Phineas Gage:A Gruesome and Fascinating Tale

Recently I heard about a man named Phineas Gage and was instantly fascinated by him. It was a nice day in September of 1848, Phineas was working on the railroad(more specifically for the “Rutland and Burlington Railroad”). He’d been working on this particular task (blowing up the side of a mountain) for some time now. A simple version of what he was specifically doing was drilling a hole, putting blasting powder in that previously drilled hole, and sand or “dampening” powder in to muffle the blast. It was a fairly simple task but one day Phineas got distracted by something (historians can’t conclude what) and forgot to put the dampening powder in. Now he would slam a tamping iron (metal rod) down in to the hole to pack it in. As Phineas was putting the rod in, the hole exploded forcing the rod to tear through his skull like it was nothing more than paper mache. Now most of the time we obviously know that if something that resembles a spear tears through our brain we would normally die instantly. Right? But this was not the case for Phineas Gage. He walked home sat down and summoned the doctor who (according to his notes) said Phineas coughed up “teacups” worth of brain during the meeting. Phineas should’ve died of brain swelling. When the tissue around your brain swells it can cut off blood supply and to put quite bluntly…death. Phineas ends up recovering in the end due to quite good care. This story has stuck with me for a while and I hope it sticks with you too.