Benjamin Carson is an internationally acclaimed neurosurgeon best known for leading a surgical team in a successful operation to separate Siamese twins. He is also recognized for his expertise in performing hemispherectomies, where half the brain is removed to stop seizures. He is a politician serving as the 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2017, under the Trump Administration.
Background
Carson was born on September 18, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan, United States to Robert Solomon Carson Jr., a World War II U. S. Army veteran, and his wife Sonya Carson (née Copeland). Carson's father left his mother, Sonya, when he was only eight; his mother, who had only a third-grade education, was faced with the daunting task of raising her sons Ben and Curtis by herself. She worked as a maid, sometimes holding two or even three jobs to support her family. The family was poor, and Carson often endured the cruel taunts of his classmates.
Education
At the beginning of his student years, Carson wasn't very hard-working and diligent. During a two-year period when his family lived in Boston, he fell behind in his studies. By the time he returned to elementary school in Detroit, he was, according to his profile on the American Academy of Achievement website, "considered the 'dummy' of the class."
After Carson brought home a report card of failing grades, his mother quickly limited her sons' television viewing and required them to read two books a week. The boys then had to give written reports to their mother on what they read. While other children were outside playing, Sonya Carson forced her boys to stay inside and read, an act for which her friends criticized her, saying that her sons would grow up to hate her. Carson later realized that because of her own limited education, his mother often could not read her sons' reports, and was moved by her efforts to motivate them to a better life.
Carson moved from the bottom of the class to the top. However, there was resentment from his classmates at the predominantly white school. After awarding Carson a certificate of achievement at the end of his freshman year, a teacher berated his white classmates for letting an African-American student outshine them academically. In his high school years and later, Carson faced racism in a number of situations, but as he said in his 1996 interview with the American Academy of Achievement, "It's something that I haven't invested a great deal of energy in. My mother used to say, "If you walk into an auditorium full of racist, bigoted people ... you don't have a problem, they have a problem."
With his outstanding academic record, Carson was in demand among the nation's highest-ranking colleges and universities. He graduated at the top of his high school class and enrolled at Yale University. He had long been interested in psychology and, as he related in Gifted Hands, decided to become a doctor when he was eight-years-old and heard his pastor talk about the activities of medical missionaries. College would prove difficult, not just academically but financially, and in his book Carson credits God and a number of supportive people for helping him graduate successfully with his bachelor's degree in 1973. He then enrolled in the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan, graduating from it in 1977 with Master of Arts degree.
Ben has received 38 honorary doctorate degrees from different educational institutions, including the University of Massachusetts, the Yale University and the Medical University of South Africa.
In 1977, Carson became a surgical intern at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, working there until 1978. That same year he became a neurosurgery resident there, working there for 4 years. By 1982 he was the chief resident in neurosurgery in Johns Hopkins. In his 1996 interview on the American Academy of Achievement website, Carson noted that being a young, African American made things different in the work setting. He recalled that in his early days as a surgeon, nurses would often mistake him for a hospital orderly, and speak to him as such.
In 1983, Carson received an important invitation. Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia, needed a neurosurgeon, and they invited Carson to take the position. Initially resistant to the idea, as he related in Gifted Hands, the choice to go to Australia became one of the most significant of his career. The Carsons were deeply engaged in their life in Australia, and Lacena Carson, a classically-trained musician, was the first violinist in the Nedlands Symphony. For Ben Carson, his experience in Australia was invaluable, because it was a country without enough doctors with his training. He gained several years' worth of experience in a short time.
Carson drew upon his previous experiences after he returned to Johns Hopkins in 1984. Shortly thereafter in 1985, and only in his early 30, Carson became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital until his retirement in 2013. He faced several challenging cases, the first being four-year-old Maranda Francisco. Since the age of 18 months, the little girl had been having seizures, and by the time her parents brought her to Johns Hopkins, she was having more than 100 of them a day. In consultation with another doctor, Carson decided to take a radical step: a hemispherectomy, the removal of half the patient's brain. It was a risky procedure, as he told the girl's parents, but if they did nothing, Maranda would probably die.
In Gifted Hands, he described the painstaking surgery, which took more than eight hours and at the end of which the tearful Franciscos learned that their daughter would recover. Carson went on to perform numerous successful hemispherectomies, and only lost one patient; but that loss, of an 11-month-old, was devastating. Carson described numerous other important operations in his book, Gifted Hands, but one which attracted international attention was the case of the Binder Siamese twins, Patrick and Benjamin. The Binders were born to German parents on February 2, 1987, and they were not merely twins: they were joined at the head. Ultimately the parents contacted Carson, who performed the 22-hour surgery on September 5 with a team of some 70 people. Although the twins would turn out to have some brain damage, both would survive the separation, making Carson's the first successful such operation. Part of its success owed to Carson's application of a technique he had seen used in cardiac surgery: by drastically cooling down the patients' bodies, he was able to stop the flow of blood. This ensured the patients' survival during the delicate period when he and the other surgeons were separating their blood vessels. This type of surgery was in its developmental stages in the 1980 and early 1990. When Carson and a surgical team of more than two dozen doctors performed a similar operation on the Makwaeba twins in South Africa in 1994, they were unsuccessful, and the twins died.
Perhaps more representative of Carson's cases is the one chronicled in the July 1995 issue of US News and World Report, entitled "Matthew's Miracle. " Matthew Anderson was five-years-old when his parents learned that their son had a brain tumor. According to the article, right before the little boy was to begin radiation treatments, a friend recommended the autobiography of a brain surgeon "who thrived on cases that other doctors deemed hopeless. " After the Andersons read Gifted Hands, they decided that they wanted Carson to operate on their son. Carson performed two surgeries, one in 1993, and one in 1995. Ultimately, Matthew Anderson recovered.
Ben worked with the music of Bach, Schubert, and other composers playing, "to keep me calm, " he told the US News and World. Because Carson's career has represented a triumph over circumstances, he became a well-known inspirational writer and speaker. He was not short on advice for young people. Carson's widely publicized speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast catapulted him to conservative fame for his views on social and political issues. On May 4, 2015, he announced he was running for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election at a rally in his hometown of Detroit.
He then endorsed the candidacy of Donald Trump. On December 5, 2016, Trump announced that he would nominate Carson to the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. On January 24, 2017, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted unanimously to approve the nomination. On March 6 was his first day as secretary. On March 2, 2017, Carson was confirmed by the United States Senate as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a 58–41 vote.
Ben Carson successfully performed an operation to separate Siamese twins who were born joined at the head. It was a milestone in neurosurgery, but was far from the only noteworthy achievement of Carson's career. He also performed groundbreaking surgery on a twin suffering from an abnormal expansion of the head. Carson was able to relieve the swelling and remove the surplus fluid-all while the unborn twin remained in its mother's uterus. This too was a first, and in other instances Carson has performed operations which have greatly expanded scientific knowledge of the brain and its functions. His "can-do" spirit, combined with his medical expertise, has made him the surgeon of choice for parents with children suffering rare neurological conditions.
According to the US News and World Report article, Carson performed 500 operations a year, three times as many as most neurosurgeons, a fact for which he credits his "very, very efficient staff.
Carson is a Recipient of American Black Achievement award Ebony magazine, Hollywood, California in 1988, Cum Laude award American Radiological Society, Chicago in 1982, Candle award Morehouse U., Atlanta in 1989 and Paul Harris fellow Rotary International in 1988.
In 2000, he received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 2001, he was elected by the Library of Congress on the occasion of its 200th anniversary to be one of the 89 who earned the designation Library of Congress Living Legend.
In 2005, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.
In 2006, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, their highest honor for outstanding achievement.
In 2008, the White House awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
In 2008, Ford's Theatre Society awarded Carson the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal, for exemplifying the qualities embodied by President Abraham Lincoln—including courage, integrity, tolerance, equality, and creative expression—through superior achievements.
In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named Carson as one of "America's Best Leaders".
In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
In 2012, Carson was the Influential Marylander Award recipient from The Daily Record, Baltimore's legal and business newspaper.
In 2014, a poll of Americans conducted by Gallup ranked Carson sixth on a list of the most admired persons.
He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Detroit Public Schools opened the Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers.
Carson has stated he does not believe in hell as understood by some Christians: "You know, I see God as a very loving individual. And why would he torment somebody forever who only had a life of 60 or 70 or 80 years? Even if they were evil. Even if they were only evil for 80 years?". This is fully in line with Adventist teaching, which promotes annihilationism.
In keeping with his Seventh-day Adventist faith Carson announced in 2014 his belief, "that the United States will play a big role" in the coming apocalypse.
Politics
Carson was at the Republican Party during 1981–1999, and from 2014 till present.
He was at the Democratic Political party before 1981, and at the Independent Party during 1999–2014.
Views
Benson has noted that the most important thing is to bring value to the world through improving the lives of one's fellow human beings.
Consistent with the practice of many Adventists, Carson is a lacto-ovo vegetarian (he will eat dishes containing milk, eggs, or cheese, and occasionally, poultry. He has said his main reason for becoming vegetarian was health concerns, including avoiding parasites and heart disease, and he emphasizes the environmental benefits of vegetarianism.
Quotations:
"We don't need to be talking about Madonna, and Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson. I don't have anything against these people, I really don't. But the fact of the matter is, that's not uplifting anybody. That's not creating the kind of society we want to create."
Membership
He is a member of medical advisory board Children's Cancer Foundation, Baltimore since 1987 and honorary medical chairman Maryland, Red Cross, Baltimore since 1987.
Also he is a member of American Association Neurological Surgeons, Congress Neurological Surgeons, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pediatric Oncology Group, National Medical Association.
Personality
Carson had a violent temper, when he was a child.
In his interview with the American Academy of Achievement, he recalled trying to hit his mother over the head with a hammer because of a disagreement over what clothes he should wear. In a dispute with a classmate over a locker, he cut a three-inch gash in the other boy's head.
However, at the age of 14, Carson reached a turning point after he nearly stabbed a friend to death because the boy had changed the radio station. Terrified by his own capacity for violence, he ran home and locked himself in the bathroom with the Bible. "I started praying, " he said in his American Academy of Achievement interview, "and asking God to help me find a way to deal with this temper. " Reading from the Book of Proverbs, he found numerous verses about anger, but the one that stood out to him was "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. " After that, he realized he could control his anger, rather than it controlling him.
Connections
In 1975 Carson married Lacena Rustin whom he had met at Yale. Together, the couple have three sons (Rhoeyce, Benjamin Jr. , and Murray), as well as several grandchildren. Their youngest son, Murray, was born in Perth, Australia, while Carson was undertaking a residency there.
Father:
Robert Solomon Carson
Mother:
Sonya (Copeland) Carson
child:
Murray Nedlands Carson
child:
Benjamin Solomon Junior Carson
child:
Rhoeyce Harrington Carson
Wife:
Lacena Rustin
She holds a M.B.A. degree and is an accomplished musician.
Ben Carson: A Chance at Life (Heroes of History)
Ben visited Maranda's family the night before the young girl's brain surgery. He spoke to her parents, outlining the risks one last time. "The surgery should take about five hours. There's a strong likelihood that Maranda could bleed uncontrollably and die right there. Or she could survive and be paralyzed and never speak again. There is no way to know what will happen." As a child growing up in Detroit, Ben Carson (1951-) has a dream of becoming a physician, a dream that rose out of struggles with poverty, racism, and poor grades. As Ben persevered and strove for academic excellence, his life became one of compassion and service. Today, Benjamin Carson, MD, is known as the American neurosurgeon with gifted hands. The first surgeon to successfully separate twins joined at the head, he directed pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital for over a quarter of a century. His life continues to be a model of what it means to care deeply, serve brilliantly, and lead courageously.
