A photo of Phineas Gage has been discovered! Gage is one of the most famous case studies in psychology and neuroscience, due to his survival of an accidental explosion that drove a tamping iron through his skull. The giant rod passed directly through his frontal lobe, and despite his physical recovery, Gage was never the same. His personality was greatly altered thereafter; he became emotionally labile, vulgar, and unable to hold down a steady job. His story is really kind of tragic; he survived, but the pleasant, well-liked person that he had been before the accident disappeared. Read more about the discovery by the Wilguses, who posted the photo on flickr, and about Gage himself.
Moreover, he survived for another decade but apparently medicine at the time didn’t know that seizures can cause brain swelling. And, sadly, today it still doesn’t know how to repair damaged brain tissue.
