Ben Carson

Ben Carson In 1951, Benjamin Carson was born to Sonya and Robert Carson. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Six years later in 1959, Ben’s parents divorced and he, his brother Curtis, and his mother moved to Boston, Massachusetts. They lived there for two years and moved back to Detroit in 1961. Ben Carson wasn’t always the “smart guy”. In fact for a long time he did poorly in school. It wasn’t until after Ben failed his eye test in fifth grade that his grades changed. He had very poor eyesight, which was restricting his learning.

After Ben began to wear glasses, he gradually began to do better in school. With his mother’s help he became the smartest boy in his class. Even though Ben grew smarter, he had acquired a bad temper. His attitude had gotten him in trouble before, but never anything really serious. One day he was outside with his friend. They got into an argument and Ben drew his camping knife on his friend. He thrusted the knife at the boy and his belt buckle. In the same instant as the knife broke Ben ran. He ran into his house and locked himself in the bathroom.

He stayed in the bathroom and read his bible until he came to a revelation. Ben realized that his temper would destroy him and vowed to not let it ever control him again. The change in Ben’s attitude only led to better thing for him. Later in high school he joined the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program. He did so well in ROTC that Ben was offered a full scholarship to the United States Military Academy. In 1968, Ben Carson received a scholarship to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and accepted. Two years later Ben met Lacena “Candy” Rustin, who was a freshman at Yale.

In 1975, Candy graduated from Yale and Ben who was already enrolled in medical school at the University of Michigan got married. Carson graduated from medical school in 1978 and went on to do his residency at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He had been one of only two interns accepted in neurosurgery. One year later in 1983 Carson and his wife Candy moved to Australia. Later that year they had a son named Murray. In 1984 Ben Carson moved back to Maryland and would become chief pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.

A year later he would have to prove his skill. Carson performed a successful hemsipherectomy (procedure that removes one half of the brain) on Maranda Francisco. Maranda had had Rasmussen’s encephalitis, which was an extremely rare brain disease. Dr. Carson would go on to perform many difficult surgeries like this one. During 1987 and 1988 Dr. Carson received many accolades. He received three Honorary Doctorates of Science Awards, the American Black Achievement Award from Ebony, and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary International.

He published a book; Pediatric Neurosurgery and another called Acondroplasia. In September 1987 Dr. Ben Carson performed his most dangerous surgery ever. He would attempt to separate siamese twins who were joined at the back of the head. The surgery took twenty- two hours, but was successful. In 1989 he received the Candle Award from Morehouse University. In 1992 Ben Carson published Think Big and a few years later Gifted Hands. Ben Carson is 47 years old now. He has a wife and three children and still works in Johns Hopkins Hospital.