you'll be able to see his fist stop right between his,
and that shouldn't be a problem.
You're up now.
This is the story of one of the world's finest surgeons.
He is known as the great medical innovator,
who does all of his operations to classical music.
["POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE"]
Meet Ben Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon,
known to colleagues and patients alike
as the surgeon with gifted hands.
He gives dying children a second chance at life
and achieves where other doctors have failed or given up hope.
As a brain surgeon, he routinely performs
some of the most complicated and dangerous operations
imaginable.
But imagination is what sets Dr. Carson apart.
In the field of neurosurgery, Ben Carson
is an inspiration to other doctors
because of his relentless effort to find
new and better ways to operate.
In 1986, the medical community was
shocked when he successfully performed brain surgery
on a baby still in the womb.
But that didn't get nearly as much attention
as the 1987 separation of the Binder Siamese twins
who were joined at the head.
Nicknamed Gentle Ben because of his calm and compassionate
demeanor, he is best known for taking on surgical challenges
that other physicians would not even consider.
One of his specialties is children
with craniofacial deformities.
Dr. Carson routinely operates on patients
that are considered high risk.
These grateful children would not
be alive today had Dr. Carson conformed
to the popular medical consensus.
This reunion brought together 22 of the 26 children
on which he and colleagues performed a hemispherectomy,
an operation that actually removes half of the brain.
This surgery is done on children with uncontrollable seizures.
Hemispherectomies have been done in years past
but were never successful enough to gain approval
as a viable surgical alternative.
Carson took the chance of resurrecting the procedure
because he felt current technology,
along with skilled surgery, would make it work.
He was right.
The first operation done in 1985 was a glowing success.
Since then, hemispherectomies have
become a more popular and commonplace surgery
across America.
If performed on adults, a hemispherectomy
will result in severe disability.
But because a child's brain is still developing,
the remaining hemisphere can frequently compensate and take
on the functions of the other half.
Normally, there is a permanent weakness
on the side of the body that is controlled
by the missing hemisphere.
But 90% of the children are functionally improved
and the majority are seizure free.
She started having a seizure right before the doctors took
her.
And the seizure went on for about two minutes
and they waited for it to stop.
And once the seizures stopped, they took her in.
And that's the last seizure that we know a seizure had.
When Diane and Jean Waggisback brought their one-year-old
daughter to Ben Carson, Lisa was in a desperate condition.
In spite of heavy medication, Lisa
suffered from 50 to 60 seizures a day.
She was under constant nursing care, unable to suck,
or even hold her head up.
When Dr. Carson recommended a hemispherectomy,
the Waggisbacks did not hesitate.
I mean, she was going to die.
I mean, there's no doubt that I don't
think she'd be here today.
And I think he takes situations like that and says,
I've got to do something.
I've got to try something.
And he's willing to take the chances where you'll
find some doctors that are going to say,
I'm not going to take that chance.
Well, I kind of developed the, I guess you might call it,
innovative mindset by asking myself the question,
can something be done better?
I'm not a maverick.
I mean, I know what other people have said.
And I believe in history because I
think there's no reason for reinventing the wheel
and making mistakes that other people have already
proven are mistakes.
But by knowing that and by, I think,
having a good solid foundation of knowledge,
you can then conceptualize what the problems are
and ask the question, is there a better way or another way
to solve this problem?
That's something, I guess, my mother instilled in me
when I was a youngster because she was always saying,
if anybody can do it, you can do it better.
This ghetto in Detroit, Michigan is where Ben Carson grew up.
Ben took his wife Candy to his old home
to reminisce about his childhood.
Ben's father left when he was seven.
His mother, who only had a third grade education,
was rarely home, having to work two and three jobs at a time
to support her two sons.
By age 10, Ben was a boy in trouble.
As an unmotivated student with terrible grades,
he was at the bottom of his class.
Ben accepted his schoolmates nickname of Class Dummy.
Today, the Carsons live in this home outside of Baltimore.
Ben now has three sons of his own.
His mother, Sonia Carson, is the real story behind Carson's
escape from poverty.
She was determined to never give up on Ben and his brother,
Curtis, until they reached their full potential.
My sole purpose was for them to get an education
so they can get a decent job because I could not
find one without an education.
And then I just really asked God to show me a way
that I could motivate them.
And then this plan came to me.
Let them learn the timetables.
I had heard that.
And then I said, OK, we're going to learn the timetables
together.
And so the second day he came back,
I said, how are you done on the timetables?
And so Ben wanted to go out and do some play.
He said, Mother, you are a mean mother.
It's impossible.
Can't nobody learn those timetables.
Can't nobody in the world learn those timetables.
I said, well, OK, you can figure out.
You're smart.
You can figure out how to learn them.
And so let's say that you are going
to not play until you learn timetables.
And a very short time he learned them, all the way from 2
through 12.
We were the kind of kids who wanted to come home and play
outside until it was dark.
And then when it was dark, go in and watch TV
until it was time to go to bed.
And then that was it.
Each month, Dr. Carson takes time from his busy schedule
to speak to young people.
To these students, Ben Carson is not only a hero,
but also a living example of the power of determination
and education.
It dawned upon her what she should do.
She said, we would be able to watch two or three pre-selected
TV programs during the week, every week.
And with all of that extra time, we
had to go to the library, check out two books, read them,
and submit to her a book report.
See, my mother was a very, very persistent person.
Well, interestingly enough, after a few weeks,
I began to enjoy reading those books.
I didn't like it much at first, but the books I started reading
initially were about animals.
I loved animals.
Pretty soon I started reading about plants,
and then I started reading about rocks and minerals.
And I really got fascinated with rocks.
And one day we were in science class.
I was still in the fifth grade.
And the science teacher held up a dark, glassy rock.
And he said, does anybody know what this is?
And I didn't put my hand up, because I
figured one of the smart kids would answer the question.
And I looked around, and nobody had their hand up.
And I said, hmm.
Well, I knew what it was.
I'd been reading about this stuff.
So I put my hand up.
And everybody looked.
Is that Carson with his hand up?
The teacher looked.
And the students were all, they were taking a big breath.
They were getting ready for a hilarious laugh.
They knew it was going to be funny, what I had to say.
And I said, that's obsidian.
And the teacher said, that's right.
It is obsidian.
And then I went on to explain how obsidian was formed by lava
and how when the lava flowed down to the water,
it was super cooled and the elements consolidated.
And they formed a glass-like appearance.
And everybody was spellbound as I was talking about it.
And for the first time, I could see in my classmates' eyes
a look of admiration instead of a look of disdain
for this stupid kid.
This was a totally new experience for me.
And I said, I like this.
I can deal with this.
And at that point, I couldn't get enough to read,
because I said, now, why can't I read about history and civics?
And science and math and everything else.
And I started reading every book I could get my hands on.
And within a year and a half, I'd
gone from the bottom of the class to the top of the class.
With his newly found love for knowledge
and a goal of becoming a doctor, Ben Carson
appeared unstoppable.
He won a scholarship to Yale.
After graduation, he went to the University of Michigan Medical
School.
Finally, he became a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital
in Baltimore.
At the young age of 32, he was named their director
of pediatric neurosurgery.
To many of his patients, even today, Ben Carson
seems too young to be a world famous neurosurgeon.
The case that launched Ben Carson into medical prominence
was the Binder Siamese twins from West Germany.
This slide shows the boys in 1987
when they were seven months old.
The children had no hope for a normal life
while joined together.
And until then, no one had ever successfully
separated Siamese twins joined at the back of the head
with both surviving.
Their mother had grown attached to both sons
and couldn't imagine allowing one
to expire to save the other.
Preparation began in Germany, where a Johns Hopkins team
inserted a scalp expander.
During the weeks prior to the surgery,
this was filled with fluid to stretch the skin
and provide a flap to cover the incisions.
The Johns Hopkins team of 70 people
worked for 22 hours before successfully separating
the boys.
The historic operation was a medical triumph
and a tremendous relief for the parents of the twins.
Ben Carson is the classic case of an overcomer
who has made full use of his talent.
But a childhood incident almost ruined all that.
At age 14, Ben Carson, the master of the scalpel,
was a knife-wielding street fighter.
You see, I had this pathological temper.
I would go after people with baby teeth.
I would go after people with baseball bats.
I remember once a guy hit me with a pebble,
and I took a big rock and threw it right at his face,
broke his glasses, almost put his eye out.
I remember another kid did something silly,
shut my locker or something when I wasn't ready.
And I took the combination lock and put it on my hand.
I knocked a three-inch gash in his forehead.
I mean, I was terrible.
I tried to hit my mother in the head with a hammer.
But one day when I was 14 years old,
it sort of all culminated because another youngster was
doing something that I didn't like,
changing a radio station or something
that I was listening to.
And I happened to have a large camping knife on me.
And I grabbed it and tried to stab him
in the abdomen with it.
Figured I'd put him out of his misery.
Well, fortunately, under his clothing,
he had on a very large metal ROTC belt buckle.
And that knife blade hit that belt buckle and broke.
And he took off.
He says, I'm not sticking around this crazy guy.
But I was even more horrified than he was because I recognized
at that moment that I was completely and totally out
of control.
And that had he not had that belt buckle on,
he could have been killed or seriously injured.
And instead of realizing my dream of becoming a physician,
I would have been on my way to jail or reform school.
And I went home and shut myself up in the bathroom.
And I started praying and asking God to take that temper away
from me because I had no control over it.
I was just like a crazy person when I got mad.
And I started reading in the book of Proverbs.
And it had a lot of stuff in it about people
who lose their tempers and what happens to them.
And it all seemed like it was written just for me.
And I stayed in there for three hours praying and contemplating
and reading.
And when I came out of that bathroom, the temper was gone.
And I haven't had any problems with it ever since that time.
People who know me today can't believe
that I used to be that way.
Hardly anyone knows Ben Carson better than Carol James.
As a physician assistant, she is the doctor's right hand person
and the core of Ben's team.
Though 12 to 14 hour days are the norm for Ben and Carol,
neither would trade their jobs with anyone.
It's the kind of job that is so gratifying all the time.
But I would say the people that stick with us the longest
are those that came feeling that there was no hope.
They've been told by other physicians
that there was nothing that could be done.
And they envisioned their child, who
was the most precious person in the world to them,
as dying within a matter of weeks or months.
And seeing them walk out of the hospital
with a child who's intact, who has
the potential for a great future.
And it's almost like a rebirth for the whole family.
They feel like they appreciate life so much more.
At age 20, Matt Thompson of Colorado
came to Johns Hopkins with brain cancer.
This scar is from a prior brain surgery when Matt was 11.
That operation failed to completely remove the tumor.
Following the surgery, Matt received chemotherapy
and radiation treatments with the hope
that the tumor would not grow.
But in 1990, tests showed that the tumor had again
begun to grow significantly.
At that point, Matt had been saturated with radiation
and could receive no more treatment.
Another surgery was his only hope.
Matt's parents sought out physicians across America.
Each one gave the Thompson's little hope.
And the other doctor said he didn't
know how he would approach it.
But he didn't think he could get it out.
Until we talked to Dr. Carson and Carol,
we didn't feel comfortable until we found them.
He was so confident that he could get it all out,
and he wouldn't cause any more damage than was caused already.
It was our prayers answered, really.
Matt will be his second operation of this day.
The other members of the surgical team
had begun preparing for tumor exposure
before Dr. Carson joins in.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Thompson waits and hopes
that they will not be disappointed,
as with the last operation nine years ago.
All these years waiting for it, thinking we had to go through all
of it again, and who knows what's going to happen this time.
It is really agonizing.
The minutes last forever.
Before surgery, he sits down and explains things very, very
carefully to each of his patients or their families.
And he's not the type of person who
will be patronizing or paternal.
And say, just leave everything to me.
Everything will be just fine.
He really goes into all the potential risks,
including death, with each of these patients,
what the likelihood is that anything will happen,
and also exactly what the surgery will incur.
But then he also tells them that if he
didn't think that this would be of benefit,
he wouldn't do it, because the risk benefit ratio always
has to be in favor of the patient.
And finally, before he leaves them,
he always tells them that they have one homework assignment
that night, and that's to say their prayers.
And if they will do that, he'll do the same,
and the things will be just fine.
Finally, the team penetrate far enough
to search with the ultrasound device.
The video monitor reveals that the tumor has been located.
A powerful microscope is moved into position.
Soon, Ben Carson will enter into one
of surgery's greatest tests of skill, the human brain.
In almost any type of surgical case,
particularly in neurosurgery, I say
that the majority of success comes from wisdom,
comes from knowing when to do something, how to do something,
when not to do something, being able to distinguish
between what you can do and what you cannot do.
There are a lot of people who have technical abilities.
There are a lot of people who have knowledge, who
don't necessarily have wisdom.
And I quite frankly would rather have someone with wisdom
working on me, because that is a person, first of all,
who is not going to do more than should be done,
and also who's not going to do less than should be done.
And the technical skills, the knowledge,
those are things that can be acquired.
But I believe wisdom comes from God,
and it has to be sought and asked for.
By 3 o'clock, the operation was five hours old.
Before surgery, the team had anticipated
they would be about ready to finish at this time.
However, a serious problem has been uncovered.
Eight years of radiation and chemotherapy
has left scar tissue all around the tumor.
The difficulty in removing every piece of the tumor
will be greatly multiplied.
At this point, every movement is critical.
Even a minor error could result in serious and permanent damage
to math.
By now, the Thompsons have learned there is a problem.
The only thing they can do is hope and pray.
At 7 o'clock, Ben is still picking away the tumor bit
by bit.
He hasn't moved from his seat since he began.
Math remains stable, and the surgeon continues to work.
The surgery is still underway.
Math remains stable, and the surgeon continues to work.
The surgery is still underway.
At long last, Dr. Carson removes the last trace of the tumor
at 8.30 in the evening.
At long last, Dr. Carson removes the last trace of the tumor
at 8.30 in the evening.
That was a very, very, very tough tumor.
Extremely vascular, and adherent to virtually everything.
But we got it out.
He's fine.
Well, here they are after this long wait.
The greatest sight on Earth to the Thompsons
was the reassuring smile that comes so easily
to Ben Carson's face.
We interviewed Matt, who was fast on his way to recovery
just one week after the operation.
It's like taking a ton of bricks off.
It makes me want to cry.
Before this, my life was like living year to year.
You really didn't want to plan things or have goals,
because who knows?
It was beyond your control that, who knows,
this tumor could grow again, and the whole thing could be off.
And basically, your whole life was up in the air.
But it was a very, very tough time.
But now, I still don't think I realize,
because I still don't think I can realize
I can actually plan my life.
Make sure I wake up this morning.
It's got a cold.
You know we have a camera crew today.
Dr. Carson is an inspiration to many,
but Ben has his heroes, too.
One of his greatest inspirations is Norma Claypool.
Norma has adopted eight children,
all of which are severely deformed.
She is a single parent, and all eight live with her in Baltimore.
With love and affection, she raises children
that no one else wanted.
And Norma is blind.
Well, he looks great.
This guy just does not comply with me.
He looks fantastic.
He does.
And he is so alert.
He's just following my little light around.
Yeah, he doesn't miss a thing.
And I guess that you know it's really bothering because I...
Her children are not brain damaged,
but the deformities are restricting the growth of their brains.
Dr. Carson and colleagues are working to rebuild
the skulls and faces of these children.
Many were expected to die and declared not worth saving by other physicians.
But Dr. Carson, Norma, and some friends who regularly volunteer
to help her at home have all teamed up
to give these children a chance at life.
Does he still need his hat?
Only for aesthetics.
Well, then we won't worry too much.
That's a cute little hat.
This little guy on my lap is a priceless little boy
who rewards you all the time.
Jaiman never complains if Jaiman cries or something extremely wrong.
He's come through so much without complaining about it.
He's just a really neat, affectionate, cheery child
who wakes up happy, is sleep happy,
and just is a nice little boy to have around him.
He amuses himself by the hour in his playpen,
and thanks to Dr. Carson's skill and faith, he's here today sitting on my lap.
Do you remember?
12-year-old Todd Stringer is another inspiration to Ben Carson.
Todd has achondroplasia, which is a form of dwarfism.
Ben has done two surgeries to correct spinal and neurological problems
related to Todd's condition.
Todd's parents, Andrea and Ron, are from Australia.
There's the Stringer clan, with the book even.
You've got to put it in its right place.
How you doing there, Todd?
Sorry I didn't get around to see you yesterday.
I was stuck in a deep, deep, deep, horrible tumor, but it's gone now.
Look at him. Isn't he looking good?
He looks wonderful.
He really does.
I think he's been quite vivacious, given what he's been through.
I think he was quite sparky.
Sounds like a dinky day arse.
A dinky day arse, yay!
He's wondering what we're saying there.
Will you have a good day?
All right, you too.
One of the remarkable things, I don't know if you saw it on the television,
when he separated the Siamese twins, Todd was in the hospital at the same time,
three years ago, when they came from Germany,
and they had all the doctors being interviewed for a news conference,
and when it got to his turn, he just very quietly stepped forward,
and he said, well, we have all the technology under the sun.
We've done the best technological job, and now the rest is left to God.
And he really believes that.
And I think that that is probably the reason that we get this feeling
that he is so humble, but yet so confident and so competent,
because he feels that there's always somebody behind him
that's helping him do the really wonderful work that he does.
To Todd, you've proved the saying, you can't keep a good man down,
keep up the good work, and think big.
Best wishes, Ben Carson.
That's four.
Yeah, he's the best.
Yeah, and you're lucky.
Candy Carson is also a grappished pianist and violinist,
and Ben's wife for 15 years.
When you're going into a partnership like marriage,
you each have to give 100%.
You can't expect someone to give, if you're giving 50,
and I'll say, well, we'll go 50-50.
You really have to give it your all.
If you have one whole person and another whole person that come together,
that can be something that's a whole lot more than two separate people
going about doing different things
because of the support that you give each other.
And if you do give 100%, you'll get more than 100% back.
Well, I think a marriage is sort of a reflection of our relationship with God.
And you think about how much He gives to us
and how much He has to take from us,
and it's amazing that He still loves us.
And I think that's a good way to look at it.
There are a lot of people who have technical abilities.
There are a lot of people who have knowledge,
who don't necessarily have wisdom.
You know, the technical skills, the knowledge,
those are things that can be acquired.
But I believe wisdom comes from God,
and it has to be sought and asked for.