Oh noes! Dr. Ben Carson is a bungling surgeon who has ruined the lives of many of his patients! He even left a (gasp! clutch pearls!) sponge in the brains of one of them!
So claims the tabloid National Enquirer. In an article posted Wednesday, the tattler breathlessly exclaimed:
Judging by White House wannabe Ben Carson’s track record as a neurosurgeon, his presidential campaign should be declared dead on arrival!
In a bombshell investigation into his medical career, The National ENQUIRER has exclusively learned the now retired doc allegedly butchered one patient’s brain — and EVEN left a sponge in another’s skull!
According to at least six malpractice lawsuits against Carson obtained by The ENQUIRER, the Republican candidate allegedly rushed patients into surgery, and brandished a scalpel like a meat cleaver!
Oh, the kindly Dr. Carson belongs in a horror movie!
One of the complainants, Karly Bailey, now a 27-year-old Florida woman, told the Enquirer (fee she may have received is undisclosed) that when she was nine Dr. Carson operated on her, removing a tumor and ruining her life.
He’s totally untrustworthy! My parents told him they weren’t authorizing him to remove the whole tumor because of the risk. But he did what he g**damned pleased! He tried to remove all of the tumor, and injured my nerves and brain stem.
I was paralyzed on my right side. I’ve never fully recovered. I have chronic fatigue, and my eyes dance around. It’s like having permanent vertigo. My face droops and people are really cruel. (Asterisks mine.)
In a lawsuit filed by Bailey’s parents after the surgery went awry, the facts are in dispute. The plaintiffs maintain that Carson damaged a nerve in the brain stem. Carson said that he had informed the parents of the risks associated with the surgery. “Like always, I consulted them on the fact that I would remove as much tumor as was reasonably safe,” he said in a sworn affidavit.
However, while Maryland court records reveal that Ben Carson has been involved in seven known malpractice cases, this number is not unusual for a neurosurgeon who has performed up to 400 surgeries throughout a 35-year career at Johns Hopkins. A 2011 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that about 20% of neurosurgeons face a malpractice claim annually.
The website Medscape Multispecialty in a 2013 report found that 40% of all physicians have been named in a lawsuit.
The study also found that surgery is among the top 12 specialities most likely to be sued.
Appearing on The Alan Colmes Show, Dr. Carson talked about the lawsuits with the liberal talk show host:
COLMES: You’ve heard these stories, or you’re hearing this not for the first time. It’s on Drudge so a lot of conservatives will be looking at it tonight, he probably put it up there a few minutes ago. What’s your reaction to these stories? Are they accurate? Are they lies? Are you being attacked unfairly?
DR. CARSON: My reaction is that I did 15,000 operations. And the people who oppose me have been crawling through every ditch, every place I’ve ever been my whole life looking for stuff. They found five or six disgruntled people, that’s a very small number, and many of those cases never went anywhere, because the legal system said, “Are you kidding me?” and threw it out. But the point is you don’t discuss that kind of stuff in public, number one.
The truth is, surgery is risky. There are no guarantees that the outcomes will be successful. But Dr. Ben Carson is hardly what one would call a quack, or a hack, or a bungler. If he were, how in the world did he ever attain the lofty position of director of pediatric neurosurgery at the renowned Johns Hopkins hospital?
Here is a video produced by U.S. News and World Report and released by Johns Hopkins of Dr. Carson in action, performing risky brain surgery on a young patient with a recurring tumor.
The tabloid flying monkeys are now circling Ben Carson as he gains in the polls, snooping out whatever sensational stories they can find to discredit him in his run for President. What is clear is this: Dr. Ben Carson has saved lives. Tabloid writers seek to destroy the lives of the famous. Who has done more for humanity?
SkepticDD says: I believe I can safely assume these folks are 1) either looking for their 15 minutes of fame, or 2) paid by someone to make disparaging remarks or claims against Carson. It appears the families listed in the article may have been bought and paid for by the critics of Dr. Carson. Why else would someone wait (in one case) 14 years to file a claim? (Or the one mother of a Carson patient, who said she never made such a quote as used in the Enquirer.) Otherwise, these people have “suddenly” developed a case of sour grapes – though I get a hint of “Cain Syndrome” when women suddenly appeared out of the wormwood of obscurity to attach Herman Cain.
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