'That Was Something That Was Done By God': Ben Carson Recounts Story Of High-Risk Surgery

5 months ago

Speaking at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former Trump cabinet member Dr. Ben Carson recounts a story of a high-risk surgery he performed.

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Transcript

00:00There was a young man and he had a disease called van Hippel-Lindau,

00:06which you develop these very vascular tumors throughout the central nervous system.

00:12And he had developed one in the middle of his brain stem.

00:17And none of the adult neurosurgeons would operate on him

00:22because that's considered an inoperable area.

00:26And it looked very grim.

00:28Well, unfortunately for me, his wife happened to be a pediatric neurosurgery nurse

00:36who worked on the floors where all my patients were, so I couldn't escape her.

00:42And she said, You're going to have to operate on my husband.

00:49And I said, But I'm a pediatric neurosurgeon.

00:52And she says, Well, sometimes he acts like a child.

01:00And she just kept after me until I finally said, Okay, I'll go and talk to him.

01:05And I said, Craig, you know, this thing is in the middle of your brain stem.

01:08It's an inoperable area.

01:10It's like a coaxial cable.

01:12Every fiber is critical to your function.

01:15And I said, If I operate on that,

01:18there's at least a 50-50 chance that you will die on the table.

01:23And he said, Doc, if you don't operate, there's a 100% chance I'm going to die.

01:29And I said, That's a pretty mature attitude.

01:32So I took him to the operating room.

01:34It was a very difficult operation.

01:36A lot of new vessels had grown into the area.

01:39But I made a very tiny hole in the brain stem on the high-power microscope

01:46and probed with a little microprobe until I felt a different consistency,

01:52put in the little micro forceps, grabbed the capsule.

01:55I couldn't see it.

01:57I just started easing it out and teasing it out.

02:00And then the evoked potentials went flat,

02:02the electrical impulses that show brain activity.

02:06And the anesthesiologist said, I told you you were going to kill him.

02:11And, you know, it was very somber at that point.

02:15But I managed to finish getting the tumor out.

02:18And, you know, we had prayed earnestly, the patient and his wife and I,

02:24before the operation.

02:26They were very faithful Christians.

02:29But at the end of the operation, he didn't wake up

02:32and was sent to the intensive care unit on full life support.

02:38But when I came in the next morning, he was sitting up in the bed telling jokes.

02:43And, you know, he made a complete recovery.

02:54But, you know, that was not something that was done by me.

02:59That was something that was done by God.

03:02And he says in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6,

03:05trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.

03:11In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

03:15And that's what we must do, trust in him.

03:18He loves this country.

'That Was Something That Was Done By God': Ben Carson Recounts Story Of High-Risk Surgery

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