Carson stays with her all night until the next morning when he does a rare procedure, a hemispherectomy, in which he removes half the brain of a four-year-old who convulses 100 times a day. Carson’s mother joins the family in Maryland, Candy is rushed to the hospital where she miscarries their twins. He takes the risk and saves the man’s life. After studying neurosurgery, he is accepted as a resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he is faced with a dilemma that could end his career – operate on a dying man without permission or supervision, or let him die. This experience changes his life for the better.Īfter hard work and strong determination, Ben receives a scholarship to Yale University, where he meets his future wife, Candy Rustin, who supports him in his struggles to get through Yale. Shocked, Ben runs home and cries out to God to take away his bad temper. However, the blade hits the buckle of his friend's belt and does not go through. However, Ben harbors an irascible temper which climaxes in high school when he nearly stabs his friend over choice of radio station. Within one year, Ben goes from the bottom of his class to the top. She hides from Ben and Curtis the fact that she is illiterate and thus cannot read their book reports.īen and Curtis begin to learn much from the world of books. When she returns, she realizes that her sons are watching too much television, so she restricts them to no more than two shows per week, requiring them to read books and write reports on them. First, she requires Ben and his older brother Curtis to learn the multiplication tables, and unbeknownst to them, checks into a mental institution to battle depression. His single mother, Sonya, who had but a third grade education, is distressed about both her sons’ academic failures and decides to do something about it. After explaining the risk, and despite that fact, Ben agrees to operate.ĭuring the four months, he spends researching and formulating a plan to increase his chances of a successful surgery, the film shifts back to 1961 in Detroit, Michigan, to a time when 11-year-old Ben Carson is doing poorly in school. Carson believes he might be able to successfully separate them, but realizes that he also risks losing one or both of them. Ben Carson travels to Germany to meet a couple, Peter and Augusta Rausch, who have twins conjoined at the back of their heads.