[Experience of DMAT rescue activity by doctor-helicopter in Tohoku Area after the earthquake].

We operated rescue activities in Tohoku area after the earthquake of March 11th, 2011. From our hospital, a doctor-helicopter flew to the staging care unit at Hanamaki airport with two members of the disaster medical assistance team (DMAT), one of whom was an anesthesiologist. The helicopter carried ten patients by nine flight missions, who were the victims of tsunami after the earthquake. There were seven doctor-helicopters from all over Japan and did the missions based at Hanamaki airport. The missions was quite different from our usual job as an anesthesiologist, but we could transfer the patients safely by using some knowledge of stabilizing the unstable patients as flight doctors. We report the details of our activities by our doctor-helicopters in Tohoku area.