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Boy Wonder Physician Hunts Modern Medicine’s Holy Grail

After school, 16-year-old Akrit Jaswal spends time on his favorite hobby: trying to find a cure for cancer.

By . Posted on September 20 2009
medicine

Image: iStockphoto

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Like all 16-year olds, Akrit Jaswal spends what little time he has left over after studying in the pursuit of a favorite hobby - but in his case, a most unusual one. He’s trying to find a cure for cancer.

From the lips of anyone else this might be a fatuous boast, but Akrit might just pull it off. Currently studying for a joint bachelor’s degree in Zoology, Botany and Chemistry, the Indian-born student is a real-life Doogie Howser M.D. At the age of seven he successfully performed surgery on a girl to separate her fused fingers. This catapulted him into the spotlight and he became a celebrity in India (his nickname in his home village in northern India is “the genius”) - but his remarkable potential was obvious long before then. After all, there aren’t many babies that start speaking in their 10th month, or infants that can read Shakespeare.

From an early age (early for him, that is), Akrit had shown a keen interest in medicine. Local doctors allowed him to observe surgical procedures - no doubt influencing his decision to illegally perform his own - and his parents furnished with his own medical textbooks as well as arranging for access to many others. He put these to good use with the aid of a remarkable memory.

“Akrit sees and reads things that immediately register in the pathways whilst many of us have to do this several times before it sticks,” said Anup Patel, a urological surgeon at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

At 11 years old, Akrit was accepted for a place at Chandigarh University, where he has been studying for his joint BSc - and he has ultimately set his sights on Harvard. It’s his dream to develop a technique called oral gene therapy to combat a disease he has seen firsthand, a disease causing terrible suffering, especially for those unable to afford healthcare.

But perhaps his greatest hurdle is his age - not just because the international medical community doesn’t really know how to integrate the work of a child prodigy, but also regarding the worry that Akrit lacks the all-round developmental maturity necessary in a legitimately practicing physician. During a two-week visit to Imperial College, London, Professor Mustafa Djamgoz was part of the team that assessed Akrit’s suitability for a current role: “He is generating ideas based upon what he knows, in an idealistic sort of way, without being in full grip of reality, without knowing how difficult it is to turn the ideas into practical realities.”

And there is the question of celebrity. How much is his media-exalted status clouding his true potential? And is he truly on the road to his dream discovery? The signs are promising. On top of his clearly exceptional talents, Akrit also seems blessed with admirable determination, saying “I will be embarrassed [if my cure is a failure], but I will never give up trying.”

And surely for that alone, this extraordinary teenager deserves his place in medical history.

Check out this incredible video clip of Akrit showing off his surgical skills at the age of seven.

By Mike Sowden

Filed under: Features, General Interest, Health and Wellbeing, Heroes,

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