Dr. Ben Carson stopped by Focus on the Family earlier this summer. While on campus, he recorded two broadcasts with Focus president Jim Daly. You can listen to the first day’s broadcast here and day two here.
You’re probably aware that Dr. Carson is one of our nation’s most gifted surgeons, having received national attention in 1987 for separating twins joined at the head. In 2009, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the direct-to-DVD movie Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, which starred Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. in the title role and which was based on Dr. Carson’s 1996 book of the same name. One reviewer called the movie “a moving tribute to a real role model who’s living proof that it’s possible to overcome any obstacle standing between you and your dreams.”
While that part of Dr. Carson’s story may be fairly familiar, what you may not know is that his path to that accomplishment could have easily derailed had his mother not encouraged this self-proclaimed “extremely poor student” to turn off the TV and start reading.
Nearly 20 years after performing that landmark operation, Dr. Carson removed his scrubs to talk with me and answer a host of questions that we originally published in a short interview in 2006. But there was a lot that we didn’t have room for at the time. So, here’s a bit more about that famous surgery as well as how certain books changed his life:
Bob Waliszewski: You were one of the very first, if not the first, neurosurgeon to unjoin (conjoin) twins. Is that correct?
Dr. Ben Carson: Correct. In 1987, the family and physicians of the Bender twins from West Germany were looking for any possibility of them being separated because they were joined at the back of the head—something we call occipital craniopagus. No occipital craniopagus twins had ever been separated and survived before. … It was a 22-hour operation, extraordinarily complex. Time and Newsweek called it the most complex surgical procedure in history. Ten years later my team and I operated on another pair of twins that were joined at the top of the head, facing in opposite directions, called Type II Craniopagus. We did this in South Africa. … And, they are about to enter the 4th grade and they are doing perfectly fine.
Waliszewski: How many surgeries like this have you done?
Dr. Carson: I’ve done five, and then I’ve consulted on a number as well.
Waliszewski: Let’s shift gears a bit. In your home growing up, your mom took a very disciplined approach to television, correct?
Dr. Carson: She was obviously alarmed at the fact that I was an extremely poor student. And my brother wasn’t doing well either. She didn’t know what to do. But she cleaned other people’s houses and noticed that in the homes of wealthy people, they didn’t watch TV a lot. They spent a lot of time reading. So after praying to God for wisdom, she said, “I think this is what we’ll do in our home!” She said we could only watch two or three pre-selected TV programs, and with all that spare time, we had to read two books a piece from the Detroit public libraries and submit to her written book reports.
Waliszewski: So you went from being poor student to one of the top neurosurgeons in the country. Book-reading had to be part of that.
Dr. Carson: First of all, once I started reading the books, a lot of things started happening. You’re looking at words all the time, so you learn how to spell. You’re not the first one to sit down at a spelling bee. Then you’re looking at how those words are put together so you learn grammar and syntax, which helps you not only in writing, but in verbal communications. Then, you have to take those sentences and make those into concepts. So you learn to use your imagination and to be a much more creative person. And, you know, knowledge is empowering.
Waliszewski: Dr. Carson, was there any particular book that really stands out at that period in your life as life changing?
Dr. Carson: I remember the first book I read. It was called, Chip the Dam Builder. It was about a beaver.
Waliszewski: I assume that wasn’t one of those “life changing” ones!
Dr. Carson: No, but it really got me interested in animals. But one book that did inspire me was Up from Slavery. It’s an autobiography of Booker T. Washington and how he was born a slave. It was illegal for him to read, but he illegally taught himself to read anyway and read everything he could get his hands on. He ended up an advisor to presidents. That impressed me enormously. Also, I loved the Bible.
Waliszewski: I’ll put you on the spot a little bit. You have three sons. Did you let your children listen to gangsta rap? Did they ever want to?
Dr. Carson: They didn’t want to because we listen to classical music and spiritual music. That’s what they grew up around and that’s what they still like. All three of my sons play musical instruments. One plays the viola, one plays the violin, one plays the cello. And my wife is a violinist, so they have string quartet. And, again, it wasn’t so much trying to stop them from watching this, listening to that, as it was providing the alternative. My personal opinion is our world is just too open now. There’s just no way you can protect kidsfrom all that stuff. You cannot do it. So, what you have to concentrate on is creating the right character and the right desire.
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