‘Must save the patient’: online praise for China medics who calmly complete brain surgery as operating theatre rocked by powerful earthquake
- Staff remain calm, stand still as operating theatre rattled by quake
- Lead doctor tells team they must save patient when tremors subside
A surgeon and his staff in China have been praised for completing brain surgery on a patient despite the threat of aftershocks from a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake.
An Shufang, a neurosurgeon in western China, was in the middle of a craniotomy when a powerful earthquake hit the country’s Xinjiang autonomous region at 2am on January 23.
Together with his team, An completed the surgery despite the quake, The People’s Daily reported.
Three people died during the trembler in Uchturpan county, and officials say the sparse population contributed to the relatively low death toll for an earthquake of such magnitude.
A surveillance video shows An next to the operating table when the earthquake struck, rocking the room.
“Earthquake, earthquake!” An unidentified medical worker can be heard shouting.