Tony Hansberry II is a ninth-grader who developed a simpler way to suture patients after a hysterectomy.

Tony Hansberry II
Tony Hansberry II
Tony Hansberry II

While some kids build a model of a volcano for their high school science project. Tony Hansberry of Jacksonville, Florida developed a simpler way to stitch up patients after a hysterectomy that could reduce the risk of complications.

Tony's technique has since been used once by a certified gynecologist in surgery, and on Thursday Tony, a tenth grader, was called upon to demonstrate the technique to a roomful of doctors at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.

The demonstration took place on a mannequin, of course, because Hansberry isn't a doctor, yet. At 15, he's not even old enough to drive.

But he has mastered the art of suturing a wound, because suturing is part of the eight grade curriculum at the Darnell Cookman School, the medically-focused magnet school Hansberry attends.

The first of its kind in the U.S., the Darnell Cookman School is a sixth-through-twelfth grade school in Jacksonville that gives students a background in all things medical, in hopes of better preparing them for careers as physicians, veterinarians, hospital administrators, or nurses.

Tony wants to be a physician and with the experience he'll gain at Darnell Cookman, he says, he'll have a leg up on other pre-med students when he gets to college.

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