Teenage surgeon

last updated 8 January 2015

Tamil Nadu, India

Indian officials are investigating reports that a doctor couple let their 15-year-old son perform a Caesarean section in order to get into the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s youngest surgeon. The investigation began after several doctors said the parents had shown them a video of 15-year-old Dileepan Raj surgically opening the abdomen of a 20-year-old pregnant woman. Family members say the boy was only “helping out.” Even so, said a leader of the local medical association, his participation was “shocking and extremely unethical.” The parents, who run a clinic in southern India, could lose their medical licenses.