EDITOR'S CHOICE- 04.29.09
14-Year-Old Black Student Develops New Surgery Technique
By Casey Gane-McCalla

Photos by JON M. FLETCHER/The Times-Union
Darnell-Cookman Middle/High School ninth-grader Tony Hansberry II has been working with Bruce Nappi, the administrative director at the University of Florida's simulation center at its Jacksonville medical campus, on a new technique for sewing 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.

Feel free to read that again.

Tony Hansberry II is a ninth-grader who, as it happens, will be presenting his findings today before an auditorium filled with doctors just like any of his board-certified - and decades older - colleagues would. He would say he was following in the footsteps of “Doogie Howser, M.D.” - if he weren’t too young to have heard of the television show.

Instead, 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.

To be sure, he had some help along the way, but, then again, most researchers do. 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.