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Friday, June 22, 2007

Teen surgeon sparks an outrage in India

The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in southern India.

NEW DELHI — The 15-year-old son of two doctors successfully performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in southern India in an apparent attempt to set a record as the youngest surgeon, officials said Thursday.

Instead, the boy's father could be stripped of his licenses and may face criminal charges.

Dr. K. Murugesan showed a recording of his son performing a Caesarean section to an Indian Medical Association (IMA) chapter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu last month, said Dr. Venkatesh Prasad, secretary of the association. The video showed Murugesan anesthetizing the patient.

Murugesan told the medical association that he wanted to see his son's name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

However, Amarilis Espinoza, a spokeswoman for the record book, said the organization doesn't monitor or endorse such feats because it would encourage the practice of "bad medicine."

The mother and baby were reported to have come through the surgery successfully.

Prasad said the IMA told Murugesan his act was an ethical and legal violation.

Murugesan owns and runs a maternity hospital in the city of Manaparai, Prasad said. The family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Murugesan, who could possibly be prevented from practicing and face criminal charges for allowing his son to perform the operation, expressed no regret and accused the Manaparai medical association of being "jealous" of his son's achievements, Prasad added.

"He said this was not the first surgery performed by his son and that he had been training him for the last three years," Prasad said.

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