futaba kosei hospital was only 4 kilometers from the plant. when the evacuation order came, staff had finally begun evacuating 40 or so cancer patients and bed-ridden elderly people. patients in critical condition were carried out, bundled in sheets. the patients were flown one after another in a self-defense force helicopter from the field of the high school. but as night fell and visibility dropped, the helicopters stopped coming. >> translator: to be honest, i thought we had been abandoned. some thought we would be left there with nobody to rescue us. >> to escape the radiation, the 25 staff members and patients broke the door of a school building and hid inside. everyone thought they would die. during the night, one 86-year-old woman took a turn for the worse. oxygen tanks and medicines had been taken away, so there was nothing the staff could do. the woman quietly passed away. >> translator: i'm so frustrated. why was there no alternative? there must have been another way to evacuate more safely and quickly. >> a series of evacuation orde