Dramatic footage has shown Japanese surgeons clinging to a patient after a powerful earthquake rocked the operating room. 

Doctors working at a Kumamoto hospital were captured on CCTV holding the shaking operating table down as objects flew across the room during the 7.1-magnitude quake. 

In the footage, captured on July 28, the theatre starts to sway before some of them are suddenly thrown across the room.
 

Two hold the table down and shield the patient while the lights flicker on and off and others stumble. 

Another is thrown to the floor while attempting to secure the moving equipment. 

Japanese media revealed that the surgery resumed and was later completed successfully, while the hospital resumed normal operations on August 5. 

See the video below.

This is what operating under extreme pressure looks like.

Surgeons at Kumamoto General Hospital in Japan were mid-operation when a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck on the 28th of July. 

You can see the anaesthetised patient and equipment in the operating theatre swaying… pic.twitter.com/pSbJtYXiLA

— Keith Siau (@drkeithsiau) August 7, 2026