An 89-year-old surgeon is proving age really is just a number. She’s the oldest working surgeon in the world and still performs four operations a day.
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Alla Illyinichna Levushkina works at Ryazan City Hospital near Moscow, Russia, and has been a surgeon for a whopping 67 years, performing over 10,000 operations in her career.
Alla lives in a flat where she cares for her disabled nephew and eight cats, and has no intention of slowing down, despite being almost 90.
“Being a doctor isn’t a profession, it’s a lifestyle,” she says, “If I stopped working, who is going to perform the surgeries?”
She spent 30 years as a surgeon in the air force’s medical team, where she treated people living on the outskirts of Russia. Now she’s back in Ryazan, where she grew up and studied medicine.
Alla calls herself a “racing horse” because she’s immediately filled with energy when she enters the operating theater. As she’s only 150cm tall, she has a special platform to stand on while working.
Although some patients have expressed doubts in Alla’s ability, she insists she never has shaky hands and says she always proves critics wrong with her skill and professionalism.
“At first I felt I couldn’t trust a surgeon who is so old,” said one patient, “But after she palpitated me with her firm fingers, all doubts were gone.”
And the secret to Alla’s longevity? Well, she doesn’t think there is one.
“I didn’t find any secret to a long life,” she laughs, “I just eat everything, laugh a lot, and cry a lot.”
