Crowd Says ‘Ahh!’ as 17-Year-Old Gets M.D. Diploma
Cheered by fellow students, faculty and family, a New York teen-ager born in India claimed a place Friday as the youngest medical doctor in the world.
In a graduation ceremony held by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 17-year-old Balamurali Ambati was awarded his diploma, thus becoming Dr. Ambati and achieving a goal he set out to reach when he was a child.
“About 10 years ago I was reading the Guinness Book of World Records and saw the youngest doctor graduated in Italy at 18 years and 3 months old, so I thought I’d try it,” said Ambati, who was granted an exception to practice medicine by the Legislature even though he is under the minimum age of 21.
Ambati, whose age is masked by his six-foot frame and the demeanor and vocabulary of a mature adult, said that “people are always astonished when they first find out my age, but I have not encountered any hostility from my peers, my patients and professors.”
He was born in Madras, India, and arrived in the United States at the age of 3.
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