Eric Carson, MD, has spent decades mentoring Black and Hispanic students hoping to enter his field. But there was one story that Carson, Professor and Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Orthopaedic Surgery, had never shared.
In late October 1989, Carson was walking to work at Massachusetts General Hospital when he was detained by police who were sweeping the area looking for the killer of Carol Stuart. She had been killed by her husband, Charles, who had falsely told police that she was attacked by a Black assailant. Despite his white coat, scrubs, stethoscope, and Harvard ID, Carson was forced to the ground, at gunpoint. Once released, he went straight to the hospital, worried mainly about being late for morning rounds, and said not a word about what he’d just experienced.
Check out Carson’s two-part feature in STAT news: