‘We just kept doing our job’ Doctors in Russia’s Kamchatka steady patient mid-surgery as earthquake hits, complete operation safely
As an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Pacific coast on Wednesday morning, doctors in Kamchatka were performing open abdominal surgery on a cancer patient. A video from the operating room shows the medical team holding the patient steady on the table as the room shakes. The team later completed the surgery, and the patient is reportedly in stable condition. Local officials have nominated the medical staff for state honors, but the head of the surgical unit insists they were simply doing their job.
When a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, strong tremors were felt throughout the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky — including inside an operating room.
Footage from the Kamchatka Regional Oncology Center shows the moment the quake hit. The video, shared on Telegram by Kamchatka Health Minister Oleg Melnikov, captures doctors and nurses bracing against the tremors. As medical equipment rattled violently, staff members held the patient in place on the operating table. One employee steadied a monitor while a nurse clutched a tray of surgical instruments. At one point, the loud clang of a metal container crashing to the floor can be heard on the recording.
Melnikov called the medical workers “heroes in white coats.” “Despite the danger, the doctors remained calm and stayed with the patient to the end,” he said. “The patient is now doing well.” He praised the staff for their professionalism and composure during what he called an “extremely stressful situation.”
Governor Vladimir Solodov announced plans to nominate the staff involved for state awards. “I want to thank the medical workers for their courage and professionalism,” he said in a meeting, a clip of which he later posted on Telegram. “We saw them continue caring for the patient right in the middle of surgery, staying calm even as the ground shook violently.” “This kind of bravery deserves the highest recognition,” he added.
Speaking to the Zvezda TV channel, Yana Gvozdeva, head of the hospital’s second surgical unit, said stopping the operation wasn’t an option. The procedure was a laparotomy, an open abdominal surgery, and allowing the patient to regain consciousness mid-surgery could have been catastrophic.
“We were focused on making sure the operating table didn’t tip and the patient didn’t slip out of our hands,” she said. “It was terrifying. If the patient had fallen, God forbid, the consequences would have been enormous. She’s now in the ICU, but stable. Everything’s fine.”
Gvozdeva added that it was the strongest earthquake she had ever experienced. “It lasted at least five or six minutes, nonstop. The tremors came in waves — some stronger, some weaker — and we had no idea what would happen next,” she recalled.
She first learned about the planned commendations from Zvezda. “Duty comes above all else,” Gvozdeva said. “No amount of shaking — of the earth, our instruments, or the equipment — could stop us. We just kept doing our job.”
