Gifted Hands

Montreal Rice

World Religions

Pastor Troy

4/29/16

Gifted Hands

Gifted Hands is the story of the world famous Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Ben Carson. The book tells of Carson’s journey from the bottom of his fifth grade class to his current position as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In his autobiography Carson explains how a strong faith in god, and the help of an extremely strong mother, he was able to overcome not only the doubts of his classmates and teachers but also the doubts of his own intelligence, and turn his life around. In the book Gifted Hands Ben and his brother Curtis grew up in a single parent household in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of eight with the departure of his father, leaving young Ben, his brother Curtis, and his mother to fend for themselves. Young Benjamin immediately began to notice changes in what once had been a financially stable family, and that his family would now be forced to struggle to get by.                                 With only a third grade education Carson’s mother was forced to take on two, sometimes three jobs to provide for her two boys. Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind in school; in fifth grade, Carson was at the bottom of his class. His classmates called him "dummy" and he developed a violent, uncontrollable temper. At the same time when Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined to turn her sons' lives around. She sharply limited the boys' television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day.                                                                                         She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what they had written. Ben’s mother started having to seek psychiatric help for all the stress that was brought upon her after the father of her sons left. They never lost their sense of family unity. His mother still did domestic work and often came home tired. She never did fail to ask about school. Ben thought that because he was 8, he didn't have any responsibilities.                                                 This was also the best time of his life. He had an exceptional Christmas that provided a lot more for him. He acquired a scale model Buick that he loved but he never loved anything like his chemistry set. He played with it for hours. He also had his first real religious experience when he was 8. The message of a sermon and the visual effect of the music impacted him and he felt safe. He was determined to become a doctor at that point because he wanted to help people and he believed he could do it. His mother eventually moved him back to Detroit. When he went back to school, his classes were mostly white but he persevered and did great in school.                 He pulled his grades up as time passed and eventually became the smartest kid in his class. He later found out that he had bad eye sight and had to be prescribe glasses. Dealing with that situation made it interested in science, also when becoming the smartest 7th grader he became the top of his class which sought some unwanted attention from some racist white children. Ben had terrible anger issues he had a lot of trouble when it came to being at school and getting into incidents with other children even his friends. One of the worst situations he got into was the incident with his mom when she didn’t but the jeans that he wanted he was about to swing as if he was going to hit her. When Ben was able to he had become interested and Ben had to decide on which college to go to since he only had enough money to send out one application.                                                                                                          He narrowed it down to Yale and Harvard, after watching the Quiz Bowl on TV between Yale and Harvard Yale won so that’s how he made his decision on going to Yale. He wasn't doing very well when he first went. His grades got worse and worse. He turned to God and began praying for help. He a dream that he was studying and taking notes and when he woke up, he memorized everything that was needed. He decided to be doctor. He felt like that's what God wanted him to do. His final grade was a 97 and one of the best in the class.                         In conclusion Ben had soon after found his calling. He realized that neurosurgery is what he wanted to do in his life. Being an intern some doctors thought just because of his skin color he probably didn’t want to be an intern. At the same time he started to have certain patients that didn’t want to work with him because of his skin color. But they never walked out on him because of the outstanding work he had done. He had become a successful brain sergent and had done magnificent work and done some dangerous, risky surgeries. He only had one patient that didn’t make it, a 7 month old infant. He never got over the loss of his patient. At the same time he continued and changed other’s lives and made a differences by doing the impossible.