Ben Carson, a noted pediatric neurosurgeon, has been offered the job as Housing Secretary by Donald Trump (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/ Getty Images)
Carson was heralded as a superstar during his career at Johns Hopkins Hospital pediatric brain surgeon.
But his views on gays and a number of other controversial statements raise questions about whether he possesses the qualifications for the high government post.
One of the department’s primary duties is to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination,” according to its Web site.
Among Carson’s more controversial views, he’s argued that marriage equality is inconsistent with his religious beliefs, and believes that Congress should fire judges who rule in favor of it.
He also supported Alabama judges who defied a ruling that granted residents access to same-sex marriage, which he’s likened to “bestiality,” according to the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization.
Carson defended Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, now the Vice President-elect, for signing a right to discriminate law against gays.
Carson called discrimination claims trumped up “political correctness” and joked that LGBT couples might have their wedding cakes poisoned by anti-equality bakers.
He’s also argued that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice that can be reversed, a view that flies in the face of established medical science.
Ben Carson was treated like a superstar during his early career at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The coverage in Baltimore magazine was typical. (Photo: Baltimore Magazine)
During the Republican primary, few, if any, caregivers at the hospital thought he would make a good president, according to a source with close ties to the institution.
“I’ve maintained many relationships with people at every level of the institution, and do not know of a single caregiver who thinks Carson would make a good president,” former Hopkins executive who worked at the hospital during Carson’s tenure told TheImproper.
In October, it was reported based on court records that Carson was the target of at least a half-dozen malpractice cases during his career. Some are still pending two years after his departure. Experts were quick to point out that his track record was not outside the norm.
In the highly secretive world of hospital administration, where patients–and the hospital–are shielded by strict federal privacy laws, it’s almost impossible to gauge how Carson and his competence as a surgeon were viewed internally.
The former senior communications executive said “virtually nothing” was written about Carson during the last five years of his career there.
“[Senior administrators] wanted us to spotlight the work of other neurosurgeons,” said the executive.
“I think there was also a performance concern about his patient outcomes that kept us from promoting him. I asked one of the senior-most people about this, and she said many patients remained deeply complicated.”
“That said, opening up children’s skulls for a living is inherently risky business,” the executive said.
Still, the executive said he was “mystified as to why this purported surgical superstar was so under-promoted.”
“When I pressed, one senior director explained that Carson’s patients had many difficult outcomes and that Hopkins officials were not so confident that many cases would make either Carson or Hopkins look good.”
It wasn’t always that way.
As an African-American neurosurgeon with an Ivy League pedigree, Carson was an instant superstar when he arrived at the hospital in 1984. He’d graduated from Yale and attended the prestigious University of Michigan medical school.
He served as Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Baltimore hospital from his arrival until he retired in 2013. His accomplishments have been well publicized.
Among them, he successfully separated conjoined Siamese twins and developed a technique for controlling brain seizures. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for his work.
While Carson’s medical career remained under tight wraps, his political aspirations were increasingly becoming known within the hospital. While still a surgeon, he was already putting out presidential feelers, causing a clash with the hospital.
“He publicly shared his beliefs that homosexuality was a sin,” said our source. “Hopkins made public statements that his views did not represent those of the university and soon thereafter he had retired from medicine.”
Whether that was the final straw, or his retirement was a natural inevitability because of his political aspirations, remains unknown.
Of course, no one has done more to raise questions about Carson’s mental stability that the candidate himself.
He has claimed that the Biblical Joseph built the pyramids as grain silos, even though it’s well documented that they were tombs of the pharaohs.
Carson also claimed he received a “full scholarship offer” to West Point, which later proved to be off-base.
In his 1990 autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” Carson told an apocryphal tale about his days as a Yale student.
A psychology professor purportedly told classmates that their final exam papers had been destroyed, requiring them to take another, harder test. All but one–Carson–refused to take it.
The professor then revealed that his statements were a ruse to find out the “most honest student.” But no such incident ever took place and the class did not exist, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Carson’s fabrications and off-kilter statements now beg the question: What was his tenure at Johns Hopkins really like. Given the feelings of caregivers there?
As a candidate for the highest office in the land, and now as Housing secretary nominee, Carson has a duty to make public all of his professional evaluations and any other record about his tenure at the hospital.
For his part, Trump said he is “thrilled to nominate Carson,” according to a statement. “[He] has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities.”
Carson told Fox News: “Our inner cities are in terrible shape. And they definitely need some real attention. There have been so many promises made over the last several decades and nothing has been done, so it certainly is something that has been a long-term interest of mine.”
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