Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story Page #5

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Me, too.

So, are you ready?

For my mother or 2 more babes?

For tomorrow.

Scalpel.

We are now exposing the skull.

Put more pressure on the edge, please.

Drill.

Please change to a footplate.

Saw.

Penfield 3.

Removing the skull to access the dura.

Holding skull flap for reconstruction.

We need to reduce the swelling.

Inserting to relieve fluid pressure.

I've removed the entire

left hemisphere of the brain.

Cynthia, can you hear me?

Can you open your eyes, sweetheart?

We're all done.

Let's see those pretty eyes, sweetheart.

Come on.

It's time to wake up, Cynthia.

Let's see those pretty eyes, sweetheart.

Can you open your eyes?

Let's see those pretty eyes.

We're all done now.

I don't know why she's not waking up, Ben.

How is she?

It took twice as long as we thought.

She lost 9 pints of blood,

which is double her normal volume.

But she came through just fine.

Though it might be a while before we know

if she can move or speak.

Mommy?

-Daddy?

-Oh, my God.

I love you.

Thank you.

Baby.

She talks, she hears,

she thinks, she responds.

There are no additional signs of weakness.

-Dr. Carson...

-Dr. Carson, how is this possible?

The brain's a miraculous organ.

How long have you been practicing?

I completed my residency 3 years ago,

but I haven't yet taken my oral exams.

Are there any more seizures, Doctor?

So far, the seizures have subsided.

Grandma!

-Grandma!

-Grandma! Grandma!

Baby.

-Your daddy...

-Hey.

You're gonna love it here.

Ben.

Ben. Honey, wake up. Wake up.

I gotta go to the hospital.

I gotta go to the hospital.

Oh, no.

Get ready to crossmatch

with 2 units of blood.

-Yes, Doctor.

-Ben...

It's best you wait out here, Dr. Carson.

How do you feel?

Do you feel any contractions?

Okay, ma'am,

this might feel tight around your arm

when we take your blood pressure.

Okay, hook up the fetal monitor.

Oxygen to help you breathe.

Here you go, Mrs. Carson.

Breathing okay?

Just take it slow. You're doing fine.

Your wife will be fine, Dr. Carson.

She'll be just fine.

But I'm sorry to say we lost the babes.

I'm so sorry.

There was nothing I could do.

There was nothing I could do.

What time is it?

-Shouldn't you be on duty?

-I am.

I mean neurosurgery.

-Your patents need you.

-You need me.

I have you. Go to work.

-Down this hall.

-Okay. Thank you.

Doctor, where have you been?

You're late. What happened?

-I've been calling your house all morning.

-I'll make up for it.

That's...

Good girl. Hey.

She's a good girl. Yes, you are.

She's a big girl.

Okay. I love both of those hands.

That's very good. Very nice.

How are you feeling?

How are you feeling now?

Help me, Lord.

Ben, I've just been told you want

to hold off the operation on the twins.

The sooner we operate,

the better the chances for recovery.

I know, I know, but they'll bleed out.

I can't figure out a way around that.

Look, you're the best pediatric neurosurgeon

in the world.

-You may think I'm the best.

-That's why they chose you.

If you can't find a solution, no one can.

Just like old times, huh?

You and me in the kitchen,

doing dishes after dinner.

except in Detroit,

we didn't have a dishwasher.

Yes, we did. You're looking at her.

So proud of my boys.

Curtis, an engineer, you, a doctor.

You're still thinking

about them Siamese twins, aren't you?

Sometimes I feel like...

I don't know, Mother.

Like a faucet that's all dried up.

I felt that way plenty of times.

The thing is,

you got to find out what's blocking it

and move that thing out the way.

I don't know what's blocking it.

Sure you do.

You may not be able to bring back

your babes by saving these,

but, even if you fail,

at least you did something.

Bennie.

You can do this. Sure you can.

You got all the world in here.

You just gotta see beyond

what you can see.

Yes. Come on.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Hello?

-Mark, we're a go.

First off, we'll need to have the room wired

with emergency power,

in case there's an electrical failure.

Then we'll need 2 of everything,

enough people on each team

to cover both babies.

We'll need an anesthesiology team,

a team of cardiac surgeons,

a team of plastic surgeons,

a team of neurosurgeons.

And we'll need to figure out how to fit

all 50 of us into one operating room.

Each team must rehearse

their respective procedures step-by-step,

and each team must develop scenarios

for the worst possible things

that could happen.

If one baby des,

we need to separate him as fast as possible

and give all shared tissue

to the surviving twin.

Cardiothoracic will start their procedures

at 6.:
00 a.m.

Hello, again, Peter, Augusta.

Welcome to Johns Hopkins.

Your sons' blood vessels

are like tiny faucets

with only so much blood to lose.

Now, if we can turn off the faucets,

we can keep your sons from bleeding.

The only way to do this

is to stop their hearts.

-Stop their...

-It's not a new procedure.

It's been used by cardiovascular surgeons

for years.

It's just never been applied

in a situation like this.

Now, we can do it in infants for an hour

without causing brain damage.

-But that hour is critical.

-Why? What happens in that hour?

We'll stop their hearts,

then spend that hour

reconstructing all the blood vessels

so that when their hearts start again,

there won't be

any life-threatening loss of blood.

All in one hour?

Which is why

we've rehearsed and rehearsed,

and why we need to pray.

-You pray, Doctor?

-very day.

I'm removing the pericardium

to be used later as vascular tissue.

Cardo is done. All yours, Ben.

My light, please.

Scalpel.

I've opened the dura and revealed

the venous sinus that they share.

I'm going to start separation now,

starting below the torcula.

There's a lot of bleeding.

Close it up. We'll try a different area.

Vital signs are stable.

Lord, it's like a lake of blood, it's huge.

Stitch.

We have to start hypothermic arrest.

Ben, we can't stop the hearts right now.

We haven't fished separating all the veins.

If we do it now,

it'll cut too deeply into our hour.

If we don't stop the hearts, they'll bleed out.

-Start cooling the blood.

-Cooling.

Prepare to inject the saline coolant solution

to replace the blood.

Aortic cross-clamp.

Cardiologic needle.

Blood cooling to 20 degrees.

The hearts are stopped.

Turn off the heart-lung machine.

Okay. We have one hour to finish separation,

rebuild the severed veins

and reconstruct the torcula.

Pick up.

Bipolar. More suction, please.

Dr. Wong, call the page operator.

I'm now separating the sagittal sinus.

Okay. Prepare for separation.

Right.

Set.

I'm ready to go.

All right, on my mark.

-Slowly.

-easy.

Get ready with the drapes.

Make sure we don't contaminate the field.

Get that drape, too.

-Go ahead, hang it.

-Adjust that light, please.

I got the drapes.

You adjust the drape?

-Anesthesia? How does it look?

-Give us a few minutes, Ben.

Start the restructuring of the torcula.

This is taking 3 times as long

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