Ben Carson Accomplishments

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Ben Carson has been described as “an internationally renowned surgeon who focuses on traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, epilepsy, and neurological and congenital disorders (Tipton) who aimed to become a doctor since he was eight years old, when he heard the stories of missionary doctors and wanted to help people in, as he believed, in the most honorable fashion (Roberts).” This accomplished neurosurgeon achieved his goal numerous times over and is the most outstanding doctor of the last hundred years because he had a highly successful medical career that included the separation of conjoined twins, and has made efforts to help other people succeed just as he did. Ben Carson’s highly successful medical career began when…show more content…
Carson’s most well-known accomplishment is the separation of conjoined twins. Carson said on the topic, “I’ve been involved in three sets now, which puts me at the forefront of the crowd. (It’s funny when only three makes you the person who’s had the most experience)’ (Tipton).” In September 1987, the first set of conjoined twins that Carson operated on, a set of seven-month-old German twins (Benjamin S. Carson), had separate brains but were connected at the back of the head by vital blood vessels (Ben Carson). This operation was a monumental task as, in similar cases, one or both twins are likely to die or be severely impaired due to blood loss and complications (Ben Carson), and such a surgery had been attempted and failed thirteen times before (Tipton). After much thought and five months of preparation, Carson performed the surgery with his 70-member team (Benjamin S. Carson) by implementing cardiac surgery techniques that included stopping the babies’ hearts and draining their blood, then separating the boys in under an hour and restoring circulation (Ben Carson). This operation did not only receive international attention because of its unprecedented nature, but also due to the incorporation of unconventional techniques such as deliberate hypothermia, or lowering of the body’s temperature, and induced cardiac arrest (Roberts).” In 1997, he conducted another successful operation that took 28 hours to separate 11-month-old Zambian Siamese twins in South…show more content…
Carson)” in 1988 and more recently, “the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor” by President George W. Bush in 2008 (Ben Carson), he considers his greatest honor to be the privilege he has to help others succeed in their future. Carson is a motivation speaker in constant demand (Ben Carson) and has made it his goal to encourage and reward academically adept students in America “through the Carson Scholar Fund, which he created after getting tired of seeing athletes get better recognition than academically gifted students (Roberts).” Carson, the president and cofounder of the fund, was not a stellar student until, as a child living in a poor Detroit neighborhood, his mother began requiring that he and his brother to read two books every week and write reports on them (Tipton), so he is passionate about the world of knowledge and considers it the key to success. He acquired a lot of knowledge about the world from the books that he read (Tipton), many of which inspired his desire to practice medicine (Roberts). He believes that academic success can help any student reach their goal, and wants to assist those ambitious students’ financially through scholarships and encourage them with his words of

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