14yr old African American develop a new surgical technique to sew up hysterectomy patients

A Jacksonville researcher has developed a way of
sewing up patients after hysterectomies that stands
to reduce the risk of complications and simplify the
tricky procedure for less-seasoned surgeons.
Oh, and he’s 14 years old (Tony Hansberry II).
He says that his remarkable accomplishments are
merely steps toward his ultimate goal of becoming a
University of Florida-trained neurosurgeon.

“I just want to help people and be respected, knowing
that I can save lives,” said Tony, the son of a
registered nurse mom and an African Methodist
Episcopal church pastor dad.
The seeds of his project were planted last summer
during his internship at the University of Florida’s
Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research,
based at Shands Jacksonville.
To understand why a teenager would be a hospital
intern, it’s important to know that Tony is a student
down the street from Shands at Darnell-Cookman
Middle/High School, a magnet school geared toward
all things medical. (Students, for example, master
suturing by the eighth grade.)
At the simulation center, where medical residents and
nurses practice on dummies, the normally shy student
warmed up to the center’s administrative director,
Bruce Nappi. In turn, Nappi, a problem-solver with a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics
degree, found someone willing to learn.
One day, an obstetrics and gynecology professor
asked the pair to help him figure out why no one was
using a handy device that looks like a dipstick with
clamps at the end, called an endo stitch, for sewing
up hysterectomy patients. In other procedures, it
proved its worth for its ability to grip pieces of thread
and maneuverability.
What Tony did next is so complicated that the
professor who suggested the project has to resort to
a metaphor to explain it: “Instead of buttoning your
shirt side to side, what about doing it up and down?”
Brent Seibel said.