VIDEO: Surgeons brace patient during magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Russia

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit off the coast of Russia while doctors were mid-surgery on Wednesday, July 30. Video shared by the minister of health in Kamchatka Krai, Oleg Melnikov, shows surgeons bracing their patient as the room shakes. 

Video shows surgeons mid-operation trying to stabilize their patient as a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake shook the surgery suite in Kamchatka, Russia, on Wednesday morning. 

The earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 struck just a few miles offshore of Petropavlovsk, Russia, early Wednesday local time. Damage has been reported across the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the quake produced tsunami waves more than 3,000 miles away across the western U.S. and Hawaii. 

The video above, shared by Oleg Melnikov, the regional minister of health in Kamchatka, shows the medical team attempting to secure their patient and surgical equipment as the earthquake rattles the building for several minutes. 

Doctors brace their patient while an 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocks the surgery center in Russia on July 30, 2025. 

(Oleg Melnikov via Storyful)

Melnikov said the doctors at the Kamchatka oncology center are “heroes in white coats.”

TSUNAMI WAVES HIT HAWAII, US WEST COAST AFTER MASSIVE 8.8 QUAKE STRIKES OFF RUSSIA

Meanwhile, tsunami alerts continue for Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California. Experts with the U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers warned that even after the tsunami waves have died down, the Pacific Ocean will remain dangerous with rip currents. 

The earthquake was the sixth strongest in recorded history. 

Drone footage the from Kamchatka branch of the Federal Research Center of Geophysical Surveys of the Russian Academy of Sciences shows the damage caused by tsunami waves on the town of Severo-Kurils, in Russia’s far-eastern Kuril Islands. The waves were caused by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake, the sixth-strongest quake in recorded history.