Turns out many people have wondered what does a doctor do when they are operating on a patient and an earthquake takes place. After all, while this happens relatively often, it’s a job that, more than any other, calls for steady hands.
Now they have their answer, courtesy of the 3.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Wuqia County of Kizil, Suzhou, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 16:07 on 26 May, at a depth of 18 kilometres.
An earthquake of such a magnitude is clearly felt. As it struck, a medical-aid team from our very own Jiangsu was assisting local doctors in an operating theatre on the ninth floor of Wuqia People’s Hospital.
The patient had suffered a lumbar-spine fracture due to a fall from a height; in charge of the work was Director, Sun Zhiyong, who had arrived at the hospital on 22 May to assess the general condition of the patient and make the necessary preoperative preparations.
Then the quake struck during the procedure. As can be seen in a video published by the Yangtze Evening News, the doctors make tacit communication with their eyes and by way of gestures, to unanimously decide to continue the operation.
First though, Sun immediately went to the side of the patient’s head to monitor their vital signs and to carefully check whether the shaking had caused failure in the lumbar’s negative-pressure drainage.
Just as important was whether the patient’s position on the operating table had moved, for were they to fall to the floor, the consequences would be unimaginably disastrous.
Finally, Sun needed to check the integrity of all surgical-operation equipment and the C-Arm mobile imaging unit, together with its associated computer workstation.
With it safe to proceed, Director Sun stood firm while his colleagues; Wang Kun, from Changzhou; and Ali Mujiang, Attending Physician of the Second Department of Orthopedics in Kezhou People’s Hospital; continued to operate on the patient as the room shook around them.
After more than 5 hours of hard work, the operation was successfully completed.
The curious therefore now have their answer. Do doctors terminate a surgery to get themselves and the patient out as fast as possible? No. They remain completely fearless in the face of danger.
