Surgeons calmly react to magnitude 8.8 earthquake mid-operation

Gripping footage has shown how a team of quick-thinking surgeons reacted to the world’s biggest earthquake in 14 years.

Think you had a bad day at work?

You might have had a run-in with your boss, or maybe you missed the bus and were forced to run through the rain.

Whatever it is, it’s probably not as stressful as what these blokes went through today.

As the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rattled Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, a team of surgeons were put to the test as their operating room shook under the might of the planet’s biggest tremor in 14 years.

Russia’s state-controlled broadcaster RT shared the dramatic video from inside Kamchatka hospital, showing the medical team gripping the patient’s bed to keep everything in place while looking around at the instruments rattling across the room.

The team reportedly finished the procedure without interruption.

“The surgery went well and the patient was in recovery,” RT reported.

As the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rattled Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, a team of surgeons were put to the test as their operating room shook under the might of the planet’s biggest tremor in 14 years.

Along the peninsula’s coast, tsunami waves inundated port areas, prompting residents to flee inland.

Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people was evacuated safely after several people were injured by the quake.

“The walls were shaking,” a Kamchatka resident told Russian state media.

“It’s good that we packed a suitcase, there was one with water and clothes near the door. We quickly grabbed it and ran out... It was very scary,” she said.

Within hours of the quake, warnings and advisories spread across the Pacific, from Alaska and Hawaii to the US West Coast.

Japan, China and New Zealand also issued alerts.

In northern Japan, frothy white waves rolled ashore, while in Honolulu, traffic gridlock lined streets far from the coastline.

Japanese authorities opened evacuation centres, their urgency driven by memories of the 2011 disaster that crippled a coastal nuclear plant.

Official measurements put the tsunami at 3–4 m in Kamchatka, 60 cm on Hokkaido, and just under 30 cm above tide level in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.