RENOWNED JOHNS HOPKINS NEUROSURGEON
WOULD BE ILL-ADVISED  TO RUN FOR OFFICE

Should stick to medicine and helping people
 
By David Maril
 
I’ll never forget the only time I ever met Dr. Ben Carson.

It was on a tension-packed late-night visit to the intensive care unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital a long time ago, back in May of 1983.

My father, artist Herman Maril, had undergone surgery several days earlier and the procedure had not gone well.

He had decided to try a new carotid artery surgical procedure that seemed extremely promising. He’d only be in the hospital several days and then be less susceptible to suffering a stroke in his later years . He was 74 at the time but had longevity in his family, with three sisters and two brothers, all older, who lived into their late 80s and early 90s.

But everything seemed to go wrong once he entered the hospital.

He turned out to be allergic to the dye used in testing before the surgery and had a severe reaction. Then after the surgery he came down with pneumonia.

During the week following the surgery, I was called down from Massachusetts, where I was working at the time, twice, because it didn’t look as if he was going to make it.

On my first trip down, it appeared he’d suffered a heart attack, but fortunately those symptoms subsided. The second time I jumped on a flight to rush down, he was extremely weak and struggling with his breathing.

My mother, Esta Maril, was maintaining round-the-clock visiting duties. A psychiatric social worker, she’d bring a book, notecards to write letters, and folders of work with her, spending the whole day in the waiting room, forcing her way in to see him the few minutes allowed for visiting in the intensive care unit.

When I arrived on my second emergency trip, at around 8 p.m., my father’s condition seemed to have worsened, and my mother had been there all day and didn’t want to go home.

That was when a distinguished looking, very composed young black doctor approached us in the waiting room.

INTRODUCED HIMSELF AS DR. BEN CARSON

He introduced himself as Dr. Ben Carson and said he was the physician on duty that night.

He clasped my mother’s right hand in both his hands and said in a gentle, reassuring tone, “Everything is under control and I am keeping a close eye on your husband’s condition. He is going to be OK and you need to go home and get some rest.”

Since this was before the era of cellphones, he gave my mother his direct hospital phone number and told her that any time she woke up in the middle of the night and felt anxious about my father’s condition, to give him a call. He also promised that if there was any change in my father’s condition, he would call her immediately.

“Please go home,” he told her. “I know everything is going to be OK. I am here and I will keep a close eye on things.”

Much to my surprise, and relief, he was able to convince my mother that it was OK to go home for a few hours’ rest.

And Dr. Carson was correct. My father, despite spending nearly a month in the hospital, did slowly recover. Although he was never quite as vibrant and strong as he’d been before the surgery, he did live another three years.

QUITE AN IMPRESSION AS A YOUNG DOCTOR

Although we never saw Dr. Carson again, my family often talked about him. He made quite an impression on us as a young doctor, very early in his career. Even 10 years later, it seemed quite remarkable to us that a young physician in a busy hospital had the perception and sensitivity to notice the strain my mother, a total stranger, was under, and on his own, take the time to approach and comfort her.

It was obvious, even then that he was a special human being and was going to be a great physician.

Needless to say, it turned out we were right. Over the years, his name began appearing in the regional and national news, reporting on all of his significant accomplishments in the medical, educational and humanitarian fields.

Twenty years after our one experience with Dr. Carson, my mother wrote him a letter, recalling how helpful he had been so early in his career. And, as expected, based on what we knew of him, he answered her with a very warm, humble reply.

MADE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEADLINES

This spring, I felt very sad when Dr. Carson made different types of headlines after taking a step into the world of politics, voicing strong and rigid comments against gay marriage, appearing to compare homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality. His remarks created such a furor, he stepped down as the designated commencement speaker for the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Education.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with his political and social views, I don’t have an issue with his having his own opinions. But personally, I’m uncomfortable anytime someone mixes religion and politics together. And Dr. Carson’s rigid social views seem unreasonable and unrealistic in today’s world. However, he’s entitled to his beliefs.

What bothers me most is that by becoming active in the political world, Dr. Carson is reducing the amount of good he can do. He should remain above politics and not get dragged into the mean-spirited rhetoric and low-level discourse that ends up being more about wealth, power and vested interests than serving the people.

It would be a terrible mistake for him to enter the divisive world of elective politics.

LITTLE IDEA OF HOW TO SURVIVE

I have to believe he has little idea of how to survive in the modern political environment. So many of the sacrifices a politician needs to make conflict with what Dr. Carson has strived to achieve over the years. In today’s world, politicians on different sides of issues demonize each other and have little interest in finding common ground, working for the people.

Dr. Carson should continue all of his remarkable work with people, especially the underprivileged in the nonprofit sectors of the educational and medical worlds, trying to inspire the next generation to persevere and succeed.

He has a stronger, more influential voice reaching all of us with a tone of tolerance and finding common ground as a humanitarian than as a divisive political figure appealing to a narrow audience with one political view. If he does seek elected office, Dr. Carson, as a political novice, will be exploited by hacks on both sides of the aisle.

It would be a tragedy to have Dr. Carson become primarily known as the man the right-wing uses to deliver divisive commentary through sound bites on Fox News.

My image of Ben Carson is one of bringing hope to the family of a youngster with a severe medical condition or, in my own case, seeing him kindly help a stress-worn older woman worried about the condition of her husband of 35 years.

His strength and success have always been connected to what brings us together instead of what divides us.
 
davidmaril@hermanmaril.com
 
EDITOR’S NOTE:

Dr. Carson is due to retire this month as director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Hopkins. He caused a firestorm by making controversial comments earlier this year about gay marriage and homosexuality, stemming from a half-hour lecture on “moral decay and fiscal irresponsibility” that he gave President Obama at the 61st Annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

He says he believes “marriage is between a man and a woman.” In addition, “PC [political correctness] is dangerous… and… puts a muzzle on people,” Carson told the President. “We have imposed upon people restrictions on what they can say, on what they can think. And the media is the largest proponent of this, crucifying people who say things really quite innocently.”

In 2008 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by then-President George W. Bush.

Whether one agrees with Carson or not, Voice of Baltimore concurs with our columnist’s hope that the good doctor will stick to medicine and helping people, and steer clear of politics. Carson is renowned as a neurosurgeon and physician, but is little more than a babe in the woods when it comes to politics.

If he runs for elective office, the media will fulfill his expectations of them: They’ll crucify him.
 
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