Dr. Ben Carson

And we did several hemispherectomies. Got a lot of attention. That was probably my First 15 minutes of fame. You see, everybody gets 15 minutes of fame. That was my 15 minutes of fame. But then the next year, one of the obstetricians came to me.

34 years old, and one of the obstetricians said, Ben, I have this pregnant woman with twins, but one of the twins has a severe case of hydrocephalus, water on the brain, and the head is expanding so quickly it's going to cause her to go into premature labor, and both babies are going to be lost because their lungs are not mature enough to survive.

34 years old, and one of the obstetricians said, Ben, I have this pregnant woman with twins, but one of the twins has a severe case of hydrocephalus, water on the brain, and the head is expanding so quickly it's going to cause her to go into premature labor, and both babies are going to be lost because their lungs are not mature enough to survive.

34 years old, and one of the obstetricians said, Ben, I have this pregnant woman with twins, but one of the twins has a severe case of hydrocephalus, water on the brain, and the head is expanding so quickly it's going to cause her to go into premature labor, and both babies are going to be lost because their lungs are not mature enough to survive.

And he said, do you think you could do an operation? By that time, I had sort of started developing a reputation as doing unusual things to save children. He said, do you think you could come up with an operation where you could operate on the hydrocephalic twin while it's still in the mother's womb? And I know you can't save that one, but we could save the other baby who's perfectly normal.

And he said, do you think you could do an operation? By that time, I had sort of started developing a reputation as doing unusual things to save children. He said, do you think you could come up with an operation where you could operate on the hydrocephalic twin while it's still in the mother's womb? And I know you can't save that one, but we could save the other baby who's perfectly normal.

And he said, do you think you could do an operation? By that time, I had sort of started developing a reputation as doing unusual things to save children. He said, do you think you could come up with an operation where you could operate on the hydrocephalic twin while it's still in the mother's womb? And I know you can't save that one, but we could save the other baby who's perfectly normal.

And there'd been a lot of talk about intrauterine surgery. New England Journal had an article about how it would be a very desirable thing, but that we weren't quite ready for that yet. But these babies needed it now. They couldn't wait until we were ready for it. So I contacted a neurosurgeon. in Philadelphia who'd been doing some experimental work on sheep with intrauterine surgery.

And there'd been a lot of talk about intrauterine surgery. New England Journal had an article about how it would be a very desirable thing, but that we weren't quite ready for that yet. But these babies needed it now. They couldn't wait until we were ready for it. So I contacted a neurosurgeon. in Philadelphia who'd been doing some experimental work on sheep with intrauterine surgery.

And there'd been a lot of talk about intrauterine surgery. New England Journal had an article about how it would be a very desirable thing, but that we weren't quite ready for that yet. But these babies needed it now. They couldn't wait until we were ready for it. So I contacted a neurosurgeon. in Philadelphia who'd been doing some experimental work on sheep with intrauterine surgery.

And I said, Bob, do you think we could modify your technique and make it available for humans in a week? And we went to work on it. And we were ready to do it. But we couldn't do it at Hopkins. The ethics committee said, no, this is too far out. You just can't do this. So we went to one of the community hospitals and did it there.

And I said, Bob, do you think we could modify your technique and make it available for humans in a week? And we went to work on it. And we were ready to do it. But we couldn't do it at Hopkins. The ethics committee said, no, this is too far out. You just can't do this. So we went to one of the community hospitals and did it there.

And I said, Bob, do you think we could modify your technique and make it available for humans in a week? And we went to work on it. And we were ready to do it. But we couldn't do it at Hopkins. The ethics committee said, no, this is too far out. You just can't do this. So we went to one of the community hospitals and did it there.

And could see the head of the hydrocephalic baby shrink right on the screen. and bought several more weeks of guest station. And when the babies were actually born, it was a big national news story. And everybody was saying, wow, this is incredible. But then there was a lot of criticism too. People saying we were ethically not ready to do something like this yet.

And could see the head of the hydrocephalic baby shrink right on the screen. and bought several more weeks of guest station. And when the babies were actually born, it was a big national news story. And everybody was saying, wow, this is incredible. But then there was a lot of criticism too. People saying we were ethically not ready to do something like this yet.

And could see the head of the hydrocephalic baby shrink right on the screen. and bought several more weeks of guest station. And when the babies were actually born, it was a big national news story. And everybody was saying, wow, this is incredible. But then there was a lot of criticism too. People saying we were ethically not ready to do something like this yet.

And some of the experts were critical. That is, until it became clear that not only was the normal baby okay, but the hydrocephalic baby was okay, too. And then they were saying, oh, I would have done that, too, under those circumstances. But that was my second 15 minutes of fame.

And some of the experts were critical. That is, until it became clear that not only was the normal baby okay, but the hydrocephalic baby was okay, too. And then they were saying, oh, I would have done that, too, under those circumstances. But that was my second 15 minutes of fame.

And some of the experts were critical. That is, until it became clear that not only was the normal baby okay, but the hydrocephalic baby was okay, too. And then they were saying, oh, I would have done that, too, under those circumstances. But that was my second 15 minutes of fame.

The criticism was that this was too risky.