Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Read our Interview with Dr Carson about this book and film adaptation starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.

In 1987, Dr. Benjamin Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head. The extremely complex and delicate operation, five months in the planning and twenty-two hours in the execution, involved a surgical plan that Carson helped initiate.

Carson pioneered again in a rare procedure known as hemispherectomy, giving children without hope a second chance at life through a daring operation in which he literally removed one half of their brain.

But such breakthroughs aren’t unusual for Ben Carson. He’s been beating the odds since he was a child.

Raised in inner-city Detroit by a mother with a third grade education, Ben lacked motivation. He had terrible grades. And a pathological temper threatened to put him in jail. But Sonya Carson convinced her son that he could make something of his life, even though everything around him said otherwise.

Trust in God, a relentless belief in his own capabilities, and sheer determination catapulted Ben from failing grades to the top of his class—and beyond to a Yale scholarship … the University of Michigan Medical School…and finally, at age 33, the directorship of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Today, Dr. Ben Carson holds twenty honorary doctorates and is the possessor of a long string of honors and awards, including the Horatio Alger Award, induction into the "Great Blacks in Wax" Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, and an invitation as Keynote Speaker at the 1997 President’s National Prayer Breakfast.

Gifted Hands is the riveting story of one man’s secret for success, tested against daunting odds and driven by an incredible mindset that dares to take risks. This inspiring autobiography takes you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world—and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physician who lives to help others. Through it all shines a humility, quick wit, and down-to-earth style that make this book one you won’t easily forget. Dr. Benjamin Carson is director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He lives with his wife, Candy, and three sons in West Friendship, Maryland.