Gifted Hands

What does TTHHINK BIG stand for?

Talent Time Hope Honesty Insight Nice Knowledge Books In-Depth Learning God

Why did Ben decide to apply to Yale?

The Yale students beat the Harvard students on College Bowl

Why did Candy and Ben go to Detroit together?

They were recruited by Yale to interview students with at least a 1200 SAT

What was Ben's favorite gift?

a chemistry set

What grade did Ben's grades start to drop and why?

10th grade, he didn't have any of the fancy clothes other kids did and it bothered him, he stayed out late playing basketball- he wanted to be accepted

How old was Ben when his focus shifted from being a general practitioner to being a psychiatrist?

13

How old were Ben's mother and father when they married?

13 and 28

What did Ben's mother do to help him do better in school?

Made him learn his times tables, only 3 TV programs a week, read 2 books a week and give a report to her

Who did Ben perform his first hemispherectomy on? When? How old was she? How long did the surgery take?

Maranda Francisco in 1985, 4, 10 hours

What student in ROTC inspired Ben and why?

Sharper, he became a full colonel

What is Ben's mother's name?

Sonya

Patrick and Benjamin Binder

born February 2, 1987 Ulm, West Germany Shared no vital organs but shared a vein responsible for draining blood to the heart Ben's safe was stolen with passports and important papers, police eventually found them in a dumpster and Ben went to germany spent 5 months planning operation 70 person team September 5, 1987 Long finished his baby first the torqula, where sinuses come together, was very large put babies in hypothermic arrest, 68 degrees cut main vein connecting them at 11:30 pm surgery took 22 hours

What word got Ben interested in learning how to spell?

agriculture

What happened in the car on the way back to school from the trip to Detroit with Candy?

Candy fell asleep and then so did Ben, he started to drive off the road and woke up, he turned the wheel fast and the car started to spin before it came to a stop, and Candy was still asleep. They had their first kiss after that.

Danielle

Detroit 5 months old tumor out of her skull took 19 hours then she had respiratory problems, kidney problems, she died autopsy showed tumor had metastasized and if they'd gotten to her a month earlier she could have had a chance

What did kids make fun of Ben for?

His clothes, being poor(food stamps)

When did Ben decide to get into neurosurgery?

His third year of med school

What made a kid popular at Hunter Junior High?

"Capping" other students, fancy clothes,

Charles

1988, age 10 hit by a car craniectomy mother refused because she thought they were just operating to operate, but agreed when she found out it would save his life comatose for 8 days but survived

How many out of Ben's hemispherectomy patients have been females?

21/22

Youngest hemispherectomy patient

3 month old Keri Joyce

How much education did Ben's mother have?

3rd grade

Who was Jennifer?

5 month old, most emotionally painful hemispherectomy the surgery went well but the seizures started again, it took 8 hours to remove the rest of her right hemisphere, he was 2 miles from his house when his beeper went off, nurse said Jennifer had arrested but she died

How old was Ben Carson when his father left his family?

8

Ben estimates what percentage of hemispherectomy patients no longer have seizures?

95%

What was Ben's final chemistry grade?

97

Who was Christina Hutchins?

A 21 year old hemispherectomy patient, she had seizures since the age of 7

Why did Ben and Curtis stop playing football?

A group of white men came up to them after practice and told them to stop playing or they would throw them into the river

Where did Ben's mother go when she was "visiting relatives"?

A mental institution

What were some instances of racism Ben faced at Johns Hopkins?

A nurse assumed he was an orderly because he was black Some white patients didn't want a black doctor The chief resident, Tommy, was always rude to him for no reason and threatened to have him kicked out of neurosurgery

Why was Ben hesitant to go to Australia?

Apartheid, until Candy told him it was abolished in 1968

Who helped Ben's mother come to God and how?

At the mental institution a woman named Mary Thomas came sometimes and talked about God to her

What happened to Beth Usher?

Born in 1979, she fell from a swing and got a bump on her head in 1985, then she started having seizures Her parents, Brian and Kathy didn't want to have a hemispherectomy because she was doing good, then she got worse, she fell in the school play and had a seizure in 1987 they went through with the hemispherectomy, she was in a coma for 2 weeks, she then woke up at 2 am & said her nose itched

Where did Ben's family move and who did they live with when they had to move out of their house?

Boston, they lived with Ben's mother's sister and her husband, Jean and William Avery

Who tried to get Ben to go to Australia?

Bryant Stokes

Who is Ben's physician's assistant?

Carol James

What was Ben's favorite TV show?

College Bowl

Craig Warnick

Craig and Susan had great faith Susan was a nurse and her husband had Von Hippel-Lindeau had 2 tumors removed had adrenal glands removed because tumors there, medication for the rest of his life he had trouble swallowing and had to be in a wheelchair Susan didn't tell Craig when she found out about his condition- it was hereditary Dr. Neil Miller cried for her Ben took Craig as a patient, problem was tumor in his brain stem, the pons, considered inoperable operated June 20, 1988 thought he would be totally paralyzed after operation Susan thought she was like Abraham and Craig like Isaac, he didn't belong to her and he belonged to God so she had to give him up to god Craig recovered

Who is Ben's brother and how much older than Ben is he?

Curtis, 2 years

What was the name of the street Ben's house was on in Detroit?

Deacon Street

What jobs did Ben have?

Ford Motor Company, highway cleanup crew, Chrysler Motor Company

What class did Ben almost fail at Yale and how did he pass the exam?

Freshman Chemistry, he studied for two hours and memorized formulas, then he had a dream that a "nebulous figure" came into the lecture hall and started to write out chemistry problems, when he got into the exam he saw the problems were the exact same as the ones from his dream

Denise Baca

From New Mexico had epilepticus, seized constantly 13 years old, paralyzed on one side, had a tracheotomy because she couldn't breathe because of her seizures They operated in spite of critics, and she started walking again and went back to school

What did Curtis do for his brother's birthday?

He bought him a subscription to Psychology Today even though his after school job at the science lab didn't pay much

What did Ben do with his cleanup crew that was different?

He changed their hours and made a deal that if they picked up more trash they could leave early, no one complained because of how much he got done and he reasoned that being creative was part of being a good leader

What two experiences at Yale showed Ben that God would always provide for him?

He didn't have enough money for a bus fare so he prayed God would provide for him and when he looked up he found a ten dollar bill on the ground. His psychology teacher said their exams had all been burned and they would have to retake the test. When they showed up, the questions were all really hard and the students left one by one because they thought they could just pretend they hadn't seen the notice telling them their exam had to be retaken and they could study more. Ben couldn't just pretend he hadn't seen it so he stayed even after everyone else had left. His teacher came in and said it was a hoax to see who was the most honest student in the class, then gave him ten dollars.

What discovery did Ben make during his neurosurgery rotation?

He discovered a procedure using X-rays to find the foramen ovule more easily

Why did Ben leave the University of Michigan for his residency and go to Johns Hopkins?

He found out the chairman of the neurosurgery department was leaving

What was a reason that Ben was doing so bad in school?

He needed glasses so he couldn't see the board

Why could Ben only apply to one college?

He only had ten dollars and that's how much it took to submit an application

Who was Mr. Seufert and how was he like Ben's mother?

He was Ben's boss with the highway cleanup crews and always told Ben he was special and could accomplish anything

What was Ben's first religious experience and how old was he?

He was at church and Pastor Ford told a story about a missionary couple hiding in the cleft of a rock and how God is our hiding place and Ben decided he wanted to place his faith in the Lord, he was 8

How did Ben face racial prejudice at Wilson Junior High?

He was at the top of the class in eighth grade and a teacher got up to the podium when Ben won a certificate and told the white students they weren't trying hard enough if a black student was at the top of the class

When did Ben join ROTC and why?

He was in the second half of tenth grade and he joined because his brother was in it

How did Ben deal with his temper?

He went into the bathroom and cried and prayed for hours and started to read from Proverbs

How did Ben get a job in the economy slump in '71?

He went to the office of Mr. Standart at Young and Rubicum Advertising, a man who reviewed him to get into Yale, and asked if he could give him a job, he got a job in the mail room

At what school was Ben the worst in his class and what grade was he in? Why?

Higgins Elementary School, 5th grade, in Boston they went to a small private school but when they transferred back to the public school system in Detroit it was harder

What did Ben struggle with when he was 14 and what were some instances of it?

His bad temper He hit his friend Jerry in the head with the lock from his locker when they got into an argument He almost hit his mother when she bought him the wrong kind of pants A kid threw a rock at him and he hurled a big rock at the kid's face His friend Bob made fun of his taste in music and he tried to stab him in the gut, the kid's belt buckle saved him

How did Ben face racial prejudice at Higgins Elementary?

It was predominantly white and everyone believed he was at the bottom of the class because he was black

Who did Ben compare to Job?

Jennifer's mother, she had health problems and Jennifer died and was her only child

When did Ben and Candy marry?

July 6, 1975, between Ben's second and third years of med school

What was Candy's real name?

Lacena Rustin

What rank did Ben make in ROTC?

Lieutenant Colonel

How many siblings did Ben's mother have and how many did his father have?

Mother- 23 Father- 13

What science teacher helped Ben and what did she do?

Mrs. Jaeck, she gave Ben special projects based off of what he liked to read about in science

What animal did Ben experiment on with brain tumors?

New Zealand white rabbits

What did Ben win for his research?

Resident of the Year Award

How did Candy join Ben's church?

She was a musician and their church needed an organist, and even though she didn't get the job she joined the choir and started going to the seventh-day adventist church with Ben

What job did Ben's mother have?

She worked in the homes of rich people, doing whatever work she could- taking care of kids, cleaning, etc... What she couldn't do, she said that she could learn how to do.

What happened with the man beaten with a baseball bat while Ben worked at Baltimore City Hospital?

The hospital staff was gone at a meeting for neurological surgeons and Ben had to decide to perform a lobectomy on the man or let him die- if he operated and failed he would face legal ramifications for operating without an attending surgeon present, but he operated and the man woke up perfectly fine, and no one said anything.

Why was it easier to perform a hemispherectomy on a younger person?

The jobs of the cells taken out are taken over by other undifferentiated cells due to a phenomenon called plasticity

Where did Ben go to med school?

University of Michigan

Where did Ben work during the summer between his junior and senior year of high school?

Wayne State University in one of the biology labs

What happened at the train tracks?

When Ben and Curtis used to hop the trains to go home from school a group of white boys stopped Ben and told him black kids weren't supposed to go to Wilson Junior High and if they caught him again they'd kill him

When did Ben first become interested in Johns Hopkins?

When he was 10

When was Ben rebaptized?

When he was 12

How did Ben realize his gift for hand-eye coordination?

Working for Sennet Steel and operating a crane machine, someone else pointed out he used to be good at foosball

What did Ben want to do as a kid?

become a missionary doctor

Why did Ben's father leave them?

he had another "wife" and kids

Bo-Bo Valentine

hit by a car 4 years old pupils dilated, Ben decided to operate on her to save her life performed a craniectomy and she survived

What did Ben and the head of neurosurgery program at Johns Hopkins bond over?

love of classical music

Theresa Binder

mother of Patrick and Benjamin, siamese twins connected at skull, wanted to kill herself husband Josef

Why did Ben get into the arts and classical music?

so he could be on College Bowl

What about his father fascinated Ben?

the veins in his hand

What did Ben realize about his father leaving?

they were happier without him despite the fact they were poorer