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BREAKERS OF BARRIERS

THE IMPOSSIBLY YOUNG DOCTORS

By Zuhaib khanPublished 10 months ago 3 min read
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DOOGIE HOWSER, M.D.

In the 1980s, a TV scriptwriter thought of a funny idea.

When you think of a family doctor at work, you probably think of a wise older person looking after children, right.

But what if the doctor was a child?

Some people liked his idea, but others said it couldn't happen.

You have to go through years of before you go to university, and you have to do a long course of medical study before you become a doctor. Most doctor start work at 25 or older.

So, the scriptwriter wrote a story in which a child was found to be highly intelligent when he was still a toddler, and finished everything early - learning to read and write early, graduating from early, going to university early, and so on.

The episode of the show, called Doogie Howser, MD was broadcast as a comedy show in USA in 1989. (The letters MD indicate that a person in medical doctor.)

It was very popular with the people in that country. But what they did not know that the same thing happening in real life at roughly the same time.

A boy called BALAMURALI AMBATI, who was in his early teens, was already at university in New York with the ambition of being a doctor.

BALAMURALI AMBATI

And in 1990, when the entering its second year, another child was born in USA who would also be described as a real life Doogie Howser. His name was SHO TIMOTHY TANO, son of a japanese father and south korean mother.

SHO TIMOTHY YANO

Looking back, we can see that both children followed similar lives to the fictional character. They start reading and writing when they were just toddlers, and went through school at a superfast rate. With their parents doing much much of the teaching.

Yano went to university at the age of nine, graduated at 12 and then joined a prestigious university. But he chose to do a PHD in molecular genetic and cell biology first, while he was a teenager, and they do a medical degree afterwards. This meant that he was 21 when he became a working doctor.

Balamurali Ambati went straight into medical school at the age of 14, and graduated as a doctor at the age of 17. He told people he was lucky that he was unusually tall (about 6 feet, which is 1.83m), so people thought he was much older then he was, and he didn't feel out of the place.

In 1995, he was listed in the guinness book of world records as he world's youngest doctor, fully qualified by the age of 17.

the lives of both these children teach us something important:

"These days, even the imaginings of creative screen-writers can become true stories, such are the capabilities of the human race."

Doogie Kealoha is one of a number of Disney+ projects that reach back into the company’s vast IP library. The streaming service already has debuted the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and has projects based on Turner & Hooch and The Mighty Ducks in the works, along with a Beauty and the Beast prequel series and a revival of the animated show The Proud Family. A Lizzie McGuire update is on hold after series creator Terri Minsky departed the project.

Doogie is no ordinary teenager, he is a doctor. As smart as they come, he has been a doctor since the age of fourteen. But it's not because you are highly intelligent that you don't have the same feelings toward life. He is constantly torn between a life of teenage fun with his buddy Vinny, and a more serious and quiet life practicing medicine.

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About the Creator

Zuhaib khan

I AM A TEENAGER AND WROTE STORIES ABOUT HISTORY

IF YOU LIKE MY STORIES THEN COMMENT AND LIKE

AND DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW.

THANK YOU.

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