Doctor at four? Just a case of mistaken identity

AUCKLAND - A four-year-old girl in New Zealand was mistaken for her namesake, a qualified orthopaedician, and forms for a medical scholarship were sent to her home.

Authorities at the North Shore Hospital mistook four-year-old Samantha Margaret Hook for a doctor named “Samantha Elizabeth Hook” and sent her request forms for references for a surgery fellowship, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Samantha’s mother Yvonne says it was funny as her daughter was no “child prodigy” and was still learning things “like her thigh bone’s connected to her knee bone”.

The family from Coatesville was left confused when the four-year-old was offered a year-long fellowship in arthroplasty, or joint replacement.

Later, they realised that the forms from the hospital were seeking references for “Samantha Elisabeth Hook” and not their daughter.

Samantha had tests a few days ago at the hospital, which was how apparently her name came to be in its record system.

“We thought it was pretty funny, especially since she could have had a job before she had even started school,” Yvonne Hook said. “We would love to send her off to work. It wouldn’t be bad going at all.”

Later, the district health board apologised for the error, and said it would review all systems to ensure this does not happen again.