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Birth
Phineas Gage was born in Lebanon New Hampshire. -
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Phineas Gage
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Moving
At age 25, Gage moves to Vermont to find work, and ends up working for a railroad company. Gage's job was to drive a fuse and explosive powder into the center of a rock to create an explosion so powerful, that the rock would be shattered into little pieces. -
Post Accident
A few days after the accident, Gage started to slip into a semi-comatose state because there was a fungus growing on the exposed part of his brain. When Gage's family learned of this, they immediately ordered a casket for his burial. -
Dr. Harlow
After a quarter mile ride, Gage finally arrived at the hospital where he was treaed by Dr. John Martin Harlow. Harlow was one of the head physicians at this hospital, and treated Phineas's head wound. He removed fragments of bone from Gage's brain, and left the damaged portion open so that any extra fluid would drain. -
Accident
While doing his job, Gage did not get out of the way soon enough, and was caught in the explosion. The blast was so strong that it shot an iron bar of about 1 inch in diameter, and 3 feet in length, right through the front left section of his head. The blast was so strong that the bar was found about 80 feet away from where the accident had occurred. -
Post Accident Cont.
After Dr. Harlow drained the puss filled sac that was located under his scalp, Phineas Gage quickly returned to full health, living life as he did before the accident. -
Changes
About 2 years after the accident, Phineas Gage's wife and family realized that he was not the same person he used to be. His wife reported that he was very aggressive and angry following the years after his surgery. Harlow, too, examined him and noted about the "mental manifestations", later in 1868 in a report published in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Medical Society. -
Death
Leading up to his death, Gage started having seizures. These seizures were the cause for more brain damage, and in 1860, he died and was buried in San Francisco's Lone Mountain Cemetery. -
Post Mortem Happenings
After Gage's death, Dr. Harlow, and others, were still very interested in his accident and how he survived. Also, Harlow wanted to figure out the reason behind Gage's strange behaviors. In 1868, Dr. Harlow published an article into the "Bulletin of the Massachusetts Medical Society". This article was called "Recovery From the Passage of an Iron Bar Through the Head". Today, amny new books and findings have been created about Phineas Gage.
