"There Was No Thought of Leaving the Operating Room"

On July 30, Kamchatka registered an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the strongest there since 1952. Security camera footage of a local hospital captured the moment the tremor struck during a surgery. It quickly went viral for showing the medical staff protecting the patient.

Kamchata Krai Healthcare Minister Oleg Melnikov shared the video of a surgical intervention at the Kamchatka Regional Oncology Dispensary. A nurse could be seen holding a table with medical tools, while surgeons held onto a patient and equipment during the quake. None of the medical staff left their posts during the record-breaking tremor.

Oncologist Lybov Tsyplakova told Komsomolskaya Pravda, "[My] first thought was: We have to finish the surgery. No matter what happens, no matter how the shaking continues, the surgery needs to finish." Since the procedure was performed on an open body cavity, stopping the intervention and waking up the patient at that moment could have been fatal.

The head of the hospital's oncology department, Dr. Yana Gvozdeva, said the shaking lasted approximately five to six minutes. Gvozdova told Zvezda TV channel, "It was really scary. We thought the operating table would tip over and the patient would jump out of our hands."

According to the oncologist, at one point, the doctors had to stop operating to secure the patient and the surgical instruments. The anesthesiologist held onto his equipment tightly throughout the earthquake. Had the machine turned off, the patient would have died. Gvozdeva said, “There was no thought of leaving the operating room.”

The operation lasted only a few minutes longer. The surgery was pre-planned and at its final stage. According to Gvozdeva, the injury was not stitched up when the earthquake struck. The doctor said, "We did everything so the disaster would not be more devastating." The procedure was successful: the patient's colon tumor was removed, and they are currently in stable condition in the intensive care unit.

Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov instructed the group of doctors to prepare documents for submission to receive state awards. Solodov's post was met with backlash, as internet users asked whether medical staff who were on the job during the earthquake but were not recorded should receive prizes as well. Oncologist Artem Eremenko, who was in the viral surgery, said doctors in the neighboring room also remained in their posts. Gvozdeva said, "Where is the heroism here? Any doctor, any specialist would have done the same in our place."