Teen Performs C-Section in Bid for Record

Parents may lose medical licenses; officials launch probe of surgery
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2007 2:21 PM CDT
Teen Performs C-Section in Bid for Record
Dr. K. Murugesan looks on at his clinic in Manaparai, near Trichy, 316 kilometers (198 miles) southwest of Chennai, India, Thursday, June 21, 2007. Murugesan's 15-year-old son Dhileepan Raj performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his doctor parents' watch in southern India in an apparent bid...   (Associated Press)

A 15-year-old in southern India performed a Cesarean section so he could make the Guinness Book of Records as the world's youngest surgeon, the BBC reports. The boy's parents, both doctors, supervised and videotaped the operation on a 20-year-old patient. They later claimed he'd only assisted in the birth.

The authorities were not amused. A top official at the Indian Medical Association called the affair "shocking and extremely unethical," and state health authorities ordered a full investigation. The parents face possible disqualification as doctors. People in India are known for performing outlandish feats in the hopes of appearing in record books. (More surgery stories.)

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