‘60 Minutes’ had a profile/hagiography on Dr. Ben Carson. Two things stood out. One is his mother quit her job to go on welfare so she could raise her two sons unencumbered. I’ve never heard anything about Dr. Carson repaying taxpayers for his mother’s fecklessness (fraud really) a la ‘Cinderella Man’. Very different from the current embellishment his mother worked two and three jobs to support them.
Of course Carson has paid a lot in taxes, so maybe it’s a wash. And he’s saved lives, which brings up the next point.
A seven-year-old girl with severe epilepsy was brought in. Dr. Carson specialized in a surgery which separated the brain hemispheres giving patients, the younger the better, chance for a cure. The father asked if someone else could do the surgery. Dr. Carson’s white colleague, in Dr. Carson’s presence, told the father to take his daughter away. While telling this story on '60 Minutes’ Dr. Carson, the white colleague and the reporter (Mike Wallace I believe) were all smugness and self-regard. That white father was taught a lesson. A teachable moment.
But what of the seven-year-old girl? Did she die soon thereafter, or have her life cut short, because of Dr. Carson’s refusal to treat her? Severe epileptics tend to have brief lives. David Axelrod, the political consultant, has a daughter with severe epilepsy. Though born with normal intelligence his daughter has become very limited mentally and does not have much of a life expectancy. Saving just one person and one family from this fate would be invaluable.
Dr. Carson has decided to retire next year at age 62. Not reduce his workload or take a teaching position. But retire. Stress that he sees in other surgeons is to blame. His perogative. It’s not like he owes society anything. And it’s not like he owed a forgotten seven-year-old girl anything.
Of course Carson has paid a lot in taxes, so maybe it’s a wash. And he’s saved lives, which brings up the next point.
A seven-year-old girl with severe epilepsy was brought in. Dr. Carson specialized in a surgery which separated the brain hemispheres giving patients, the younger the better, chance for a cure. The father asked if someone else could do the surgery. Dr. Carson’s white colleague, in Dr. Carson’s presence, told the father to take his daughter away. While telling this story on '60 Minutes’ Dr. Carson, the white colleague and the reporter (Mike Wallace I believe) were all smugness and self-regard. That white father was taught a lesson. A teachable moment.
But what of the seven-year-old girl? Did she die soon thereafter, or have her life cut short, because of Dr. Carson’s refusal to treat her? Severe epileptics tend to have brief lives. David Axelrod, the political consultant, has a daughter with severe epilepsy. Though born with normal intelligence his daughter has become very limited mentally and does not have much of a life expectancy. Saving just one person and one family from this fate would be invaluable.
Dr. Carson has decided to retire next year at age 62. Not reduce his workload or take a teaching position. But retire. Stress that he sees in other surgeons is to blame. His perogative. It’s not like he owes society anything. And it’s not like he owed a forgotten seven-year-old girl anything.