The Russian newspaper, Kommersant, has published an interesting set of photos by Ilya Pitalev about the oldest Russian surgeon. The woman, Alla, is already 87 years old but still works as a surgeon in the hospital. Want to read more about this granny the surgeon and her story – read on:

She says that she still spends almost all of her time in the hospital, operating, consulting other doctors and talking with patients.

In Russia, women usually retire in their mid fifties, so she being in her 80s is really a sort of rarity – she is officially the oldest surgeon in the whole country and maybe even in the world.

“I didn’t find any secret to longevity”, says Alla, “I just eat everything, laugh a lot and cry a lot”.

The country’s oldest surgeon performs over 100 surgeries a year!

“Why do I work? Because it’s interesting to me, and also because I like to win”, says Alla. “I like to help people achieve remissions. There were people I saved many years ago when nobody else wanted to perform an operation on them. And I did this and they still live and have children grown up”, she says.

“As for me, I don’t have kids and I never was married”, says the doctor, “but I have seven cats and they all need different food. So I need to work”.

“Also, I feed the local stray dogs and cats”

Her coleague, a doctor, says that no matter that Alla is already 87, her hands don’t shake at all. “We perform over 150 surgeries together with her and got zero fatalities. That’s a very awesome result”, remembers the man.

via