Sensory Ghosts: The First Publication on Phantom Pain

Tristan Reed
Nov 6 · 5 min read

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, thousands of soldiers encountered one of the strangest neurobiological mysteries in history. They were haunted, not by the ghosts of their fallen comrades, but by their own missing limbs.

During the Great Rebellion’s four-year rampage across the eastern United States, military surgeons performed over 30,000 amputations. An astounding number of those amputees, however, did not survive to see the post-war era. A lack of antiseptic, poor surgical training, and a malicious wave of gangrene amassed a…

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Tristan Reed

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Biomedical journalist, content creator, and nonfiction enthusiast discovering extraordinary tales from scientific history.

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