Tsunami Dear Editor; The greatest tragedy in Asian history in this decade occurred on December 26th, 2004. The magnitude 9.3 earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. This second-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 generated more than 10 meter-high tsunami which swept across the Indian Ocean within hours and devastated the shore of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other countries in Asia and Africa. Anywhere from 280,000 to 310,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the tsunami, with tens of thousands reported missing, and over a million left homeless. In Thailand the tsunami attack was along the coast line of Satool, Trang, Krabi, Phuket and Ranong and the worst place - Phang-nga. Tsunami devastated both local fishermen villages and tourist-filled 5-star hotels and resorts. The boats were swept as far as 2 kilometers into the land. Five thousand people died and more than ten thousand injured and needed prompt treatment. Seventeen doctors and nurses from Siriraj Hospital and 9 from Ramathibodi Hospital volunteered to help the local doctors in managing the mass casualty and I was one in the team. We arrived Phuket on December 27th, 2004 afternoon (36 hours after injury) and were assigned to work at Takuapa District Hospital. This hospital has about 200 beds with 30 doctors, one of which lost her life in the event as well. When we arrived, the hospital was packed with more than 500 injured patients. They had to share a bed, laid on the floor and filled up even in the conference room and over flown to the yard nearby. We separated our team into 2 groups. One group went directly to the operating room and the other made a round through all the patients to classify them according to the severity of injury and necessity of treatment. The patients can be classified as which: Class A: Resuscitation-required group: There were 10-15 patients in this group and at that time, they were already transferred to intensive care unit. The examples of patients in this group were near drowning patients, ones with aspiration pneumonia and/or sepsis. Class B: Severely injured group: About a hundred cases were classified into this group such as patients with multiple fractures, pneumothorax, hemothorax, cellulitis and fasciitis. Class C: Patients with minor injuries: There were more than 300 cases that had soft tissue injuries, punctured wounds, lacerated wounds and/or abrasion wounds. Class D: Dead bodies: About thousands bodies were sent to Yan Yao and Bang Muang Temples.