So long as we have idiot doctors like Ben Carson, I can never in good conscience support tort reform

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

Or caps on medical malpractice lawsuits.

[yeoman6987]

1. Idiot Doctor? Wow. Not how I'd explain his medical brilliance.

Now if you said his politics then ok.

[Big Blue Marble]

2. No Democrat should support tort reform ever. N/T

[GGJohn]

3. Idiot doctors like Ben Carson?

By all accounts, he was a brilliant pediatric neurosurgeon.
You don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

4. Many of his cases resulted in severe disability and death

Sorry, don't buy that fucking bullshit narrative.

[GGJohn]

6. Link?

I'm calling bullshit on your claim, all accounts have him as a brilliant pediatric neurosurgeon, in a long and distinguished career, he had maybe 6 lawsuits against him, which is remarkably low number for his profession.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

8. Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson#Surgeon

[GGJohn]

11. Wow, high risk surgeries to seperate conjoined twins, and a couple of them died?

What's so unusual about that?
He is an acknowledged expert in his field and you slamming his career is disturbing.
Slam him for his politics, not his medical brilliance.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

13. Most of them died

[GGJohn]

14. Bullshit, that's a flat out lie.

Not even your Wiki link says that.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

16. In regards to the conjoined brain surgeries?

The Wiki link does say that. One one case from Africa survived.

[GGJohn]

17. Seperating conjoined twins is always a high risk surgery,

most don't survive, especially joined at the head, any doctor will tell you that.
And what about the rest of his career?
Yeah, go ahead and hate, it makes you look foolish.
As I said, slam him for his politics, but leave his brilliant medical career alone.

[Egnever]

5. Not sure that actually pans out

He certainly seemed willing to experiment on people. I am not sure I would agree that makes him brilliant.

[GGJohn]

7. The fact remains that he was a brilliant pediatrician,

he pioneered many techniques in neurosurgery.
Slam him for his politics, but his career was brilliant.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

10. Like the Binder twins?

[GGJohn]

12. 2 out of how many?

You think you could do better than him in the medical field?

[Egnever]

18. You seem to know a lot about him

All I know is the results of his experiments listed on wikipedia and they aren't so great.

In 1987, Carson was the lead neurosurgeon of a 70-member surgical team that separated conjoined twins, Patrick and Benjamin Binder, who had been joined at the back of the head (craniopagus twins); the separation surgery held promise in part because the twin boys had separate brains.[31] Both boys entered the hospital "giggling and kicking" in preparation for surgery without which, it was said at the time, the seven-month-old twins would never have been able to crawl, walk, or turn over.[31] The Johns Hopkins surgical team rehearsed the surgery for weeks, practicing on two dolls secured together by Velcro.[31] Although follow-up stories were few following the Binder twins' return to Germany seven months after the operation,[31] both twins were reportedly "far from normal" two years after the procedure, with one in a vegetative state.[31][32][33][34] "I will never get over this . . . Why did I have them separated?" said their mother, Theresia Binder, in a 1993 interview.[31] Neither twin was ever able to talk or care for himself, and both would eventually become institutionalized wards of the state.[31] Patrick Binder died sometime during the last decade, according to his uncle, who was located by the Washington Post in 2015.[31] The Binder surgery served as blueprint for similar twin separations, a procedure which was refined in subsequent decades.[31] Carson participated in four subsequent high-risk conjoined twin separations, including a 1997 operation on craniopagus Zambian twins, Joseph and Luka Banda, which resulted in a normal neurological outcome.[31] Two sets of twins died, including Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani; another separation resulted in the death of one twin and the survival of another, who is legally blind and struggles to walk.[35]

According to the Washington Post, the Binder surgery "launched the stardom" of Ben Carson, who "walked out of the operating room that day into a spotlight that has never dimmed", beginning with a press conference that was covered worldwide, which created name recognition ultimately leading to publishing deals and a motivational speaking career.[31] On the condition the film would have its premiere in Baltimore,[31] Carson agreed to a cameo appearance as "head surgeon" in the 2003 Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You, starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who, unhappy after their surgical separation, continue life attached to each other by Velcro.[31][36]

[GGJohn]

19. Maybe you missed the part about those being high risk, as in very good chance of death,

any competent surgeon will tell you that, but the fact remains that he had a very distinguished career.

[Egnever]

21. Maybe

I don't know.

I do know he comes off dumb as a rock when I hear him speak and I would run for the hills if he wanted to take a knife to me. He might be great with a knife but from listening to him I doubt he could think his way out of a paper bag. Not the kind of person I wan't in charge in a situation that might require fast thinking.

[Mendocino]

9. To twist a Star Trek line

he's a medicine man, not a man of medicine.

[GGJohn]

15. Really?

Because every account has him as a brilliant and capable pediatric neurosurgeon.

[Paka]

20. Neurosurgeons are very similar to the mechanic...

...who works on your car. You learn the geography and where all the wires go, and it is mostly eye-hand coordination after that. It requires no real brilliance, just a very good memory and steady nerves. Diagnostic internists are brilliant.