![]() ![]() ![]() He married his wife, Candy, in 1975 after they met at Yale and they have three sons. But he persevered, attended Yale and became Head of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine at the incredibly young age of 33.īen has now been Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for more than 25 years. There's a lot more to the story of course and Ben experienced many set-backs as he grew up, including exposure to racism. And she'd come home and she'd can the stuff, so that we would have food." Later Life She would take us out in the country on a Sunday and knock on a farmer's door and say, 'Can we pick four bushels of corn, three for you and one for us?' and they were always glad at that deal. She would go to the Goodwill, she'd get a shirt that had a hole and put a patch on it and put another one on the other side to make it look symmetrical, and she sewed her own clothes. Sometimes we didn't see her for several days at a time, because she would go to work at five in the morning and get back after 11pm, going from one job to the next.īut one thing that she provided us was a tremendous example of what hard work is like, and she was also extremely thrifty. ![]() I particularly like the story Ben tells here: "And, so she worked very hard. But she also taught them other lessons, about hard work in particular. Of course, she taught them that education is important and that reading is a key factor in doing well at school. The second time I read Gifted Hands I tried to work out the lessons Ben's mother taught her sons, by her words and by her example. Gradually both boys began to enjoy reading and their school results began to improve. More importantly, she planned how to make this happen and then took steps to make sure the boys followed the plan she had made.īen and his older brother, Curtis, hated this at first but their mother was determined and she didn't give them a choice. So Sonya insisted her boys turn the television off and read. She was very interested in what they did that people in her neighbourhood did not do and noticed that the better-off families had books around and read a lot. The homes of people who had successful careers and good incomes. This gave her an insight into what went on in She had very little education and few skills, Sonya often did houseworkįor well-off families. The marriage ended soon after this discovery and Sonya went on to work two - sometimes three - jobs to provide for her sons. When her sons were small, Sonya discovered that her husband was a bigamist and had another family living not far away. Sonya left school after third grade and was barely literate when her sons were growing up. Born in Tennessee, she was one of 24 children and married at the age of only thirteen. But Ben Carson had a mother who was determined that her sons would succeed in life and the first part of Gifted Hands is as much about Sonya Carson as it is about Ben himself. Gifted Hands takes you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world-and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physician who lives to help others.Poverty, a poor self-image, no dad at home, a hot temper and an uneducated mother are all things we now recognise as risk factors which more often than not doom a child to a lifetime of poverty, welfare and possibly violence and crime. Trust in God, a relentless belief in his own capabilities, and sheer determination catapulted Ben from failing grades to the directorship of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. But Sonya Carson convinced her son he could make something of his life, even though everything around him said otherwise. And a pathological temper threatened to put him in jail. Raised in inner-city Detroit by a mother with a third grade education, Ben lacked motivation. He's been beating the odds since he was a child. Such breakthroughs aren't unusual for Ben Carson. Carson pioneered again in a rare procedure known as a hemispherectomy, giving children without hope a second chance at life through a daring operation in which he literally removes one half of their brain. Benjamin Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head.
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