GIFTED HANDS

Gifted hands is the story of the world famous Pediatric Neurosurgeon,Ben Carson.The Benjamin Carsons journey from the bottom of his fifth grade class to his current position as a director of pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital.In his autobiography Carsons explains how a strong faith in God,and the help of an extremely strong mother,he was able to overcome not only the doubts of his classmates and teachers but also the doubts of his own intelligence,and turn his life around. Carsons story begins in Detroit,Michigan,at the age of eight with the departure of his father,leaving young Ben,his brother Curtis,and his mother to fend themselves.Young Benjamin immediately began to notice changes in what once had been a financially stable family,and that his family would now be forced to struggle to get by.with only a third grade education Carsons mother was forced to take on two,sometimes three jobs to provide of her two boys.Benjamin and his brother fell further and further behind in school.In fifth grade,Carson was at the bottom of his class.His classmates call himDummy and he developed a violent,uncontrollable temper. When Mrs.Carson saw Benjamins failing grades,she determined to turn her sons lived around.She sharply limited the boys television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day.She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading even though,with her own poor education,she could barely read what had they written. A turning point ,in his life when Carson astonished by identifying rock samples.his teacher had brought it to class.He recognized them from one of the books he had read.It was at that moment I realized that I wasnt a stupid, he recalled later.After he found this new source of confidence,Ben developed a love for reading and a hunger for knowledged,he began to read voraciously on all subjects.Carson

continued to amaze his classmates with his new found knowledge and within a year he was at the top of the class.After graduating with honors from high school,he attended Yale University,where he earned a degree in Psychology. From Yale University,Ben went to the Medical school of the University of Michigan,Where his interest shifted from Psychiatry to Neurosurgery.His excellent hand-eye coordination and threedimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon.After Medical school he became a Neurosurgeon resident at the world famous John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.At age of 32,he became the hospital Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery. The success of his surgery marks the end that Ben has really a gifted hands or he is really indeed gifted.Ben passed a poor family life through poor perfosrmance in class to a succesful surgeon. Benjamin Carson inspires every children to become of what they want to be no matter how how hard is the life situation.He symbolizes courage because at verge of losing his eyesight,he managed to improved on his grades.The success of Ben Carson only means that our destiny is not determined by the hardships of the past.The end does not necessarily justify the means.

GIFTED HANDS
Bens family lived in Detroit Ghetto and they were feeding from hand to mouth because of their financial status.His father was a loving and a caring father although he was not at home most of the times.When Ben was eight years old,their father left home for good.Ben could not understand how his father loved them.This is because according to his mother,Sonya,his father was not coming back and thus could not take care of them.Sonya Carson told Ben that his father could not come back to them because she had done something very bad.Sonya raised his two sons alone,they had a difficult time due to lack of money but they had a happy family. Sonya was the greatest and initial source of information for Ben.She stood up for them when the system was dictating otherwise because of their black race.For instance,in college where blacks were seen as incapable of performing,Sonya stood up for Curtis and said that he would not attend any vocational courses but rather,he would go to college directly.Sonya was also an inspiration to Ben because of her hard work.At first,Ben was not performing well in school and this was very disturbing because he was even nicknamed by his colleagues at school.Despite this,he kept moving on because his mother was encouraging him by telling him that he was not born a failure. When Benjamin and his family came back to Detroit,Benjamin Was not performing well in school although he was still improving.Mathemathics was the worst subject for him,He scored a D which at that point it was an improvement.His classmates call him Dummy and he developed a violent,uncontrollable temper.He had a bad eyesight and the school provided him a free eye glasses.His eyesight was bad that he could be called handicapped.The glasses were very helpful because Ben was able to recite the tables behind his

Mathematics text book.He was able to improve in Mathematics such that his teacher noted the improvement.Bens class work started improving at the age of eleven after his teachers and his mother motivated him to developed interesting in class work. Bens family attended a Seventhday Adventist where Ben and his mother got baptized.They received Christ as their savior and were under his guidance henceforth.The church was helpful in Bens career because most of their bible studies and worship focused on missionaries who helped in medical matters.This was very intriguing to Ben and his interest in science.Sonya assured Ben that he could become a doctor if he really wanted to and if hed ask God for his assistance.Sonya and her sons moved from Detroit to Boston and then to Detroit again when she became financially stable(1951-1961).Sonya did any house work she could get. Sonya helped her children to improved in all aspects of their lives but particularly in class.Curtis was better in school than Benjamin although he was much rebellious.After a lot of hard work both for Ben and his mother,they started topping their classes such that Benjamin was offered a scholarship at Yale University after his High School.In Yale University,Ben Carson met a lady named Candy.As the story develops,Ben Carson requests Candy for marriage.Ben and Candy got married later.At Yale University,Ben did not maintain his good performance and at his freshmen year,he began to perform poorly.His advantage of toping class was short-lived although his faith in God was not damaged.He attended church even at the University.In the year 1973,Ben Carson graduated at Yale University.as we observed,Ben had developed an interest in medicine. Following his interest,Ben joined a medical school because he wanted to achieve his dream of becoming a doctor.After completing his medical school,Ben Carson was hoping to get a place at a school which was very difficult to secure a position.Luckily,Ben was accepted at John

Hopkins hospital.At the age of 32 he became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgeon.This is a popular hospital where complicated surgeries have been carried out successfully.Ben had put his medical career at stake by performing a surgery on man to save his life,At John Hopkins,Ben performed his first legal and most difficult surgery.He was asked to perform surgery on Miranda who had seizures for a long time. It was a challenging task for him but he was ready to face his career because he was also inspired by the missionaries he had known about in his childhood.Besides being a professional in medicine,Ben was also interested in saving lives and reducing the suffering by getting rid of pain.The surgery that was performed on Miranda was called Hemispherectomy.during this period when Ben was working as a surgeon,his wife Candy had a bloody miscarriage of the twins she was expecting.Their mother Sonya came in to stay with Bens family during this time. When at John Hopkins,Ben Carson performed another major surgery,there were twins who were joined from birth and Ben had postponed their surgery for four months.Separating them was a challenge because they were sharing vital organs like blood vessels.Most surgeons had feared operating on them and were advising their mother to give up one of them inorder to save atleast one of the twins.The two children were dissimilar,when one was feeding,the other one was doing something different like sleeping.The mother of the twins could not figure losing either of the two,she was insisting on saving them both.This made it very hard for most surgeons.It was Bens time to prove his competence.He tried the surgery with the help of others. There were a lot of problems because the two children were sharing blood capillaries transporting blood to the brain.Any littlte mistake could lead to death.Another challenge they were facing was lack of compatibility of the childrens blood group.During the surgery the blood could not clot and hence bleeding could not be

stopped.Luckily,compatible blood was found and they managed to stop the bleeding.The overall surgery was succesful and the two kids were saved.The surgery was a major success for Ben Carson because he became very famous in his field of interest. The success of his surgery marks the end that Ben has really a gifted hands or really indeed gifted.Ben Passed a poor family life through poor performance in class to a successful surgeon. Benjamin Carson inspires every children to become of what they want no matter how hard is the life situation.He symbolizes courage because even at the verge of losing his eyesight,he managed to improved on his grades.The success of Ben Carson only means that our destiny is not determined by the hardships of the past.The end does not necessarily justify the means.

REACTION PAPER IN PSYCHOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO: Johanne Loise M.Udanga (Professor)

SUBMITTED BY:Mary Jane R.Dela Iglesia (Student)

REACTION PAPER IN PSYCHOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO:Johanne Loise M.Udanga (Professor)

SUBMITTED BY:Rufa M.Caban (Student)