BEN CARSON
G'day folks,
Welcome to some background on a man who came from humble beginnings to become a specialist. Ben
Carson overcame his troubled youth in inner-city Detroit to become a gifted
neurosurgeon famous for his work separating conjoined twins.
“I also came to realize that if people could
make me angry they could control me. Why should I give someone else such power
over my life?”
—Ben Carson
Ben
Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951. His mother, though
undereducated herself, pushed her sons to read and to believe in themselves.
Carson went from being a poor student to receiving honors and he eventually
attended medical school. As a doctor, he became the Director of Pediatric
Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33, and became famous for his
ground-breaking work separating conjoined twins.
Benjamin
Solomon Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951. The second
son of Sonya and Robert Solomon Carson, Ben grew up in the hardened climate of
inner-city Detroit. Ben's mother was raised in Tennessee in a very large
family. She dropped out of school in the third grade.
With not
much hope or prospects in life, she married Baptist minister Robert Carson when
she was 13, believing that he would change her life. The couple moved to
Detroit, Michigan, and for a time, the marriage was a success. Carson showered
his wife with gifts and attention. But over time, Robert Carson changed. Though
benevolent, he could also be domineering and erratic. In time, Sonya felt it
was best for her sons if she and Robert divorced.
Ben was 8
and Curtis, Ben's brother, was 10 when Sonya was left to raise the children on
her own. The family was very poor, and to make ends meet Sonya sometimes took
on two or three jobs at a time in order to provide for her boys. Most of the
jobs she had were as a domestic servant. There were occasions when her boys
wouldn't see her for days at a time, because she would go to work at 5:00 a.m.
and come home around 11:00 p.m., going from one job to the next.
Carson's
mother was frugal with the family's finances, cleaning and patching clothes
from the Goodwill in order to dress the boys. The family would also go to local
farmers and offer to pick corn or other vegetables in exchange for a portion of
the yield. She would then can the produce for the kids' meals. Her actions, and
the way she managed the family, proved to be a tremendous influence on Ben and
Curtis.
Sonya
also taught her boys that anything was possible. By his recollection many years
later, Ben Carson had thoughts of a career in medicine, though it was more of a
fantasy many young children harbor as they grow up. Because his family was on
medical assistance, they would have to wait for hours to be seen by one of the
interns at the hospital. Ben would listen to the pulse of the hospital as
doctors and nurses went about their routines.
Occasionally,
there'd be an emergency and he could hear in people's voices and in their quick
movements the pace and emotions rise to meet the challenge. He'd hear the PA
system call for a "Dr. Jones" and fantasized that one day they'd be
calling for a "Dr. Carson."
Early Education
Both Ben
and his brother experienced difficulty in school. Ben fell to the bottom of his
class, and became the object of ridicule by his classmates. He developed a
violent and uncontrollable temper, and was known to attack other children at
the slightest provocation. The poverty he lived in and the difficult times he
experienced in school seem to exacerbate the anger and rage.
Determined
to turn her sons around, Sonya limited their TV time to just a few select
programs and refused to let them go outside to play until they'd finished their
homework. She was criticized for this by her friends, who said her boys would
grow up to hate her. But she was determined that her sons would have greater
opportunities than she did.
She
required them to read two library books a week and give her written reports,
even though with her poor education, she could barely read them. She would take
the papers and pretend to carefully review them, scanning over the words and
turning the pages, before placing a checkmark at the top of the page to show
her approval.
At first,
Ben resented the strict regimen. While his friends were playing outside, he was
stuck in the house, forced to read a book or do his homework. But after several
weeks of his mother's unrelenting position, he began to find enjoyment in
reading. Being poor, there wasn't much opportunity to go anywhere. But between
the covers of a book he could go anyplace, be anybody and do anything.
Ben began
to learn how to use his imagination and found it more enjoyable than watching
television. This attraction to reading soon led to a strong desire to learn
more. Carson read books on all types of subjects and found connections between
them. He saw himself as the central character of what he was reading, even if
it was a technical book or an encyclopedia. He read about people in
laboratories, pouring chemicals into a beaker or flask, or discovering
galaxies, or peering into a microscope.
He began
to see himself differently, different from the other kids in his neighborhood
who only wanted to get out of school, get some nice clothes, and a nice car. He
saw that he could become the scientist or physician he had dreamed about.
Staying focused on this vision of his future helped him get through some of the
more difficult times.
Within a
year, Ben Carson was amazing his teachers and classmates with his improvement.
The children's books he read while he was confined to quarters now had
relevancy in school. He was able to recall facts and examples from the books
and relate them to what he was learning in school. In 5th grade, Ben astonished
everyone by identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to school.
As he
recalled several years later, he began to realize that he wasn't stupid. Within
a year he was at the top of his class, and the hunger for knowledge had taken
hold of him. It wasn't easy in the predominantly all-white school, though.
After Ben received a certificate of achievement at the semester break, one of
the school's teachers berated the white students for letting a black student
get ahead of them academically.
Ben also
had several teachers along the way who expressed a strong interest in his
success. After he demonstrated his proficient knowledge of rocks in his 5th
grade class, his teacher asked Ben to come by the school's lab after classes
ended for the day. There Ben found squirrels to feed and a tarantula to observe.
He discovered the wonders of using a microscope to study water specimens, and
learned about paramecium and amoebas.
Later, at
Southwestern High School in inner-city Detroit, his science teachers recognized
his intellectual abilities and mentored him. Other teachers helped him to stay
focused when outside influences pulled him off course.
After Ben
graduated with honors from high school, he knew he wanted to pursue a medical
career. But because his mother was not financially well off, Carson had to work
through most of his time in college. The automobile industry was facing a
downturn in Detroit during the 1970s, making it tough to get a summer job.
But
Carson was determined to achieve his goals. He knocked on doors looking for
summer work and usually, through persistence, was able to obtain one. From this
work, and a scholarship, he attended Yale University and earned a B.A. degree
in psychology.
Anger Issues
Despite
his academic successes, Ben Carson still had a raging temper that translated
into violent behavior as a child. One time he tried to hit his mother with a
hammer because she disagreed with his choice of clothes. Another time, he
inflicted a major head injury on a classmate in a dispute over a locker. In a
final incident, Ben nearly stabbed to death a friend after arguing over a
choice of radio stations.
The only
thing that prevented a tragic occurrence was the knife blade broke on the
friend's belt buckle. Not knowing the extent of his friend's injury, Ben ran
home and locked himself in the bathroom with a Bible. Terrified by his own
actions, he started praying, asking God to help him find a way to deal with his
temper. He found salvation in the book of Proverbs in a passage that went,
"Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than
one who takes a city."
Ben began
to realize that much of his anger stemmed from putting himself in the center of
everything. Anytime anything happened that was not to his liking, he
internalized it and made it his problem. Once he took himself out of the
equation, he could see that not everything was directed at him and that he
wasn't the only one with troubles.
He began
to see things from other points of view. He soon realized he could control his
anger, rather than it controlling him. He realized his future depended on the
choices he made and the degree of energy he put into his life. Seeing that
living in the inner city was only temporary, Carson believed he had the full
power to change his situation.
After
graduating from Yale in 1973, Carson enrolled in the School of Medicine at the
University of Michigan, choosing to become a neurosurgeon rather than a
psychologist. In 1975, he married Lacrena "Candy" Rustin whom he met
at Yale. Carson earned his medical degree, and the young couple moved to
Baltimore, Maryland, where he became a resident at Johns Hopkins University in
1977. His excellent eye-hand coordination and three-dimensional reasoning
skills made him a superior surgeon early on. By 1982, he was chief resident in
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.
In 1983,
Carson received an important invitation. Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in
Perth, Australia, needed a neurosurgeon and invited Carson to take the
position. Resistant at first to move so far away from home, he eventually
accepted the offer. It proved to be an important one. Australia at the time was
without enough doctors with highly sophisticated training in neurosurgery.
Carson gained several years worth of experience in the year he was in Australia
and honed his skills tremendously.
Carson
returned to Johns Hopkins in 1984 and, by 1985, he became director of pediatric
neurosurgery at the young age of 33. In 1987, Carson attracted international
attention by performing a surgery to separate two 7-month-old craniopagus twins
from Germany. Patrick and Benjamin Binder were born joined at the head. Their
parents contacted Carson, who went to Germany to consult with the parents and
the boys' doctors. Because the boys were joined at the back of the head, and
because they had separate brains, he felt the operation could be performed
successfully.
On
September 4, 1987, Carson and a team of 70 doctors, nurses, and support staff
joined forces for what would be a 22-hour surgery. Part of the challenge in
radical neurosurgery is to prevent severe bleeding and trauma to the patients.
In this operation, Carson had applied a technique used in cardiac surgery
called hypothermic arrest.
The boys'
bodies were cooled down so the blood flowed slower and bleeding was less
severe. This allowed the surgeons to perform the delicate task of untangling,
dividing and repairing shared blood vessels. Although the twins did have some
brain damage, both survived the separation, making Carson's surgery the first
of its kind.
In 1994,
Carson and his team went to South Africa to separate the Makwaeba twins. The
operation was unsuccessful, as both girls died from complications of the
surgery. Carson was devastated, but vowed to press on, as he knew such
procedures could be successful. In 1997, Carson and his team went to Zambia in
South Central Africa to separate infant boys Luka and Joseph Banda. This
operation was especially difficult because the boys were joined at the tops of
their heads, making this the first time a surgery of this type had been
performed. After a 28-hour operation, both boys survived and neither suffered
brain damage.
Over
time, Ben Carson's operations began to gain media attention. At first, what
people saw was the soft-spoken hospital spokesperson explaining the complicated
procedures in simple terms. But in time, Carson's own story became public -- a
troubled youth growing up in the inner-city to a poor family eventually finding
success.
Soon,
Carson began traveling to schools, businesses and hospitals across the country
telling his story and imparting his philosophy of life. Out of this dedication
to education and helping young people, Carson and his wife Candy founded the
Carson Scholars Fund in 1994. The foundation grants scholarships to young
students and promotes reading in the younger grades.
Biggest Medical Challenge
In 2003,
Ben Carson faced what was perhaps his biggest challenge: separating adult
conjoined twins. Ladan and Laleh Bijani were Iranian girls who were joined at
the head. For 29 years, they had literally lived together in every conceivable
way. Like normal twins, they shared experiences and outlooks, but as they got
older and developed their own individual aspirations, they knew they could
never lead independent lives unless they separated. As they told Carson at one
point, "We would rather die than spend another day together."
This type
of medical procedure had never been attempted on conjoined adults because the
outcome would almost certainly result in death. By this time, Carson had been conducting
brain surgery for nearly 20 years and had performed several craniopagus
separations. He tried to talk the two women out of the surgery, but after many
discussions with them and consultations with many other doctors and surgeons,
he agreed to proceed.
Ben
Carson and a team of more than 100 surgeons, specialists and assistants
traveled to Singapore in Southeast Asia. On July 6, 2003, Carson and his team
began the nearly 52-hour operation. They used a 3-D imaging technique that
Carson had developed several years earlier during the Banda twins operation.
The computerized images allowed the medical team to conduct a virtual surgery
before the operation. During the operation, they followed digital
reconstruction of the twins' brain. A specially designed chair allowed the
operation to be performed while both sisters were in a sitting position.
Besides
the girls age, the surgery revealed more difficulties because their brains not
only shared a major blood vessel, but had fused together. The separation was completed
at 1:30 p.m. on July 8. But it was soon apparent that the girls were in deep
critical condition, having both lost a large volume of blood due to the
complications of the surgery.
At 2:30
p.m., Ladan died on the operating table. Her sister, Laleh died a short time
later at 4:00 p.m. The loss was devastating to all, especially Carson, who
found some solace in the fact that the girls' bravery to pursue the operation
had contributed to neurosurgery in ways that would live far beyond them.
Because
of his unflagging dedication to children and his many medical breakthroughs,
Carson has received more than 50 honorary doctorate degrees and is a member of
the Alpha Honor Medical Society, the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished
Americans and sits on the boards of numerous business and education boards.
Later Career
In 2002,
Carson was forced to cut back on his break-neck pace after developing prostate
cancer. He took an active role in his own case, reviewing X-rays and consulting
with the team of surgeons who operated on him. Carson fully recovered from the
operation cancer-free. The brush with death caused him to adjust his life to
spend more time with his wife and their three children, Murray, Benjamin, Jr.
and Rhoeyce.
After his
recovery, Carson still kept a busy schedule, performing nearly 300 operations a
year and speaking to various groups around the country. He has written several
books including the autobiography Gifted Hands (1996). Three other
works, The Big Picture (2000) and Think Big (2006), Take
the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk
(2009) are about his personal philosophies on success, hard work, risk and
faith in God.
In 2001,
CNN and Time magazine named Ben Carson as one of the nation's 20
foremost physicians and scientists. In that same year, the Library of Congress
selected him as one of 89 "Living Legends." In 2006, he received the
Spingarn Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the NAACP. In February 2008, President Bush awarded Carson the Ford's Theater Lincoln Medal and
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. highest civilian honors. In 2009,
actor Cuba Gooding,
Jr. portrayed Carson in the TNN
television production Gifted Hands.
In recent
years, Carson has focused more on politics than practicing medicine. He has
been known as an outspoken conservative Republican. In 2012, he published America
the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. In February
2013, Carson attracted a lot of attention for his speech at the National Prayer
Breakfast. He criticized President Barack Obama for his positions on taxation
and health care. He announced that he was officially retiring from his career
as a surgeon the following month. That October, he was hired by Fox News in
October 2013 to work as a contributor. In May 2014, Carson published his book One
Nation: What We Can All Do To Save America's Future.
On May 4,
2015, Carson launched his official bid for the Republican presidential
nomination at an event in Detroit. “I’m not a politician,” Carson said. “I
don’t want to be a politician because politicians do what is politically
expedient. I want to do what’s right.”
Clancy's comment: Interesting man, eh?
I'm ...
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