100-Year-Old Doctor Still Making Rounds

(CBS)  Did you hear the one about the 100-year-old gynecologist? Dr. Walter Watson of Augusta, Georgia still sees a few patients every day. Then, he drives himself down the block to University Hospital where he still serves as chairman of his department.

In recent years, Dr. Watson has delegated most of his duties to other doctors, which is good, because I followed him around the hospital for an hour and never saw him directing much of anything.

The staff clearly loves him, and he loves them. But it's the patients who seem to most appreciate Dr. Watson and his tireless, unending devotion to medicine. Between 1944, when Dr. Watson delivered his first baby, and 1995 when he stopped doing obstetrics, Dr. Watson ushered in a small army of satisfied customers.

Today, they're known simply as the "Watson babies." They range in age from 15 to 66 and their ranks are innumerable.

So how many babies has Dr. Watson delivered?

"Somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000," Dr. Watson said.

That's nearly 10 percent of the entire Augusta population. Many families have 3 generations of Watson babies.

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"We went to a basketball game one night and he looked at the program and said, 'I delivered every one of these kids,'" said his wife Audrey.

Audrey says her husband delivered so many babies he rarely saw his own family of five. But Audrey says Walter told her when they got married she'd always be third in his life - behind God and his patients.

Dr. Watson plans on being around for a little while longer. He's even started taking new patients - three in the past couple of months.

[JV1970]

He sounds much like a doctor in my hometown who practiced and made house calls until he was well into his nineties and died in 1970 at the age of 96. He came to my hometown about 1904 before we even had paved streets in our town. Our main street was a dirt road and when it rained it was a mud road with mud nearly knee deep. He travelled all over our county going to places where there sometimes wasn't even a road yet. He travelled by horse and buggy if he could but if there wasn't a road he went by horseback or walked. He went whenever he was needed or called. Many, many times he was called out in the middle of the night and didn't get home until daylight the next morning but he always went when he was called. It didn't matter if it was in the middle of the night or freezing cold or rain. He would get up out of bed and go when he was needed. During the course of his over sixty years of practice he delivered several thousand babies, set countless broken bones, sewed up countless cuts, and cured many thousands of cases of mumps, measles, chicken pox, pneumonia, flu, and countless other maladies that the people in my area had. He was a great man and dear friend of my family and it was great loss to my town and my area and to all of us when he died.

[formrusmcsgt]

And some 20 year-olds you can't get off the couch.....

[fsupport]

Of course Dr. Watson has been required to maintain his credentials. On his most recent time taking the boards, he inquired and was told he missed only one question. When he challenged, the testing committee had to reverse their grading on that question.

[tchuoshin]

In 29 years I shall be 100 years old. I hope to be as physically active as Dr. Watson. But I would like to read more about his personal life: His diet, exercise routine, what kind of stress did he cope with, hobbies, etc.

[DucoNihilum]

"In recent years, Dr. Watson has delegated most of his duties to other doctors, which is good, because I followed him around the hospital for an hour and never saw him directing much of anything. "

How totally unprofessional. Mentioning yourself in an article is the height of narcissism. I would expect this from Steven Colbert, not CBS.

Not to mention that this is kind of comes across as mean spirited.

A question lead too?

How did this get by edited copy?

[sclrheum]

Dr. Watson is our son-in-law's grandfather. He's an amazing man, still has all his marbles.

[tsigili]

Personally, I admire his ability to do that, but I would certainly get a second opinion, before doing anything risky in my own health care.

As someone a lot younger than he is, but about to retire, I know how much My own body is telling me that the time to retire has come, and I cannot believe his isn't.

[cktirumalai]

Three generations of babies in a single family and an entire basketball team all delivered by Dr. Walter Watson: remarkable accomplishments. And his directness and candor, as in telling his wife before marriage that she would come third in his life behind God and his patients. And remarkable too that she knew what he meant and took it in the right spirit.

[shazbat34]

Good for him. Retirement is for sissies!

[longtree-2009]

seems odd. so many people are forced to retire at a certain age but apparently not doctors. not all people are useless because they reach a set arbitrary retirement age and should be allowed to continue to work if they so desire, just like this good doctor.