Contribution of the Medical Director, Airbus A-310 MRT MedEvac

On the second Christmas holiday of 2004 (26 Dec), a tsunami caused by a seaquake off the coast of Sumatra devasted large parts of the circumjacent coastal regions of Southeast Asia. Some coastal regions with high numbers of tourists were also affected, among them the holiday island of Phuket off the coast of Thailand.
In first press reports of the same day, there was talk of less than 100 or just over 100 dead and approx. 300 injured persons. In the further course of events, the number of dead and injured persons increased dramatically.