At Sendai Hospitals, Victims Go Without Painkillers and Food

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Two surgical operations were under way at Tohoku University Hospital in the city of Sendai on March 11 when Japan’s strongest earthquake ever cut off the power. One was stopped and the patient stitched up. The other was completed with in-house power generation.

In the following days, cancer patients were sent home because there was no medication for their chemotherapy. More than 1,000 patients lived for four days on bread, canned corned beef and dried biscuits, said Mio Onodera, a 25-year-old nurse. There are no painkillers and intravenous tubes are being reused.