Meet the world’s oldest gynecologist. He’s 100, and he’s seen some things.
Mark Twain once said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
If one man has taken Twain’s words to heart, it’s Dr. Walter Watson, an Augusta, Georgia gynecologist who, at 100 years old, is the nation’s oldest practicing physician. While he might not have all his marbles (“I got most of ’em. They get a little loose”), that doesn’t stop him from a daily routine of seeing patients in the morning, and then heading over to University Hospital, where he still serves as chairman of his department.
The Yoda of gynecologists has a staggering list of accomplishments:
Taking on new patients after hitting the century mark? Check.
Families with three generations of “Watson Babies?” Commonplace.
A whole high school basketball team? All Watson spawns, delivered with the finest care and attention to detail.
15,000 babies—nearly 10% of Augusta’s population? Elementary, my dear Watson.
Yes, the man has devoted nearly his entire adult life—seventy years—to vaginas. Just ask his wife, who’s had to “share him with pretty much the whole town.” At least when they got married, he was upfront, telling her “she’d always be third in his life, behind God and his patients.”
Hopefully, for her sake, he makes up for it in the bedroom. After all, the man must certainly have some tricks up his wrinkled sleeve.
Still, even though he’s accomplished so much for so long, I think it’s time for Dr. Watson to step up to the plate and take on a new challenge. Let’s see if he can truly cement his status as the greatest gynecologist who ever played the game. Here’s a suggestion: he needs to be assigned the next Bhateri Devi as a patient. Now that’s a TLC series just itching to happen.
—Nick Lehr