THE way a man was gruesomely shot in the head with an iron rod and survived has been brought to life in a new video.
Phineas Gage has long puzzled scientists after suffering the accident while clearing the way for a new railway line in Vermont, US, in 1848.
The rod blasted up into the 25-year-old’s head, through his skull and out the other side, landing 80ft away “smeared with blood and brain”.
But miraculously he survived for 12 more years, despite missing a large part of his left frontal lobe.
His miraculous recovery changed experts’ understanding of the brain forever.
Now, researchers have recreated details of the injury, showing the impact after his skull was used to complete a full reconstruction of his features.
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The facial approximation was produced by 3D designer and forensic expert Cicero Moraes based on CT scans of Gage’s skull.
Mr Moraes said: “In Gage’s case, facial appearance is not the main part of the process, since we have at least two photos of him.
“The interesting thing about this project was using 3D technology and the knowledge acquired in surgical planning to reconstruct the dynamics of the bar passing through the head.
“I want to understand what happened at that moment.”
Gage suffered the accident while he was preparing to blow up some rocks during railway line construction on September 13, 1848.
The 5ft 7, 11st foreman dropped the 13.5lb iron rod he was using to pack down gunpowder and it struck a rock, causing a spark that set off the explosive.
This caused the rod to be fired like a harpoon, entering Gage’s skull through the left cheek before exiting the top of his head.
The rod — which was more than 3ft (91cm) long and 1.25in (3.18cm) thick — went straight through his head, landing behind him.
He was taken back to his hotel on an ox-cart, where he climbed the stairs to his room unaided, according to reports.
Doctors removed around one ounce (28g) of brain from his skull and bandaged him up, and Gage was on his feet within a month.
Personality change
Despite the remarkable recovery, friends and colleagues said his personality changed.
He was well-liked and a “most efficient and capable foreman” before the accident, but became less intelligent and pleasant to be around, and something of a potty mouth.
He was suddenly disrespectful to colleagues, unable to accept advice, “fitful, irreverent and grossly profane”, and couldn’t keep his job after the injury.
Instead, he became a circus attraction, moved to Chile before returning to the US, and died more than a decade later from an epileptic seizure thought to be linked to the brain injury.
More than a century of research on him afterwards has centred on how brain damage can cause personality change.
Everyone’s brain has a dominant frontal lobe where speech and language are stored, and in most people this is the left frontal lobe — which was damaged in Gage’s accident.
His case is considered to be one of the first examples of scientific evidence that damage to the lobe can alter personality, emotions and how people interact.
It was possible to animate the scene, seeing where the bar passed and which part of the brain it hit.
Cicero Moraes
Mr Moraes reconstructed Gage’s face from his skull by establishing the likely depth of the skin at different parts of the head, using data donated by living people.
He said: “I virtually segmented the skull where it broke at the time of the accident.
“I simulated the passage of the bar where the injuries indicated, adjusting the pieces of the skull and thus obtaining the basic dynamics of the accident.
“A high-resolution CT scan of a brain was imported into the scene and that brain was adjusted to fit into Gage’s skull space as best as possible.
“Furthermore, I imported a set of cerebral veins, properly adjusted to the space.”
He continued: “With all this together, it was possible to animate the scene, seeing where the bar passed and which part of the brain it hit.
“It was also possible to create visual teaching material so that those interested could better understand the severity of the accident.”
Mr Moraes published his study in the online journal OrtogOnLine.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
