's currently serving as Uesugi Forensic Officer's personal bodyguard in the Special Missions Unit? Hmm, and who's that beauty in the trench coat next to him? Why is Forensic Officer Uesugi always surrounded by beauties?"

"TV Asahi, TV Asahi, bringing you live coverage from outside the courthouse... This case may become a new benchmark for Japan's medical system and existing medical diagnostic procedures!"

"Red Star Shines on the Earth~ Five Roads and the Milky Way! Transform, Hikari! Super Materialization~ Ahhhhhh~ Ahhhhhhh~" TV Tokyo did not send any reporters.

"Uesugi-san, please say a few words!" "Uesugi-san, can you tell us why you chose to testify in court?" "Uesugi-san, we can no longer find your name in the public roster of Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital. What happened?"

Uesugi Muneyuki ignored all the reporters' questions, simply maintaining a smile and gesturing for them to move aside.

Ten minutes later, at the Tokyo District High Court, in the courtroom.

The jury was already full. After hearing that Uesugi Muneyuki intended to testify, tens of thousands of people applied for jury membership, which temporarily crashed the Tokyo District High Court's website and put enormous pressure on the court.

Professor Azuma, Uesugi Muneyuki's former mentor, also arrived. For some reason, Uesugi Muneyuki felt that he looked almost exactly like Kai Mineaki, the Vice-Minister of Justice. Kai Mineaki's son, Kai Toru, had already completed all the transfer procedures and was preparing to join the Special Missions Division.

Standing in the courtroom, facing countless eyes, Uesugi Muneyuki calmly said, "In fact, I have no objection to the medical examination results of the first instance. At that time, I and Professor Okouchi dissected Sasaki Yohei's body together. I myself could not determine whether the lesion was a preoperative or postoperative metastasis, because I was dissecting a corpse, not a living person."

Uesugi Muneyuki held up his autopsy report: "In fact, based on the circumstances at the time, I personally believe that it is unrealistic to determine whether there has been metastasis of the lesion through a small shadow on the lung the size of a fingernail. This would require a biopsy, or even a wedge resection. Sasaki Yohei was already critically ill and waiting for surgery. Under these circumstances, it would be tantamount to murder."

"Therefore, I agree with the defense lawyer's point of view and the results of the first evaluation, that is, from a medical point of view, Professor Zaizen's diagnosis is correct. From a medical point of view, expecting a doctor to make an absolutely accurate judgment in such a short time and under such complex circumstances is, in fact, cutting off the path for further medical development."

Upon hearing what Uesugi Muneyuki said, Professor Zaizen, who was in the audience, and his father-in-law and adoptive father, Zaizen Yataichi, looked much better.

Dean Ukai is quite capable! Don't reward him openly, but secretly give him something.

Meanwhile, the faces of the plaintiff, Sasaki Yohei's wife and son, were extremely grim. They immediately looked at Sekiguchi's lawyer, asking with their eyes what was going on.

Wasn't he the one you invited?

The lawyer gestured for patience, suggesting they let things play out for a while.

"I see." The presiding judge of the Tokyo District High Court nodded. Facing this person who had put immense pressure on the court, he said in a deep voice, "Since you, Uesugi, have no objection to the results of the first examination, what is the reason that you chose to accept the plaintiff's request to appear in court as a witness?"

“My reason for testifying in court is very simple.” Uesugi Muneyuki took out an original document: “Because I discovered that the hospital had tampered with my autopsy report, I decided to testify in court myself. I am a forensic doctor, and I want to make things clear.”

"And the reason I'm here today is to clarify things, because Professor Zaizen's problem isn't medical, but rather..."

"Wait!" Just then, Guo Ping, the defense lawyer, suddenly spoke up.

"A pound of pears! (Objection!)"

(End of this chapter)