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Ben Solomon Carson |
Benjamin Solomon Carson is a professor emeritus of neurosurgery at
Johns Hopkins University, an inspirational speaker, author, philanthropist,
politician and a retired neurosurgeon
of Johns Hopkins hospital. Ben Carson is one of the world’s most successful and
influential doctors. He was ranked as one of America’s top 20 physicians and
scientist by TIME Magazine and CNN in 2001. He is known for his excellent
performance in surgeries, especially the separation of conjoined twins. Carson
and his team of doctors were the first to separate conjoined twins, craniopagus
twins, in world’s history. As the leader of a 70-member surgical team, Carson
led the team on a 22 hour surgery which ended successfully. Prior to this
surgery, no doctor had been able to separate binder twins, joined at the head,
without death of one of the twins. On June 19, 2008 he was awarded the highest
civilian honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President George W. Bush. He
has been honoured with 67 doctorate degrees from several Universities.
Beginning of Life
Ben Carson was born to Sonya Copeland and Robert Solomon
Carson on September 18, 1951in Detroit, Michigan. Sonya got married to Robert
when she was just 13 and they had two children which Ben was the second born.
When Carson was eight years, Sonya discovered that her husband was having
another secret marriage. The couple divorced and young Carson was left under
the care of his single mother. Sonya started facing financial problems so she
was forced to take more than two jobs (mostly as a domestic servant). Though
Sonya dropped out of school in her third grade, she ensured that her kids took
their studies serious. Benjamin’s academic performance was below average as at
fifth grade but through the effort of Sonya his performance increased
gradually. Sonya limited Benjamin’s television watching and refused to let him
play until he had completed his homework. Ben’s grades started improving as he
began appreciating reading. Within a year Benjamin moved from the bottom of the
class to the top which amazed his classmates. Benson in his book, Gifted Hands,
stated that in his youth he had a violent temper which made him (just at age
14) nearly stabbed a schoolmate but was saved by the buckle of the friend’s
belt. After this incident he learnt to control his quick temper. Ben excelled
in Southwestern High School and upon completion, enrolled at Yale University where
he majored in Psychology.
Medical Career
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Presidential Medal of Freedom |
After graduating from college he worked as a bank teller, a
crane operator in a steel factory, X-ray technician, and a school bus driver. Aside
all these jobs he still had the ambition of becoming a physician, so he
enrolled at University of Michigan School of Medicine where he graduated with
Doctor of Medicine (M.D). From medical school he started his medical career at
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland where he completed his residency
training in neurosurgery. In 1983, he
worked as the senior registrar of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth,
Australia but moved back to Hopkins after a year. At age 32, he was promoted to
the position of Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Hopkins. It was at this
position that he took a bold decision, in 1987, to lead his team to perform a
surgery on seven months old conjoined twins. This was a very risky decision
because no operation of that sort had been performed successfully. He performed
the surgery and the twins are living separately. After setting this record, he
has been able to perform similar surgeries and has also trained most physicians
to perform this sort of surgery successfully. He was also the first Physician
to perform a successful surgery on a type-2 vertical craniopagus twins. This
occurred in 1997 in South Africa).
On March 16, 2013 he declared at the Conservative Political Action Conference that he has resigned from
medical practise and has joined Washington Times as a weekly columnist.
Dr Carson is also a renowned public speaker who devotes much
of his time to motivate young people. He
is the author of several books including Gifted Hands (autobiography), America
the Beautiful and Think Big.
In 2004, he was called by President George W. Bush to serve
on the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Personal Life
At Yale University Carson met a student called Lacena Candy
who later became his wife. They got married in 1975 and they have three
children: Murray, Rhoeyce and Benjamin Jr.
Ben Carson
and his mother are baptised members of the Seventh Day Adventist (S.D.A) church
at Detroit. Dr Carson was a Sabbath School Teacher and an Elder of the church.
Political Life
On February 7 2013, he gained political attention when he criticised
the Democratic Party’s policies on healthcare and tax in his keynote address at
the National Prayer Breakfast.
On November 2014 he switched from being independent to be a
member of the Republican Party.
On May 4, 2015 Benjamin declared that he will be running for
the Republican nomination
in the 2016.
Philanthropy
In 1994, Benjamin and
Candy Carson established the Carson Scholars Fund. This fund rewards people who
have achieved excellence in academic and humanitarian activities. It currently
operates in 50 states in America and has awarded 7,500 scholarships to
scholars.
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