JILTI. 2023; 1(1): 2-4 | DOI: 10.14744/jilti.2023.25744

Surgical Experiences from Europe's Largest Liver Transplant Institute during the February 6, 2023 Cataclysmic Turkish Earthquake

Sezai Yilmaz¹, Burak Isik¹, Adil Baskiran¹, Sami Akbulut², Ahmet Kizilay³, Brian I Carr^4
1Department of Surgery and Liver Transplant Institute, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Türkiye
²Public Health and Epidemiology Specialist, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Türkiye
³Rectorate, Inonu University, Malatya, Türkiye
⁴Department of Translational Hepatocellular Carcinoma Research of Liver Transplantation Institute, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Türkiye

From disasters, we have to deduce some lessons to implement in centers where major surgeries are performed.
The Inonu University Liver Transplant Institute is located in the province of Malatya in southeast Turkey. On February 6, 2023, Malatya suffered two devastating earthquakes, one with a magnitude of 7.8 and another 10 h later, with a magnitude of 7.6, and subsequently thousands of aftershocks, some greater than magnitude 6. The city center looked like a complete rubble with ruined buildings and main roads. From this disaster, we deduced some lessons such as emergency action plans and psychological support programs should be done, people in senior management must be at work and should not leave the hospital, and etc.
This was a significant disaster. As the largest transplant center in Europe, the Inonu University Liver Transplantation Institute has attempted to survive. We now need to move quickly to regain the quality of our previous services.

Keywords: Devastating disaster, Earthquake, Liver transplantation program, Learned lessons, Malatya, Türkiye

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