Surgeons at Middlemore Hospital are working around the clock operating on survivors from the Whakaari White Island eruption.
Nearly thirty patients remain in hospital around the country this morning with many of them suffering severe burns - an unprecedented number in this country's medical history.
Such is the extent of their injuries that skin is being brought in from Australia and the United States for grafts.
Matthew Theunissen reports on how the country's hospitals are coping.
