Gifted Hands The Ben Carson Story (Chpts. 11-14)

Gifted Hands
By: Ben Carson with Cecil Murphy
Pages: 104-146

• Summary

During Carson's years in medical school at University of Michigan, he got to do a lot of hands on work. However he ended up transferring to Johns Hopkins because he feared the environment at U of M would change after the chairman retired. Carson was one of the two chosen students by Hopkins out 125 applicants.
The only pressure Carson ever felt during his internship was to be a role model for Black teens. He felt that many of them needed to know that the power to be successful is within them and not just handed to them.
While he was an intern at Hopkins he had a problem with one of the chief residents. His name was Tommy and he did not like having a Black intern at Johns Hopkins. Whenever Carson had a question Tommy would always snap at him and never fully answer them. However Carson just kept calm and never responded negatively.
One situation that was significant during his internship was saving someone's life. It was at the time of the AANS and most of the faculty went away at the meeting. There was this man who had been beaten and needed surgery or he would die. Carson didn't know what to do because he was just an intern and it was illegal for him to operate without supervision. He ended up performing the surgery and saving the man's life.
Carson got to have one of the best experiences an intern could get. He had been accepted for a one year job position in Australia. He had many conflicts that came up with this offer. Candy was pregnant and had been put to bed rest. Also he had thought there was a Whites-only policy in Australia but later found out that it had already been abolished. When he got to Australia he got to Australia he instantly fell in love with it. He got to perform a copious amount of surgeries in that one year. Also Candy had given birth to their son Murray Nedlands Carson.
When Carson got back to America and back to John Hopkins he had been given the position of the new chief of pediatric neurosurgery.
While he was chief he had to go through one of the toughest thing he had so far in his career. He was expected to perform a surgery he had never done before. There was a girl named Maranda and she had Rasmussen's encephalitis. This caused her to have periodic half gran mal seizures but only on the right side of her body. She would have 100 seizures in a day. Her mother stopped making her eat because she had a high risk of choking. Carson was expected to perform a hemispherectomy which had many risks. Maranda could end bleeding to death during the surgery but her parents insisted that it didn't make any difference because without the surgery Maranda would end up dying either way.

• Quotation

"No knowledge is ever wasted" (Carson 111).

• Reaction

Ben says this after his interview with a representative for John Hopkins. He had mentioned his attending in a concert the interviewer, Dr.Udvarhelyi, had also attended. That's when he realized that nothing that you learn in life is ever wasted. There is a reason and a purpose behind everything you learn. Carson's love for classical music allowed him to relate more to Candy since she is a violinist.