Early life and medical career
Carson spent his early childhood in Detroit. His parents divorced when he was eight years old, and thereafter he lived with his mother and brother, spending a brief period in Boston and later returning to Detroit. Although Carson showed potential as a student, he performed poorly in school until his mother challenged him and his brother with reading and writing assignments in addition to their regular schoolwork. Carson developed a newfound interest in learning and eventually earned a scholarship to Yale University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1973. While at Yale, he met Lacena (“Candy”) Rustin; the couple married in 1975 and had three children. He next attended the University of Michigan, earning a medical degree in 1977, and later Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed a residency in neurosurgery. In 1984, after a brief stint as a senior registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, part of the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Nedlands, Western Australia, Carson became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. He was one of the youngest doctors in the United States to earn such a title. He later also held professorships in plastic surgery, oncology, and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins.
In his successful separation of occipital craniopagus twins in 1987, Carson used a radical approach in which the twins’ body temperatures were lowered to the point of circulatory arrest. The success of the procedure and the reconstructive techniques employed gained Carson world renown as a pediatric neurosurgeon. In 1997, in a 28-hour-long operation, he led a team of South African and Zambian surgeons in a separation of twins conjoined at the top of the head (type 2 vertical craniopagus twins). Carson was also known for having performed the first successful rescue of a hydrocephalic twin using an intrauterine shunt. The shunt served to drain fluid under high pressure away from the developing brain of the fetus and into the amniotic cavity of the mother. Carson’s techniques for hemispherectomy and craniofacial reconstructive surgery were influential in the fields of neurosurgery and plastic surgery.
He was a vocal supporter of eventual winner Donald Trump, who in December 2016 announced that he would nominate Carson to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In March 2017 Carson was confirmed by the Senate, 58–41, and took office shortly thereafter.
In an effort to promote self-sufficiency, Carson supported rent increases for those receiving federal housing assistance or living in public housing properties. He also sought to reduce housing regulations, including those designed to end discrimination. Such moves were met with opposition, as critics alleged that he failed to understand the complexities of the issues. In a February 2019 interview Carson suggested that he would leave HUD at the end of Trump’s term in 2021. In March 2020 he was appointed to the government’s task force handling the coronavirus pandemic. In November it was announced that he had tested positive for the disease, and he later claimed that he had become “desperately ill” but recovered after Trump intervened to get him access to an antibody treatment that required FDA approval. Carson stepped down as secretary of HUD in January 2021.
Other activities
In 1994 Carson cofounded the Carson Scholars Fund, an organization that awarded scholarships to students who had demonstrated academic excellence and community service. He received numerous awards during his career, including the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom, given to him by U.S. Pres. George W. Bush. Carson also traveled as a motivational speaker, was an outspoken supporter of creationism, and was the subject of the 2009 made-for-television movie Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. The movie took its title from Carson’s autobiography, Gifted Hands (1990; with Cecil Murphey).
