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Just Like That, Sakhan Dosova No Longer World’s Oldest Person

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by Keith Kleiner on May 18th, 2009
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Was This woman Really 130 Years Old?

Last month we wrote about Sakhan Dosova, a woman from Kazakhstan who created a sensation when it was revealed that she might be 130 years old, easily making her the world’s oldest person.  Now, in one of life’s strange twists of irony, Sakhan Dosova has apparently broken her hip and died after a freak fall in her new flat.  With the death of Sakhan Dosova, American woman Gertrude Baines once again takes the reigns as the world’s oldest living person at 115.

Before her recent stardom Dosova apparently lived a simple life, eating simple foods, rarely seeking medical treatment, and avoiding many of the trappings of modern society.  But after Dosova’s age was revealed a few months ago and she became a world sensation all this changed.  The Daily Mail reported that Sakhan Dosova was recently given a new flat by officials in Kazakhstan who were embarrassed that the country’s overnight celebrity was living in overcrowded conditions with her impoverished family.  It sure is ironic to think that Dosova’s death may have been ushered in at least partly by her sudden departure from the simple life that had served her well for so many years.

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Is Sakhan Dosova The Oldest Person In The World?

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by Keith Kleiner on April 3rd, 2009

sakhan_dosova_oldest_personA census in Kazakhstan has reportedly uncovered a woman named Sakhan Dosova who has just turned 130 years old!  If confirmed, Dosova would be an incredible 15 years older than Gertrude Baines, an American woman who is just days away from turning 115 and currently holds the title as the world’s oldest confirmed living person.  Dosova would also shatter the record set by Jeanne Calment, whose 122 year lifespan is the longest documented lifespan beyond reasonable doubt.

So is it really true then?  It may be impossible to tell for certain, but there are some compelling clues.  Sakhan Dosova’s passport states that she was born in 1879 — the year Edison invented the lightbulb and Stalin and Einstein were born.  Demographers were astonished to find that she was also on Stalin’s first census of the region in 1926 when her age was given as 47.  An image (from the Daily Mail) of Dosova’s Kasakh identity card with a birth date of March 27, 1879 is shown below:

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Regardless of her exact age, Dosova is almost undoubtedly part of an exclusive club of individuals known as supercentenarians.  According to Wikipedia, these individuals have reached the age of 110 years or more, something achieved by only one in a thousand centenarians (based on European data). Furthermore, only 2% of supercentenarians live to be 115.  As human health and medicine continue to improve it will be interesting to see what many in the singularity community expect will be an explosion of individuals reaching supercentenarian status.

At the time of one of our earlier stories, Edna Parker was the oldest person in the world at age 115, but she has since passed away in Nov 2008.  A woman named Mariam Amash in Israel claims to be about 120 years old, but similar to the case of Sakhan Dosova, it may be impossible to prove.

Many may question whether it is possible to use medical forensics to verify the age of a person.  According to a Scientific American interview with Jay Olshansky, and expert on the topic, and answer is “no”.  An excerpt below:

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