There have been countless individuals who strived to leave a lasting mark, a name, or an accomplishment in the annals of recorded history. Some fought valiantly, others ventured forth into the unknown, while some people chose to leave their mark through discoveries, inventions and the like. But among those who purposely sought for achievements that would be remembered through the passage of time due to their efforts and tireless work, there were also those who inadvertently get remembered due to pure luck, circumstance or by accident. One such individual remembered due to an accident was Phineas Gage, who is known as a medical mystery.
There is little to no information about the life of Phineas Gage before his notorious accident, except for a few snippets from his early life which was said to start around July of 1823. The eldest of five children between Jesse Eaton Gage and Hannah Trussell, the young boy was thought to be healthy and average for most of his life. No concrete information could be gathered about his education as well as his upbringing, but it is noted that Gage was at the very least, literate.
Gage’s family was known as a family of farmers. It is assumed that from a young age, he was exposed to the usage of explosives during constructions and excavations from nearby farms, mines or quarries which were located near his place of birth which was New Hampshire. By 1848, Gage was working for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad Company as a blasting foreman on one of the many railroad projects at that time.
It was on a rail project in Cavendish, Vermont where met with his famous accident. His job entailed setting up explosions that would destroy rocks and clear out a passage. The process required a hole being drilled into the surface rocks, then filling up the hole with blasting powder and setting a fuse along with it. Afterwards, soil, sand or clay would be poured over the hole which would then be packed tight by tamping it with an iron rod.
On September 13 of the same year, around half past four in the afternoon, Gage was distracted by the rest of his team while preparing to tamp a hole filled with blasting powder. He had forgotten to fill up the hole with sand or any other inner material. When he proceeded to tamp the hole, sparks flew from his tamping rod which hit the surrounding rocks, and in turn, ignited the blasting powder. At the moment of ignition, his mouth was open as if to speak to his team behind him. The explosion propelled his tamping rod, which measured around three centimeters in diameter and 1.1 meters long. It flew out of the hole and penetrated his face right below his left cheekbone, through his skull and out through the left brain hemisphere, finally flying out the upper part of his skull and landing around 25 feet away. The blast and succeeding impaling threw Gage on his back. While lying on the ground, his arms and legs suffered some brief convulsions. Curiously, a few minutes later he was already able to get up unassisted and was already speaking coherently.
He was then transported via cart three-quarters of a mile away to seek medical assistance from doctor Edward H. Williams. Upon meeting with the physician, Gage proceeded to regale the incident which had happened to him, which caused no small amount of doubt from Williams. But upon further examination, the doctor was able to see the extent of Gage’s injuries. Williams proceeded to treat Gage’s injuries and in the process, recorded that an ounce of brain matter started to ooze out of the hole in the skull. After treating Gage’s head, arms and legs injuries, Williams instructed that his head should be kept elevated. The days that immediately followed his treatments saw Gage’s seemingly quick recovery. However, after ten days or so, his condition took a drastic change for the worse, which caused Williams to anticipate death soon after.
In a seemingly miraculous manner, though, Gage was able to recover after almost a month of being on the edge of death. All largely through the continuous efforts of Williams. A few months later Gage was on the road to full recovery and constantly regained his strength back. Soon he was able to return to work and showed no signs of speech or memory problems. Despite his recovery, his coworkers and employers noted a stark change in his personality which caused them to say that he was no longer the Gage they knew. They added that his social skills had far deteriorated as compared to before the accident. However, detailed and concrete changes in his personality before and after the accident have not been successfully corroborated and recorded.
In 1849, Gage was brought by Henry Jacob Bigelow, a Harvard Medical School Professor, to the Boston Society for Medical improvement for a meeting with doctors and students. The circumstances of his accident, the damage dealt with his brain and his eventual recovery was something that the Physicians sought to understand and analyze, even to this day. Gage then spent the next few years in New England and New York, at times setting up appearances in various towns as a means of generating income from the oddity which he had become. Another job he took was for the owner of a stable and coach service.
By 1852, Gage had traveled to Chile and once again became intertwined with horses when he took up a job as a stagecoach driver. It is speculated that his time in Chile helped Gage restore and maintain his lost social skills. A few years later, Gage returned back to the United States and reconnected with his family. But by this time his health was fast deteriorating and he was facing terrible epileptic seizures in increased severity and frequency.
On May 21, 1860, just shy of 12 years after his accident, Phineas Gage died. His family donated his skull and the iron tamp from the accident, which Gage had always kept with him, to Harlow. To this day, the medical mystery that is Phineas Gage remains a baffling and intriguing story in the history of medicine and psychology.
