November 14, 2015

"The story of the surgery that made Ben Carson famous — and its complicated aftermath."

In The Washington Post. Excerpt:
Their mother would later tell reporters that they came home with the hope, instilled in them by the Johns Hopkins surgeons, that the boys might soon begin crawling, and then hit other milestones.... It soon became apparent, though, that the boys were hopelessly delayed, according to a 1993 interview with the Revue. Benjamin would moan occasionally, but Patrick remained completely silent; he had had a setback in the Baltimore hospital when he choked on a piece of food, going without oxygen for a short time. Years later, neither boy could get around on his own or feed himself....

When Freizeit Revue caught up with Theresia in November 1993, she said her children’s brain damage had destroyed her marriage. “Josef has never been able to cope with this blow of fate,” she said in the little-seen interview written in German and translated into English. She said Josef, who has since died, according to Theresia’s brother, became an alcoholic, lost his job, cheated on her and spent all their money, leaving her and the children to live “from hand to mouth.”“He never touched them,” she said. “He was appalled.” Unable to care for the twins on her own, she brought them to a home for disabled children, where they became wards of the state.

“The first thing I think of every morning is ‘today I’m going to get them,’ ” she said in 1993. “But then I can’t.” She said she had lost her faith in God. She remarried and had another child, and in 1993 was pregnant with another. “When we go for a walk with the children in their wheelchair, people look at me, as if I’m a monster,” she said. “I need this child. To heal. I still have to prove to myself that I’m not a monster.”
The highest rated comment over there is:
I'm not sure why people are so negative about this article. I don't like the guy or his politics, and I think he's nuts. But this article portrays a pretty brave doctor willing to take a chance to help two babies who would otherwise have had a miserable life. He gave them a chance at a better life. That it didn't work is hardly his fault, and the article doesn't paint it as his fault. Relax.
Second:
I don't see how this story in any way reflects unfavorably on Ben Carson. Some difficult ethical and medical decisions were made and the outcome was poor. Welcome to the real world where medicine often fails to live up to expectations.  In my opinion Ben Carson's surgical successes or failures have absolutely no bearing on his fitness for office. The fact that he is a Christian fringe fanatic makes him a no go for me. Ben comes across as dangerously unhinged when he shares some of his half baked theories.

35 comments:

Nichevo said...

We look back with deprecation on the days when Protestants had wild ideas about the Catholic religion and everybody had wild ideas about Judaism, where is it that we have got to now where are harmless little sex like SDA is "fringe fanatics." Does Carson hold black masses? After all he's black. This is the kind of thinking... Congratulations Althouse.

For the trivia minded, Malcolm X's grandmother or something was SDA and a lot of their beliefs transmitted from Judaism about not eating pork and the like, for better or worse, help ease him into the path of Islam, which for Malcolm Little, represented reform. Haha, that doesn't sound like a recommendation maybe, but it does seem to imply that SDA represents little Islands of good in the black community.

Hagar said...

While Carson is still a top contender among the Republican candidates, it will be well to file all information about him offered by the MSM under "Wait and see if anything else comes to light to confirm this."

Also note the language used to see if the facts given actually justify the conclusions drawn or intimated.

Laslo Spatula said...

Maybe God wanted those heads stuck together for a reason.

I wonder if Dr. Carson considered that.

I am Laslo.

traditionalguy said...

Get real guys. What fitness for office does Carson have other than a carefully crafted line of BS???

William said...

What are the chances that an article like this would have been wriitten if Ben Carson were a Democrat and, say, an advocate for Obamacare or a woman's right to an abortion?

Amexpat said...

Get real guys. What fitness for office does Carson have other than a carefully crafted line of BS???

He found out that the Chinese are in Syria while intelligence agencies and news organizations around the world were oblivious to this fact. It'll be interesting to see his promised documentation of this.

Martha said...

The Washington Post article makes it clear that eventually —in 1997 — Dr. Carson did separate conjoined twins who had normal neurological development post-surgery.

That is how medical progress happens. One fumbling step at a time. It is unfortunate all pioneering medical procedures are not total successes the first time they are attempted but each advance in medicine lays the groundwork for the next time the procedure is attempted.
Dr. Carson and the team at John Hopkins are to be commended for advancing neurosurgical procedures.

Unfortunately in real the world, bumbling attempts to function as Commander in Chief affect millions of people—not just one or two desperate patients.

Patrick said...

Maybe the result would have been better if they'd brought in "Dr." Jill Biden.

Hagar said...

The western provinces of China - in area maybe larger than China proper, though sparsely populated and dirt poor - are Moslem, and I can readily believe that the Chinese government take a great deal of interest in developments in the "Moslem world." Also Chinese - government or individuals - sell arms to all comers.
If Carson thinks there is more than that, lets hear it and check it out.

Michael said...

Because of unexpected quirks in the manufacturing process, some of the initial batches of the Salk vaccine wound up giving kids polio. About 200 died. We identified the flaws and fixed it. Polio has now been eradicated from all but two countries. Be it polio or conjoined twins, that's the way it goes with medical progress.

traditionalguy said...

I do fully support Ben Carson as Surgeon General of the United States and as Advisor on slick Quack Medicines, and as consultant on Religious Nonsense Made Real, and as Director of the Carson Institute for Self Worship.

Sydney said...

It's hard to take these criticisms of Ben Carson seriously, especially when they come from people who voted for Obama. Even if it was only the first time around.

eddie willers said...

Anyone remember Christiaan Barnard?

Michael K said...

"What are the chances that an article like this would have been wriitten if Ben Carson were a Democrat"

Zero, minus a lot.

The NY Times readers are seeking "safe spaces" where they don't have to think about black conservatives and other scary things.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Dangerously unhinged? Nuts? Do those characterizations seem correct or fair to you, Professor? I know you've mentioned Dr. Carson's "kooky" beliefs, but is he himself nuts or dangerous in your opinion?

Dr. Carson's not my candidate, but this is the sort of shit that really makes me dislike the Left, and frankly also the people who get their news/allow their views to be shaped by the Left--which, sadly, is most Americans (the Media is Left). You guys can't call the Johns Hopkins director of pediatric neurosurgery stupid so you go instead with kooky, and that of course leads directly to "dangerously unhinged." Hey, he holds strange or silly beliefs about some minor issues, or he has some strange religious beliefs, so that must imply that his though processes--the way he thinks itself--is flawed, so the man's a danger!

Is it DANGEROUS to have a fringe belief about a biblical story/ancient history? I mean, it's not DANGEROUS to believe that gender is only a social construct and therefore 8 year old kids can start sex reassignment programs; it's not DANGEROUS to view the unborn as nothing more than a clump of cells, so that you're ok with abortion right up until the child is actually born; it's not DANGEROUS to promote the idea that single motherhood is just as good as having a stable, committed partnership when raising children, leading to the complete breakdown of traditional families that's causing most of our social problems today......No, none of those beliefs are DANGEROUS, but Dr. Carson, you'd better watch him.

Shit, what % of Democrats believe TODAY that "9/11 was an inside job" or that the towers were brought down by controlled demolitions at President Bush's command? It's not a small number, I'd bet, and that happened only 14 years ago. That's a pretty fucking dangerous belief, of course, and you'd have to be unhinged to believe it, but that doesn't make good people like the Professor conclude that the Left is full of kooks who should be kept away from positions of power, no sir. It's sick.

mccullough said...

Carson is the only candidate with an actual skill. Doesn't mean he'd be a good president. None of the candidates would. But at least he can do something useful.

YoungHegelian said...

The fact that he is a Christian fringe fanatic makes him a no go for me.

Are we talking about candidate Obama & Rev Wright here, or someone else?

But that's okay, 'cause we know Obama was in a church for 20 years, but he didn't believe any of that stuff. Just like he really believed in gay marriage the whole time.

So, publicly lying about believing in "crazy stuff" is fine, as long as the cognoscenti are in on your wink-wink game to fool the rubes.

pm317 said...

Carson is a different kind of crazy and it is scary that people take him seriously to run this country (or any country).

cubanbob said...

traditionalguy said...
Get real guys. What fitness for office does Carson have other than a carefully crafted line of BS???

11/14/15, 8:34 AM"

Let me guess, you are voting for Hillary. Kindly explain what possible fitness for office does Hillary have unless being a grifter and a criminal is a job qualifier.

David said...

"Christian fringe fanatic."

That's really old school. Christianity originated with fringe fanatics, and has been renewed from time to time by the same. (Think Luther and Calvin.) Any serious practicing Christian is by definition a fringe fanatic in the eyes of today's progressive agnostics.

Nichevo said...

Naw Bob, trad is sincere. He only whores out to one candidate at a time, though it was fun watching him switch horses without apology from Walker to Trump. The lips-to-anus transplant was accomplished without ill effect. Trump is, now, the One True King and will be till he drops, whereupon the redheaded Southern lawyer will pick the next front-runner to toady for, saying he knew it all the time.

Ctmom4 said...

I am not a Carson supporter, but I too am disgusted by the way leftists are trying to destroy him. I have seen countless comments calling him stupid by people that is is safe to say would never be allowed near anyone's brain with a scalpel. All people who I am sure voted twice for the lightweight empty suit dilettante narcissist that only yesterday said ISIS was contained.

Annie said...

Ben comes across as dangerously unhinged when he shares some of his half baked theories.

I wonder if this person thinks Hillary as dangerously unhinged when she blatantly lied about a video, after her criminal malfeasance in Benghazi got four Americans killed? Or her idea to go in and destabilize Libya, in the first place.

Sam L. said...

he Left will blame him regardless. He is or could be a threat to Hillary, or a draft choice to be named later.

Michael K said...

"it is scary that people take him seriously to run this country (or any country)."

Yes, it is scary that the KKK is on campus at Missouri.

It is scary that "White Privilege" is why blacks can't pass math exams. Or be engineers.

It is scary that college tuition is not free. And especially if you are asked who would be expected to pay for it.

Lots of scary stuff thee days for some.

david7134 said...

I am not wild about Carson and will be racist enough to say that we need a strong leader not of color. But, there is a joke in the medical community about neurosurgery, a man comes in with a tremor in his right hand that the neurosurgeon says he will fix that, the man returns after the surgery with the tremor gone from the right hand but now in the left, the neurosurgeon says, Success.

Derp said...

It's scary that people think the Hillary Clinton is the best person the Democrats have to offer.

eric said...

Those commentators ought to read the abolition of man by C.S. Lewis.

We're going to run out of words to describe bad things if we keep abusing language like this. The words they use to describe Dr. Carson could be used to describe members of ISIS.

They should be ridiculed for abusing language.

I like Trump, but his supporters, like TradGuy, make me want to dismiss Trump as a serious candidate.

Michael K said...

But, there is a joke in the medical community about neurosurgery,

There are lots of jokes about neurosurgeons, especially from people who work with them.

I've known <a href="http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/12602.html'> some great ones, though. </a>

Michael K said...

Dunno why that link didn't work.

Ann Althouse said...

"Dunno why that link didn't work."

Closing quote mark needs to be a double quote not a single.

traditionalguy said...

Practice tip: a trial lawyer represents one client at a time. Walker had the best credentials and then he was who withdrew. I liked Walker's focused messages and simple to a fault personality.

But in Trump's case I feel a need to explain him to the other commenters. His only sin is being smarter than the rest of us and daring to announce it first. But if you will think about the words that Trump says, the next day you will see genius in it.



The Godfather said...

"The fact that [Dr. Carson] is a Christian fringe fanatic makes him a no go for me. Ben comes across as dangerously unhinged when he shares some of his half baked theories."

Did you know that John F. Kennedy believed that when he went to Mass he ate the actual flesh of Jesus Christ and drank his actual blood? So do John Kerry and Joe Biden. Talk about unhinged and half-baked!

PeterK said...

"Christian fringe fanatic " "nuts"
classic left-wing. attack the individual via name calling instead of focusing on his ideas. all in an attempt to marginalize Dr. Carson.
the sad thing is that I suspect neither commenter believes that what they said is out of bounds

traditionalguy said...

P. T. Barnum was right.