AKRON — Most would-be doctors are still in medical school at age 24. Akron City Hospital's Dr. Santosh Nandi has finished medical school and is in his fourth year of residency.

        But that's no surprise, considering Dr. Nandi started college at 11 and medical school at 16.

        The comparisons to TV teen doc Doogie Howser are inevitable, but the only person who can get away with using that dreaded moniker is Akron City's chief of surgery and Dr. Nandi's boss, Dr. Duane Donovan.

        “I've been here since 1971 and it's the first time I've had a Doogie,” Mr. Donovan told The Akron Beacon Journal for a Sunday story.

        Dr. Nandi admits he lies about his age to patients, although by fewer years now than he did while in medical school.

        “It is an issue with my patients,” he said. “I was just never going to tell them my age. I didn't want their perceptions to upset anything.”

        Dr. Nandi jokes that he started his medical career early so he could retire by age 45.

        Dr. Donovan says Dr. Nandi's age isn't an issue.

        “He's someone special,” Dr. Donovan said. “His empathy, his compassion, everything about him screamed, "This guy's got it all together.'”

        Born in Virginia to Indian immigrants, Dr. Nandi lived in Saudi Arabia for six years before the family moved to southern California in 1983. By the time he started third grade in the United States, he'd already skipped a grade and was taking fifth-grade math classes.

        As an eighth-grader, Dr. Nandi took high school classes, was a Junior Olympic swimmer and played trumpet and saxophone.

        That's also the year his parents told him about a program at California State University that would let him skip high school and start college. As 11-year-old he passed the precollege test and scored more than 1,000 points on the SAT.

        Although he studied with his typical college-age classmates, their social scene wasn't any place for an 11-year-old. Dr. Nandi made friends with other students in the accelerated program who were closer to his own age.

        At 16, Dr. Nandi graduated with degrees in biology and biochemistry and started medical school at the University of California, Irvine, concentrating in general surgery.

        A medical student at the age most teen-agers are in high school, Dr. Nandi was able to enjoy some of the fun of high school and college that he'd passed up — dating, parties.

        “Medical school was a blast,” he said.

        After two years at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Nandi joined the staff at Akron City in 1998.

        Regardless of the challenges he's faced because of his age, Dr. Nandi said he would take the same path if given the opportunity again.

        “I probably would do it again,” he said. “It's hard to say what I've gained from it because I don't know what I've lost from it.”

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