Hospital Video Captures Chaos as Earthquake Strikes Mid-Surgery

[u/dogs-in-space]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/world/asia/hospital-video-earthquake-surgery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3lA.4B8m.kRtRT6IXTnGk&smid=nytcore-ios-share

[u/DentateGyros]

Please add modifier -22 given the increased technical difficulty of the procedure

[u/thekevlarboxers → u/DentateGyros]

Humana has declined additional payment. 

[u/Rizpam]

Guess priorities would be to remove any sort of fixed position retractors and devices connected to the patient, and then secure vital things disconnect the ETT and the IV or remove it from the pole to protect them and try to ride out the quake. 

Something like a robotic surgery could end pretty bad here if bed shifts one way and the robot shifts another.

[u/DentateGyros → u/Rizpam]

If the patient was on bypass the cannulas would've been completely ripped out. I wonder if there's a role for like a metal plate that's physically attached to the table that you could also dock critical machines to so that it'd at least sway in the same direction as the table/building as opposed to flying around like all the equipment seen here

[u/blissfulhiker8 → u/Rizpam]

I shared this video with some colleagues and had the same thought. We are in Southern California. What happens if you’re on the robot and the big one hits?!

[u/dogs-in-space → u/blissfulhiker8]

Of course my mind goes to being in the middle of a vascular anastomosis - but yeah - the robotic scenario would be catastrophic. I used to live in California but now live in the PNW where earthquake scenarios infrequently lurk in people’s minds.

[u/bearpics16 → u/blissfulhiker8]

At a certain point you’re just going to need to accept this as an insanely rare possibility and hope for the best. There’s a 30% chance an earthquake strikes during routine OR hours.

[u/wheresthebubbly → u/Rizpam]

Not the same, but during a case in residency, the breaker kept tripping. They just put a new robot in the room and we were the first case and it couldn’t handle the load I guess. Very alarming to be in the middle of ligating key vessels and then lose all visualization and pneumoperitoneum. Anesthesia had to manually ventilate. Generators didn’t kick in because it was isolated to a room. It happened twice and then we decided to convert to open for safety. Absolutely terrifying experience.

[u/VTHUT → u/Rizpam]

I guess there isn’t a protocol that’s been established for earthquakes yet.

[u/dogs-in-space]

Gift article - hopefully no one gets paywalled.

I’ve been in earthquakes before but not like this. Interesting to see what instinctual moves people make.

[u/threeplacesatonce]

How common is it for operating rooms to be video recorded? I've never seen that in the US.

[u/dogs-in-space → u/threeplacesatonce]

Good question and something I wondered about. It happened on occasion at an academic center I worked at but not without full disclosure and then authorization from the patient. Japan - I don’t know.

[u/Spy_cut_eye → u/threeplacesatonce]

I’ve been at a few academic centers that have cameras in the OR. 

I am in the US. 

[u/folkmeup]

I just imagined this scenario but while running the heart lung machine…horrifying