TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. There are 17 victims still hospitalized from the Boston terrorist attacks. While in Boston I visited hospitals and spoke to doctors who treated those patients. They described the shock of dozens of patients arriving all at once in critical need of intense care. My next guest knows the pressure of treating patients in need. Dr. Ben Carson is director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital and author of "America the Beautiful, Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great." He joins me from South Carolina. Dr. Carson, I'm going to get to some of the politics going on today in a second, but as a physician I want to ask, I'm sure you've seen a lot in the operating room. What was your reaction as a physician when you heard about the types of injuries that were coming in from the Boston terrorist attacks two weeks ago?</s>DR. BEN CARSON, DIRECTOR OF PEDIATRIC NEUROSURGERY, JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL: Well, I was very impressed by the readiness of the team to take care of the problems and the way that they coordinated things. They obviously were well prepared and, you know, one of the things I frequently say is the medical system here in the United States is the best in the world. And we frequently get a black eye. People talk about our infant mortality rates and things being low. But the fact of the matter is we take all comers and a lot of other people delete out several people and consequently move up further on that scale. We have superb health care in this country and the Boston readiness is a good example of that.</s>TAPPER: Let me do a little hypothetical for you. If Dzhokhar was your patient, would you have had any difficulty treating him do you think?</s>CARSON: Can't hear.</s>TAPPER: If Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -- can he not hear me? Dr. Carson, can you hear me? We're going to take a quick break and get the technical issues figured out. We'll be right back with more on Dr. Carson.
17 Boston Victims Remain Hospitalized