She married her husband, Curtis, during her fourth year of medical school at U-M and their eldest daughter Erin, now 12 years old, was born two months after she completed her Anesthesiology residency in June of 1982. The young family moved to California and Dr. Carson taught anesthesiology at the University of California-Irvine, where Dr. Tremper was her colleague. Their second daughter, Cari, was born during a period when the hospital was short staffed and Dr. Carson was on call every other night and weekend. She was administering anesthesia one Wednesday when she felt her first contractions. During her years working in private practice, Dr. Carson felt that she was spending too much time away from home due to her unpredictable schedule.
Anesthesiology is unlike office based medical practices.
You provide in-hospital services to someone else's patient. Thus, you deal with surgeons, and are called in many times at their convenience. So in 1987, when her husband accepted a position in South Bend, Ind., Dr. Carson took a leave from work to enjoy their children, then aged five and one. Upon returning to medicine, a year and a half later, she chose to continue in the administrative field, rather than in the clinical arena. As director of medical services for the Northern Indiana State Development Center, she oversaw pediatricians, family practitioners, and a host of specialists, as well as ancillary services at the center.