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Benjamin S. Carson is an African
American pediatric neurosurgeon which means that he treats the
brains and spinal chords of children. This special area of medicine
is called Pediatric Neurosurgery. At age 33, Carson became the
youngest African American to head the Pediatric Neurosurgery
department at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. Benjamin Carson was born on September 18,1951 in Detroit, Michigan. He and his brother, Curtis were raised by their mother. Their father was divorced by their mother because of his change of his personality, so he left the family. His mother's name was Sonya. She worked and worked to provide for the poverty-stricken family. This was hard for her as she had dropped out of school in the third grade. Carson struggled in his early years of school. Soon he was at the bottom of his fifth grade class, but his mother told him he could do better than that. His mother wouldn't allow him to go outside until he did his homework everyday, and she didn't let him watch lots of television. Carson's mother also made him read two books from the library every week and write reports on what he read. Soon he became an avid reader. He also credits his mother for his success. Carson said "I was fortunate that I had a mother who believed in me, and kept telling me I was smart."  Carson had wanted to become a psychiatrist when he entered college at Yale University. He did very well. After his graduation he went to Medical School in Michigan. He went to study psychiatry but changed to neurosurgery. This became his profession for which he has become very famous. Benjamin Carson met a lady named Lacrena Candy Rustin when he was at Yale University and they married in 1975. They had 3 children together and they were all boys. Their names are Murray, Benjamin Jr. and Rhoeyce. They became a happy family. In 1997, Carson had to do surgery on two boy infants. The top of their heads were conjoined together. Their names were Luka and Joseph. This was Carson's first surgery of this kind. After they were done with the surgery that lasted for twenty eight hours, the two boys survived and neither of them had brain damage. After this success in 1997, in 2003, he did his second surgical procedure on two adult Siamese twins. By this time he had been doing surgery for twenty years. He accepted to the challenge and Carson's team with over 100 surgeons, specialists, and assistants traveled to Singapore where the twins Ladan and Laleh were. This was Caron's biggest challenge but he didn't want to give up. On July 6,2003 Carson's team began the operation. It took 52 hours for the operation. Soon Ladan and Laleh's heads were apart at 1:30PM on July 8.The two girls were in an critical condition because they had lost a lot of blood. Ladan died at 2:30PM and soon Laleh died at 4:00PM. This was very disappointing but Dr. Carson never gave up. He still works in Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University where he has helped numerous people. Benjamin Carson has also written three books. They are called Gifted Hands, Big Picture, and Think Big. Many people have read his books about his life. Impressed with his remarkable story, he continues to help others believe in themselves. He has received many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. Carson is now 59 years old . Carson has saved many people's lives and continues to inspire others to "Think Big." |