Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story!

During Class on Thursday and Friday, August 19th and 20th 2021, We watched Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. The movie starts with an older Ben Carson sent to separate a set of conjoined twin boys in ULM West Germany, it is a very risky procedure due to the twins sharing the vision part of the brain matter. A flashback then sets the scene in 1961 Detroit showing a young Ben Carson getting bullied by his fellow classmates for not making good grades. During this time in his life his mother, Sonya Carson goes to a doctor claiming she has a “darkness she can’t control, admitting to that doctor that she cannot read and only went to school until the 3rd grade. Ben ends up receiving an award for the highest average in 8th grade, then a female teacher points out his “disadvantages'' as a black young man without a father as a way to encourage the white students to do better. When Ben gets to high school, kids bully him about how he dresses, he addresses his mother about getting new clothes and she doesn't respond the way he wants her to, so he pulls a hammer on her, soon after that he attacks a kid at school with a knife. These events cause him to pray and sing to God to take away his anger. After this scene years pass and Ben Carson and his girlfriend go to Yale and Ben is struggling with chemistry. He works really hard and ends up getting a very high A, keeping him in Yale. After college, he applies to become a neurosurgery resident at John Hopkins knowing it is very competitive. Ben puts himself over the top by explaining to the interviewer his personal reasons for wanting to become a brain surgeon landing him the job. During his residency however, a doctor calls Ben a racial slur, encouraging him to be nice to everyone that works in the hospital despite how they feel about him. After all of these events, the movie is set back to the time that it was started. During this time in Bens professional life he also has some personal life issues arise, such as the miscarriage of his twin children. This loss only inspires him to save these twin boys and keep them both alive. Gifted Hands ends with Dr. Carson finishing a 22 hour long surgery and successfully separating and saving the babies lives.