Spotlight: Dr. Ben Carson

[Left: Dr.Ben Carson, Right:Actor Cuba Gooding Jr.]

A while ago I read the biography of Dr. Ben Carson which was recently published (entitled "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story"). I had heard about him from various interviews and whatnot but when I read his personal story, it sealed the deal for me. He is inspirational to say the least and continues to make strides in the medical/health care field.

Benjamin S. Carson, Sr. (born 18 September, 1951) is an American Neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Benjamin Solomon Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Sonya Carson, had dropped out of school in the third grade and married Robert Solomon Carson, a much older Baptist minister from Tennessee, when she was only thirteen. When Carson was only eight, his parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother, Curtis, on her own. She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys.



Early on Carson experienced difficulty in school, eventually falling to the bottom of his class. He became the object of name calling and subsequently developed a violent, uncontrollable temper. Determined to turn her son’s life around, Carson’s mother limited his television watching and refused to let him go outside to play until he had finished his homework each day. She required him to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on his reading, even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what he had written. Soon Carson was amazing his instructors and classmates with his improvement. "It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his new found knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class.

A look inside the "Ben Carson Story" Movie


After determining that he wanted to be a psychiatrist, Carson graduated with honors from high school and attended Yale University, where he earned a degree in Psychology. From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University of Michigan, where his interest shifted from psychiatry to neurosurgery. His excellent hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon. After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. At the age of 33, he became the hospital's professor and director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Recent Conference


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http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/car1-007



Dr. Ben Carson at Work

"Watch as Dr. Benjamin Carson performs risky brain surgery on young Payton to remove a brain tumor. Dr. Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery, is just one of the many reasons why Johns Hopkins Children's Center was recently ranked #1 in neurology and neurosurgery in America's Best Children's Hospitals 2008."
- U.S. World Report 08

Health Advisory Update: Swine Flu

Swine Flu Virus
Up Close and Personal
(under the microscope)


CDC says October soonest for swine flu shots
AP

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer – 1 hr 45 mins ago

ATLANTA – A U.S. health official said a swine flu vaccine could be available as early as October, but only if vaccine production and testing run smoothly this summer.

Dr. Anne Schuchat (Shook-it) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency began shipping virus samples to manufacturers in the past several days. The government will have to review the safety and effectiveness of what's produced, and decide if a vaccination campaign is warranted. October is about the time seasonal flu vaccine campaigns generally get rolling.

CDC officials reported more than 8,500 probable and confirmed cases in the U.S., including 12 deaths and more than 500 hospitalizations.

CDC-Yahoo News

Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/052509.htm

More Swine Flu pictures

School Spotlight: Medical School Tour of Univ. of Washington

School of Medicine University of Washington (UWMC)-

If you are a prospective medical school student, and you would like a first hand look at what life is like for a med student at the University of Washington. The following video should be of great interest to you. This spotlight follows the previous school reviews that I used to do a couple months back (before school got in the way of my blogging). Well anyway, the School of Medicine at the University of Washington seems to have a great well rounded program to me, but you should see for yourself.

Background provided by Wikipedia
The University of Washington Medical Center is a nationally renowned hospital located along the Montlake Cut and Portage Bay in the University District of Seattle, Washington, USA. It is one of the teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine.

HEY!!!

I just graduated college last Friday May 22!!!!!!!!!!!! WoooooooAH!!! Congrats to all the other graduates around the world!!! All my hard work paid off, I made the Deans list and Im graduating cum laude!!! This explains why Ive been MIA for a couple months

During our Commencenment ceremony, I was introduced to an amazing leader in the Biological sciences field named Dr. Lisa Jackson. She was Montclair State University's College of Science and Math's Honorary degree recipient for 2009. I later found out that she is the first African American to receive a high position as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. She delivered a wonderful speech and celebrated with us as well as delivered Obama's greetings to our graduating class.