MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture--A hospital worker who lost his nurse wife and colleague when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami destroyed their workplace has hailed the planned opening of its replacement here.
MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture--A hospital worker who lost his nurse wife and colleague when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami destroyed their workplace has hailed the planned opening of its replacement here.
“We can finally make a new start,” said Masahiro Goto, 53, prior to the town government's ceremony on Nov. 25 to celebrate the public hospital's completion.
The Minami-Sanriku Hospital, originally the Shizugawa Public Hospital, was the town's only medical institution of that kind when the tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, killing 71 patients and three nurses and assistant nurses.
On the day of the disaster, Goto and his wife were two of around 100 staff members at work, along with 106 inpatients.
When the tsunami hit Shizugawa about 30 minutes after the powerful earthquake, Goto was on the second floor of the four-story east wing. As the water reached him and inundated his legs, he helped patients climb to safety on the rooftop.
The tsunami waters rose to close to the ceiling of the fourth story, where Goto's 46-year-old wife, Hiromi, had been. Tragically, she disappeared in the deluge and has since been missing.
“We were in the same building. If I had been there to tell her to climb to the rooftop, she could have been saved,” Goto said.
The couple had married in November 1990 after being introduced by another nurse colleague. Goto would drive both himself and his wife to work at the hospital.
On the morning of the earthquake, he told Hiromi, “I'm finishing before you today, so you'll need to go home alone.” It was their last conversation.
Goto returned to work immediately after the disaster. But the sight of nurses in white coats reminded him of his wife. The pain was too much to bear, so he requested a transfer to a new workplace.
His wish was granted, and he moved to the tax division of the town government after nearly 30 years at the hospital.
Although Hiromi's body was never found, Goto realized that she must have died, and he carved her name on his family's grave in autumn 2011 to convince himself to accept his loss.
Later, as work on the replacement hospital progressed, he found himself worrying about if it was going smoothly. After some deliberation, he decided that he wanted to return to contribute to its development and help his wife's soul find solace.
About a year ago, he submitted his application for a transfer back to the hospital. In April this year, his request was honored once again, and he was able to go back to work at the facility.
Now Goto is determined to provide good medical services for people in the new institution.
“It is the duty of the staff that survived in the disaster,” he said.
Minami-Sanriku is the first of six public hospitals in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures to reopen after being devastated in the disaster.
A month after the disaster, it had started to accept outpatients again in six prefabricated buildings. In June 2011, it also resumed treatment of inpatients in a neighboring municipality of Tome. However, the facility in Minami-Sanriku had not been able to accept inpatients or provide dialysis treatment.
The new 90-bed hospital, which was constructed on a hill and will be operated by the Minami-Sanriku town government, will accept patients from Dec. 14.