February 17, 2024 • 27 mins
Lexi talks about the survival tale of Phineas Gage, the man who was shot through the head with a pole.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phineas-Gage
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phineas-Gage
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
This podcast discusses true crime, whichmay tell violence, and other material intended
for mature audience. Listener discretion isadvised. Hey, it's Kayla and it's
Lexi and we're back on YouTube.Take two because the first one went just
fine. I'm yay. Oh,I'm so excited. We actually got two
new followers since our last video.We had two new followers on YouTube.
(00:34):
Yeah, yay. One of themmight be my fiance. Oh guess what,
we have three new followers. Allthat matters is that we're in the
double digits. Let's go. Iapologize in advance for today's episode. Kayla
(00:58):
and I have been awake for somany any today, so many of ours
today? Have you actually is itjust me? It's just you? Oh
no, I nast It's my episodeall right. As you can see,
(01:21):
I've joined by Christmas decorations that I'mprocrastinating on putting away. I don't think
there were deer behind me last time. So if you're on the YouTube and
you're wondering, why are there deer, that's why. So I'm just gonna
keep adding stuff in the background everytime, you know, like followers can
send us in and I'm like,look, I've hung your artwork. Look,
you sent me a I don't knowroadkill you find. Please don't send
(01:42):
me road kill. I won't keepit. Actually no, I have a
friend of mine who knows how tolike clean it and mount a skeletons.
Like maybe I will keep it,but I'll give it to my friend who
processes roadkill. I'm like a reallygreat person if you need to know a
guy for something like I am yourmiddleman between. This has nothing to do
with what my episodes about. I'mjust I'm so exhausted and delirious. I'm
(02:12):
not kidding. By the way,I do know a roadkill guy. It's
good to know a roadkill guy.It's good to roadkill too. I know
a guy for like any everything lifeis all about knowing a guy, knowing
a guy with a truck for whenyou need to move. I married one
of those, so I'm set forLike that's perfect. See see Eric,
he's my guy with the truck.You know what, if you ever need
(02:38):
if you ever need roadkill, youstrike me as the kind of person that
would purchase like like a rat taxidermedonto like a stripper pole. And I
mean that in like a very complimentaryway like that. I've looked at those
at odiles. I've looked at those, but they were always too expensive.
Like they're worth what they they arecost because the hard work that goes into
it, I just don't have themoney for it, understandable. See.
(03:00):
I love that. I love thatI was able to tell that about you,
like I know you well enough.I would put it by my deer
skull that I found in the woodsand process myself. That's on my bookshelf.
Hey, update, guys, Iknow no two roadkill guys. Oh
(03:22):
you know what Rachel told me theother day. She was like, you
should get an a taxidermy And I'mlike, you know what, I should
get into taxi derby. I'm aboutto know three roadkill guys. I don't
think we should edit this part out. I think we should keep this in
this part. Okay, so it'sfun. So today I'm gonna be talking
(03:45):
about a pretty horrific accident. ThenI don't know how to segue into this.
He survived, Okay, I'll prefaceit by saying he survived, But
I'm gonna be talking about a prettyinsane freak accident that led to deeper understandings
of brain, anatomy and neurology,mostly by accident. HM okay, So,
(04:10):
in the eighteen hundreds, there wasa railway worker by the name of
Phineas Gage who was involved in anexplosion that launched a pole straight through his
head. He survived miraculously, butwith kind of an interesting array of side
effects. I mean, if Ihad a poll shoot through my head,
I'm sure like there'd be a sideeffect or two. You know, probably
(04:31):
I've gotten side effects from far lesstraumatic things in my life, Like nothing
has you know, launched its waythrough my skull. But I think I
got some side effects from the timeI had to get surgery from getting burned
by mac and cheese. That's fair, yeah, also not made up,
by the way, just like Ido genuinely know a roadkill guy. I
(04:53):
did actually have to get surgery formac and cheese. But that's a story
for another episode. You know.Become a Patreon if you want to hear
that one. So Phineas Gage wasborn to a family of farmers in New
Hampshire in eighteen twenty three. Littleis known about his childhood in early life,
but he did have four other siblingsat the time of the incident.
(05:13):
He was reportedly about five foot sixinches and roughly one hundred and fifty pounds
with a muscular frame. So inhis early adulthood, Gage was employed by
the Rutland Burlington Railway Company to laytracks for new railroads. On September thirteenth,
eighteen forty eight, around four pm, Gage was packing a hole with
explosives to clear the rocks and levelthe ground for laying the railway struts using
(05:35):
a tamping rod. He had neglectedto fill the hole with sand to safely
pack the gunpowder, and when hisstruck the rock, it ignited the gunpowder
and rocketed the rod through Gage's skull, landing eighty two feet behind him.
Owl. Yeah. So the waythat this was meant to be done is
(05:57):
they would dig these small holes,fill them with gun powder, and then
cover the gunpowder in sand and thentamp it down with the skinny little rod
that would fit in the hole,which is what he was doing. But
because he forgot the sand, hestruck the gunpowder that essentially turned the rod
into a bullet, shooting right throughhis face. Oh my god. So
the rod entered just below his leftcheekbone and then through the top of his
(06:21):
head, tearing through his frontal lobe, but somehow sparing all major veins and
arteries. Wow. Gage was fullyconscious following the incident and was able to
speak and get himself into a cartto seek medical attention. Like he just
(06:41):
oh, go ahead say this wasThis was in eighteen forty eight. This
occurred in New Hampshire. Okay,yeah, so reportedly due to witness testimony.
When he the force of the rodgoing through his head did knock him
on his back. He convulsed fora few seconds and then sort of came
(07:02):
to, got up, spoke,and then got himself in a cart and
was like I'm gonna go see adoctor. I would hope, like,
yeah, I saw Jesus there fora few seconds, right. I kind
of understand being like in shock andwhen when like crazy accidents happened and you're
just like I'm good, I'm gonnago take care of this, and everyone
(07:24):
around you is like your arm felloff, you know, or something like
that. Like I've been there,not here specifically, but you know I've
been I've been in accidents that causedfairly significant bodily harm, and I was
just like, huh, I shouldget myself to the doctor. Yeah,
I've okay, I did that,but I said I shouldn't go to the
(07:46):
doctor because I didn't want to goto the doctor. So I broke my
foot and like you know how TommyPickles is like pigeon toed, like his
feet point edwards. That's what Ifelt, like, Oh, no,
you need another doctor, and I'mlike, no, I'm just nap it
off. It's fine. Did youin fact nap it off? No better?
(08:07):
After you slept. He carried meto the car and forced me to
go to the hospital. Okay,so I didn't have a choice. Good
on him. For our international listeners, this probably sounds confusing and horrifying.
That is business as usual in theUS. We get injured or sick and
we're instantly like is this worth thehospital bills? Don't like that for us.
(08:30):
Well, I fell in a chainsawone time, which sounds actually way
worse than it was, but likeI did bleed a decent amount, and
I remember saying to my friend atone point, I was like, had
it wrapped in a cloth and Iwas kind of tunneling and I was like,
I think I might pass out.Can you get me to the couch
and she was like, why doyou sound so calm, and I'm like,
h yeah, I fuck yeah.I'm like all right. I did
(08:52):
not end up passing out, butI did lay on the couch for a
little bit with my hand above myhead. Anyway, I have a tiny
little scar. I made a fullrecovery. So I love that both of
your hosts are just as accident proneas the other. Keeps it interesting exactly
just enough trauma to start a podcastlike this. So before this accident,
(09:13):
Gauge was considered by doctors to bea completely healthy man with no known behavioral
or medical conditions, and his familyeven testified that as a child he was
very rarely sick. And following thisevent, the doctor who initially attended to
Gauge, who was doctor Edward Williams, had difficulty believing the accident that was
described because of how cognizant and ingood spirits Gauge appeared on initial presentation.
(09:37):
So I'm gonna have a little bitof a content warning here. I Am
going to describe some of the injuriesin a little bit of detail to give
a idea of just how significant thisinjury was for how little initial impact it
seemed to have on Gauge, ifthat's not your cup of tea, I
would say skip ahead, Uh maybeabout thirty seconds, Kayla. Unfortunately you're
(10:01):
stuck here with me. So itwas allegedly that it was allegedly the d
quotes distinct pulsating of his brain tissuethat could be seen through the wound on
the top of his skull that allowedthe doctor to understand that exactly what Gauge
was describing did indeed happen to him. I don't like that combination of words.
(10:22):
No, it's like to believe whathappened to him, Like, it's
kind of like one of those thingsis like you wouldn't believe it unless you
saw it, I guess, right. Like imagine someone walks up to you
and they're like, a pole justshot through my brain. They're like,
are you sure about that? Thenyou look at me like, Okay,
I'm sure about that, right,and like, like, I don't think
(10:43):
I would believe it. If someone'slike, hey, you're not gonna believe
what just happened and describe that,I'd be like, I don't think that
happened because you're in front of mealive. Yeah. So apparently Gage did
have a single episode of vomiting shortlyfollowing the incident, common for severe head
injuries uh, in which A againin quotes tea cup full of his brains
(11:05):
fell out of his wound and ontothe ground. Is that like a uter
of measurement see spoon, but likeit's a cup of brain? They make
the resident get like the measuring cups. Oh my god, can you scoop
that into something that is traumatizing?That is horrible? You throw them in?
(11:28):
Some brain falls out? Yes,I can't. I immediately, No,
immediately no. So Edward and anotherphysician by the name of doctor Harlowe
tended to gauge his injury by shavingthe hair around the area, removing any
foreign material, coagulated blood, andmisplaced brain tissue. The larger skull fragments
(11:52):
were then placed back into their originalspot, and then a nightcap was used
to hold the bandaged material in placewhile A's wounds healed. Apparently, for
a few hours after the incident,Gauge was swallowing a relatively significant quantity of
blood, which he was regurgitating roughlyevery fifteen to twenty minutes. Your body
has a built in defense mechanism.It will not digest itself. You can
(12:15):
only drink so much blood before youthrow it back up. Could I wonder
if like that can lead to toxicshock sy in Jim, if you swallowed
too much blood. I have noidea. That's a great question. I'm
just curious, just a thought thatpopped my head. Which one of us
is willing to entertain our FBI agentby googling that? Give me two seconds,
(12:41):
Kayla has taking one for the team. It doesn't say does say?
It just I think it's just likethe bacteria. I guess if there's like
no bacteria from its is coming froma wound it maybe not? Yeah,
so I don't think so. Ithink it would have to be significantly contaminated
blood or like rod probably blood,Ugh, probably don't drink blood, guys,
(13:07):
just a little wicked PSA, don'tdo that. I shouldn't have to
say that, but just in caseyou ever know, hurry So. A
little over a week later, Gaugedeveloped an infection at the site and was
barely able to maintain consciousness, Withdoctors anticipating his impending death. Doctor Harlow
continued to attend to Gauge's wounds byremoving infected tissue and draining puss and discharge
(13:31):
from the wound when it would appear. Due to Gauge's continued care, he
was actually able to recover from hiscoma like state, against all odds and
expectations. Apparently, it got extremeenough that his friends his family were repeatedly
visiting him, expecting any moment tobe his last, as family had even
started making funeral and casket arrangements.It's pretty serious, yeah, yeah,
(13:56):
but nope, bounce back. SoGauge, however, managed to make what
appeared to be a full recovery afew months following the incident. He did
have to kind of regain some strengthand muscle, but he was physically able
to work within a few months ofhaving his brain quite literally impaled, and
he had no apparent motor, speech, strength, or memory losses or deficits.
Once he was healed. The onlyissue following the event was he had
(14:16):
loss of vision and function in hisleft eye. That's pretty miraculous considering you've
got a Polshov through your ukuranium.Right. So, nowadays we do understand
that the frontal lobe plays a veryimportant role in rational thinking. Decision making,
and other higher up cognitive functions thatcan contribute to emotional regulation and personality.
(14:39):
Hence, why say children have suchdifficult time with emotional regulation their frontal
lobe is the last portion of theirbrain to fully develop. Turns out,
the importance of that frontal lobe wasmade exceptionally clear once Gauge's personality seemed to
change pretty significantly, so Gage's friendsand family would go on to describe him
as quote no longer gauge unquote.One of the quotes from doctor Harlowe from
(15:01):
his reporting on follow up care saidthat, quote, the balance between his
intellectual faculties and animal propensities seemed goneunquote. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Gage
was previously considered an upstanding employee,but he was unable to return to his
railway job due to the significant changein his personality, moods, and impulse
control following his accident. He allegedlywent from being a polite gentleman to constantly
(15:26):
spewing pretty extreme profanities, had littleregard for his friends and family and social
etiquette in general, and just couldn'tseem to stick to any previously made plans,
either personal or professional. Uh.One of the ways they described it
as he seemed to be lacking significantforethought, which that's what the frontal lobe
does. That's your forethought, punction, forethought function of the brain. That
(15:50):
was not easy to say. So. Beyond the reports of Gage's personality in
the year following his recovery from theaccident, little else's report about the details
of his personality and behavioral changes inofficial records, But there's a lot of
speculation. Gage did end up movingto Chile for a short period of time,
where he worked as a stagecoach driverfrom nineteen fifty two to nineteen fifty
(16:11):
nine. In nineteen fifty nine,Gage's physical health began to fail him.
Gage moved from Chile to California,where his parents and family had moved from
New Hampshire, in a state thathis mother described as frail and feeble.
And I want to make it clearthat Gauge, the state that he was
(16:33):
in was frail and feeble, notthat California itself was frail and feeble.
I did not word that sentenced verywell, and I'm realizing now that I'm
reading it out loud. His motherattempted to nurse him back to health,
and he was eventually able to findemployment doing some farming in the Santa Clara
area, but unfortunately, a fewshort months later in eighteen sixty, Gage
(16:55):
began to experience epileptic seizures which wouldend up taking his life that same year,
when Gay was only thirty six yearsold. So today Gageous skull and
the iron rod that impaled him areon display at Harvard University's Warren Anatomical Museum.
Gageous skull was studied by physicians followinghis death to gain a better understanding
of brain anatomy. So following hisburial, his family approved the exhumation of
(17:21):
his skull so that they could studythe injury and anatomy of the brain.
So interestingly, some literature suggests thatthe initial changes reported by Gage's friends and
family either resolved or became less pronouncedover time. That I thought was really
really interesting. So this suggests adegree of plasticity and healing to the damaged
(17:41):
brain tissue, and this was describedin some writings about Gaigeous Case as his
quote social recovery unquote, which describedhis ability to reintegrate into social settings appropriately
as time went on. So GageousCase is believed to be the first,
which caused physicians and scientists to considerhow different portions of the brain may serve
different functions, seeing us how Gauge'smotor and speech skills were practically untouched,
(18:03):
while his higher cognitive functions like personality, behavior, impulse control, forethought,
social keys, et cetera, appearedto be pretty gravely affected, at least
initially. But Gage's social recovery ispartially evidenced by his job in Chile,
where he would have had to planhis days pretty significantly and had a degree
of self driven discipline in order tohave continued his job with the stage coach
(18:26):
for as long as he did,which was about eight years. So even
though there's very little record of Gauge'stime in Chile, we can reasonably assume
he was able to handle the tasksof the job since it served his employer
successfully for multiple years. But Gage'scase is very interesting and it's become kind
(18:47):
of famous kind of quickly. Soa lot of writings of Gage's personality changes
were really strongly exaggerated and still continueto circulate as urban legend to this day,
including that he began to physically abusehis family, going so far as
to say he beat his wife andkids, of which he has no record
of ever having been married or hadany children, That he threw himself into
gambling, letrous behavior, drug usage, and other general debauchery, although there's
(19:11):
no evidence to reasonably support such extremebehaviors. Sure, there's not a lot
of official record about what he didduring his time in Chile, but we've
really got no official reason to suspectthat he just became I don't know,
al capone. And so there's beensome speculation. Because this incident is a
case study, we couldn't really tellwas it just his frontal lobe on the
(19:34):
left side that was destroyed, washis right side partially affected, or was
it left completely alone, allowing itto compensate so that he could have his
healing and his social recovery. Wherethe epileptic caesars related Honestly, probably I
imagine a pull through the brain andthen a subsequent infection. Probably has some
long term issues. But at theend of the day, there's been a
(19:56):
lot of studies, a lot ofspeculation, but it's so difficult to know
for sure because this was a railwayaccident that happened in a split second in
the mid eighteen hundreds and a lotof Gauge was lost to follow up.
That's yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that's and that was a short one.
(20:17):
But that is the story of PhineasGauge. The very interesting start to
physicians considering that different parts of thebrain do in fact serve different functions and
they are entirely correct. Now weknow that like the let's say, what
is this one back of the headis at the outcipital lobe, I think,
so that one deals with your vision. The parietal lobes deal with your
(20:41):
hearing. There's entire sections of yourbrain dedicated to things like touch speech,
and in fact, there's different sectionsof your brain dedicated to comprehending speech and
speaking speech. So if you havean injury to one part, you can
speak but not understand when you're beingspoken to, or you can listen but
(21:03):
not speak, which is one ofthe most interesting things. I feel like
I learned an ap psych in highschool. Yeah, the brain is a
weird, weird organ like any littlething that could happen, and it just
I don't know. The brain isso strange to me because also technically nerves
and neurons don't heal, but theydo, you know what I mean,
(21:27):
Like nerves don't regenerate because your brainhas to keep those neurologic connections. Otherwise
you'd constantly be having to relearn ifthose cells were always being replaced the way
that your skin cells or your liningof your GI tract are. But the
brain is still a very malleable andplastic organ to the way that I mean,
(21:47):
there's people out there who have halfa hemisphere and survive and are effectively
functional. You know, they canhave jobs, have families, be independent,
and they've got half a brain.It's amazing the way that the remaining
tissue can learn to compensate when there'san injury to a different section of the
(22:08):
brain. I don't know, Ifeel like there's still so much to learn
about the brain. Like maybe thatold myth where like you only use ten
percent of your brain in the Midimholemovie about it. Oh yeah, yeah,
old ass myth. The best wayI've seen that described by scientists is
basically, if you used one hundredpercent of your brain all at once,
(22:32):
it would be like trying to watchall five hundred cable channels all at once,
you know, Like it wouldn't necessarilymake you more powerful or more smarter
or anything like that. It wouldjust be massive quantities of overstimulation. I
feel like that's the seizure, right, isn't the seizure, just like all
of your brain is firing all atonce incorrectly. Yeah, And that is
(22:56):
what I have. That is whatI have on Phineas Gage expecting there to
be a little bit more stuffed tothis episode. And I mean if I
got into the real neurological and brainanatomy nitty gritty, there could have been,
but this was not the week forthat. And I just I think
it's so interesting how this case isis. So it's so much more intense
(23:19):
in rumor, but I think thetruth is a lot more interesting that even
though he had that initial personality changethat was so pronounced, he recovered Like
that's crazy. Yeah, Like Idon't know, like where you find some
of these stories because it's a littlecrazy, Twita. Oh, I found
this on Twitter, believe it ornot. Yeah, ex sorry, I
(23:40):
found this one on x X.I love that Willie has been here this
entire time. He's just been watchinghim like chew on his toes or whatever
he's doing. Yeah's Luna's doing notake, only throw. Eventually I'll get
my shiba u up here on screen. She's pretty. She just hates being
picked up. I don't know ifyou've ever tried to pick up a sheet,
(24:02):
but you knew. But they makethis face like they look like they're
really trying hard not to fart duringa meeting. So I want to hear,
well, you guys think about thiscase. If there's anything major you
feel like I missed, If youguys have any updates, anything additional,
(24:22):
I'll include my sources. As always. This was a really fun one to
talk about because it was a freakaccident, but it wasn't terribly tragic,
you know. I mean it was, but it wasn't you know, like
he walked away from it. Hewalked away, he got twelve more good
years out of it. It's like, it's not like covering stuff like the
Nutty Putty Cave incident, where you'relike, there's nothing here, feel even
(24:45):
remote better about the situation. Thisone is kind of like, hey,
we learned a lot about the brain, and Gauge lived for that or twelve
years. That's pretty great. Yeah, So yeah, you guys can leave
a comment under the video. Wecan send us an email at a Little
Good podcast at gmail dot com.On our main page is like our link.
(25:07):
Sure you can click that and findout where all of podcasts is at,
where all our socials are at website, the whole shebang, uh,
including the Patreon. We're actually gonnabe recording the bonus episode of the next
week or two. I'm excited forthat one. That's gonna be me.
I'm gonna be covering the next bonusepisode. I'm I'm being pulled to the
(25:29):
bottom of the screen by my dog. That's what's happening for those of you
on the YouTube. And I havea feeling they're gonna pick cryptids only because
ninety percent of the time they pickcryptids. But hey, if you do,
it's my episode that if you pickcryptids, it's fine. It will
not be Cala's thirteenth reason. Therewill be no tears shed during this month
benus episode, like falling to yourknees in Walmart because you see the patrons
(25:55):
picked cryptids again. Yes, that'sme with colt or uh not cults.
I'm really good at cults, allthem. What is it conspiracies? I
can't find good conspiracies. You're somuch better at conspiracies than me, because
I just I go on Google.I'm like, let's see here. Conspiracy
(26:17):
is about let's see here trees.Let's see what. Let's see what Google's
got for me. Actually, Ido have a good conspiracy about trees.
It's it's that, okay. It'sbasically the conspiracy about trees is that mesas
the rock formations in the deserts arethe stumps of forests of times past,
and that there were alien giants thatbasically raised the planet and then had to
(26:40):
start over by like planting trees.So like all the trees that currently exist
are just like saplings, and they'reall eventually gonna get as big as Masa's
okay, and the giant red onesare just like the oldest ones. I
could ride with that. That's myfavorite tree based conspiracy. I can't do
(27:02):
a whole episode on that, butlike, boy was that fun. Yeah,
we're we just got a goot ourown niches. But yeah, it'll
be Lexi's months. You guys canpick cryptids if you if you're feeling frisky
for it conspiracies, if you're wantingto give me a challenge, yeah,
(27:29):
so I think that was that wasinterestingly wicked. I think that was neurologically
wicked. Yeah,
This podcast discusses true crime, whichmay tell violence, and other material intended
for mature audience. Listener discretion isadvised. Hey, it's Kayla and it's
Lexi and we're back on YouTube.Take two because the first one went just
fine. I'm yay. Oh,I'm so excited. We actually got two
new followers since our last video.We had two new followers on YouTube.
(00:34):
Yeah, yay. One of themmight be my fiance. Oh guess what,
we have three new followers. Allthat matters is that we're in the
double digits. Let's go. Iapologize in advance for today's episode. Kayla
(00:58):
and I have been awake for somany any today, so many of ours
today? Have you actually is itjust me? It's just you? Oh
no, I nast It's my episodeall right. As you can see,
(01:21):
I've joined by Christmas decorations that I'mprocrastinating on putting away. I don't think
there were deer behind me last time. So if you're on the YouTube and
you're wondering, why are there deer, that's why. So I'm just gonna
keep adding stuff in the background everytime, you know, like followers can
send us in and I'm like,look, I've hung your artwork. Look,
you sent me a I don't knowroadkill you find. Please don't send
(01:42):
me road kill. I won't keepit. Actually no, I have a
friend of mine who knows how tolike clean it and mount a skeletons.
Like maybe I will keep it,but I'll give it to my friend who
processes roadkill. I'm like a reallygreat person if you need to know a
guy for something like I am yourmiddleman between. This has nothing to do
with what my episodes about. I'mjust I'm so exhausted and delirious. I'm
(02:12):
not kidding. By the way,I do know a roadkill guy. It's
good to know a roadkill guy.It's good to roadkill too. I know
a guy for like any everything lifeis all about knowing a guy, knowing
a guy with a truck for whenyou need to move. I married one
of those, so I'm set forLike that's perfect. See see Eric,
he's my guy with the truck.You know what, if you ever need
(02:38):
if you ever need roadkill, youstrike me as the kind of person that
would purchase like like a rat taxidermedonto like a stripper pole. And I
mean that in like a very complimentaryway like that. I've looked at those
at odiles. I've looked at those, but they were always too expensive.
Like they're worth what they they arecost because the hard work that goes into
it, I just don't have themoney for it, understandable. See.
(03:00):
I love that. I love thatI was able to tell that about you,
like I know you well enough.I would put it by my deer
skull that I found in the woodsand process myself. That's on my bookshelf.
Hey, update, guys, Iknow no two roadkill guys. Oh
(03:22):
you know what Rachel told me theother day. She was like, you
should get an a taxidermy And I'mlike, you know what, I should
get into taxi derby. I'm aboutto know three roadkill guys. I don't
think we should edit this part out. I think we should keep this in
this part. Okay, so it'sfun. So today I'm gonna be talking
(03:45):
about a pretty horrific accident. ThenI don't know how to segue into this.
He survived, Okay, I'll prefaceit by saying he survived, But
I'm gonna be talking about a prettyinsane freak accident that led to deeper understandings
of brain, anatomy and neurology,mostly by accident. HM okay, So,
(04:10):
in the eighteen hundreds, there wasa railway worker by the name of
Phineas Gage who was involved in anexplosion that launched a pole straight through his
head. He survived miraculously, butwith kind of an interesting array of side
effects. I mean, if Ihad a poll shoot through my head,
I'm sure like there'd be a sideeffect or two. You know, probably
(04:31):
I've gotten side effects from far lesstraumatic things in my life, Like nothing
has you know, launched its waythrough my skull. But I think I
got some side effects from the timeI had to get surgery from getting burned
by mac and cheese. That's fair, yeah, also not made up,
by the way, just like Ido genuinely know a roadkill guy. I
(04:53):
did actually have to get surgery formac and cheese. But that's a story
for another episode. You know.Become a Patreon if you want to hear
that one. So Phineas Gage wasborn to a family of farmers in New
Hampshire in eighteen twenty three. Littleis known about his childhood in early life,
but he did have four other siblingsat the time of the incident.
(05:13):
He was reportedly about five foot sixinches and roughly one hundred and fifty pounds
with a muscular frame. So inhis early adulthood, Gage was employed by
the Rutland Burlington Railway Company to laytracks for new railroads. On September thirteenth,
eighteen forty eight, around four pm, Gage was packing a hole with
explosives to clear the rocks and levelthe ground for laying the railway struts using
(05:35):
a tamping rod. He had neglectedto fill the hole with sand to safely
pack the gunpowder, and when hisstruck the rock, it ignited the gunpowder
and rocketed the rod through Gage's skull, landing eighty two feet behind him.
Owl. Yeah. So the waythat this was meant to be done is
(05:57):
they would dig these small holes,fill them with gun powder, and then
cover the gunpowder in sand and thentamp it down with the skinny little rod
that would fit in the hole,which is what he was doing. But
because he forgot the sand, hestruck the gunpowder that essentially turned the rod
into a bullet, shooting right throughhis face. Oh my god. So
the rod entered just below his leftcheekbone and then through the top of his
(06:21):
head, tearing through his frontal lobe, but somehow sparing all major veins and
arteries. Wow. Gage was fullyconscious following the incident and was able to
speak and get himself into a cartto seek medical attention. Like he just
(06:41):
oh, go ahead say this wasThis was in eighteen forty eight. This
occurred in New Hampshire. Okay,yeah, so reportedly due to witness testimony.
When he the force of the rodgoing through his head did knock him
on his back. He convulsed fora few seconds and then sort of came
(07:02):
to, got up, spoke,and then got himself in a cart and
was like I'm gonna go see adoctor. I would hope, like,
yeah, I saw Jesus there fora few seconds, right. I kind
of understand being like in shock andwhen when like crazy accidents happened and you're
just like I'm good, I'm gonnago take care of this, and everyone
(07:24):
around you is like your arm felloff, you know, or something like
that. Like I've been there,not here specifically, but you know I've
been I've been in accidents that causedfairly significant bodily harm, and I was
just like, huh, I shouldget myself to the doctor. Yeah,
I've okay, I did that,but I said I shouldn't go to the
(07:46):
doctor because I didn't want to goto the doctor. So I broke my
foot and like you know how TommyPickles is like pigeon toed, like his
feet point edwards. That's what Ifelt, like, Oh, no,
you need another doctor, and I'mlike, no, I'm just nap it
off. It's fine. Did youin fact nap it off? No better?
(08:07):
After you slept. He carried meto the car and forced me to
go to the hospital. Okay,so I didn't have a choice. Good
on him. For our international listeners, this probably sounds confusing and horrifying.
That is business as usual in theUS. We get injured or sick and
we're instantly like is this worth thehospital bills? Don't like that for us.
(08:30):
Well, I fell in a chainsawone time, which sounds actually way
worse than it was, but likeI did bleed a decent amount, and
I remember saying to my friend atone point, I was like, had
it wrapped in a cloth and Iwas kind of tunneling and I was like,
I think I might pass out.Can you get me to the couch
and she was like, why doyou sound so calm, and I'm like,
h yeah, I fuck yeah.I'm like all right. I did
(08:52):
not end up passing out, butI did lay on the couch for a
little bit with my hand above myhead. Anyway, I have a tiny
little scar. I made a fullrecovery. So I love that both of
your hosts are just as accident proneas the other. Keeps it interesting exactly
just enough trauma to start a podcastlike this. So before this accident,
(09:13):
Gauge was considered by doctors to bea completely healthy man with no known behavioral
or medical conditions, and his familyeven testified that as a child he was
very rarely sick. And following thisevent, the doctor who initially attended to
Gauge, who was doctor Edward Williams, had difficulty believing the accident that was
described because of how cognizant and ingood spirits Gauge appeared on initial presentation.
(09:37):
So I'm gonna have a little bitof a content warning here. I Am
going to describe some of the injuriesin a little bit of detail to give
a idea of just how significant thisinjury was for how little initial impact it
seemed to have on Gauge, ifthat's not your cup of tea, I
would say skip ahead, Uh maybeabout thirty seconds, Kayla. Unfortunately you're
(10:01):
stuck here with me. So itwas allegedly that it was allegedly the d
quotes distinct pulsating of his brain tissuethat could be seen through the wound on
the top of his skull that allowedthe doctor to understand that exactly what Gauge
was describing did indeed happen to him. I don't like that combination of words.
(10:22):
No, it's like to believe whathappened to him, Like, it's
kind of like one of those thingsis like you wouldn't believe it unless you
saw it, I guess, right. Like imagine someone walks up to you
and they're like, a pole justshot through my brain. They're like,
are you sure about that? Thenyou look at me like, Okay,
I'm sure about that, right,and like, like, I don't think
(10:43):
I would believe it. If someone'slike, hey, you're not gonna believe
what just happened and describe that,I'd be like, I don't think that
happened because you're in front of mealive. Yeah. So apparently Gage did
have a single episode of vomiting shortlyfollowing the incident, common for severe head
injuries uh, in which A againin quotes tea cup full of his brains
(11:05):
fell out of his wound and ontothe ground. Is that like a uter
of measurement see spoon, but likeit's a cup of brain? They make
the resident get like the measuring cups. Oh my god, can you scoop
that into something that is traumatizing?That is horrible? You throw them in?
(11:28):
Some brain falls out? Yes,I can't. I immediately, No,
immediately no. So Edward and anotherphysician by the name of doctor Harlowe
tended to gauge his injury by shavingthe hair around the area, removing any
foreign material, coagulated blood, andmisplaced brain tissue. The larger skull fragments
(11:52):
were then placed back into their originalspot, and then a nightcap was used
to hold the bandaged material in placewhile A's wounds healed. Apparently, for
a few hours after the incident,Gauge was swallowing a relatively significant quantity of
blood, which he was regurgitating roughlyevery fifteen to twenty minutes. Your body
has a built in defense mechanism.It will not digest itself. You can
(12:15):
only drink so much blood before youthrow it back up. Could I wonder
if like that can lead to toxicshock sy in Jim, if you swallowed
too much blood. I have noidea. That's a great question. I'm
just curious, just a thought thatpopped my head. Which one of us
is willing to entertain our FBI agentby googling that? Give me two seconds,
(12:41):
Kayla has taking one for the team. It doesn't say does say?
It just I think it's just likethe bacteria. I guess if there's like
no bacteria from its is coming froma wound it maybe not? Yeah,
so I don't think so. Ithink it would have to be significantly contaminated
blood or like rod probably blood,Ugh, probably don't drink blood, guys,
(13:07):
just a little wicked PSA, don'tdo that. I shouldn't have to
say that, but just in caseyou ever know, hurry So. A
little over a week later, Gaugedeveloped an infection at the site and was
barely able to maintain consciousness, Withdoctors anticipating his impending death. Doctor Harlow
continued to attend to Gauge's wounds byremoving infected tissue and draining puss and discharge
(13:31):
from the wound when it would appear. Due to Gauge's continued care, he
was actually able to recover from hiscoma like state, against all odds and
expectations. Apparently, it got extremeenough that his friends his family were repeatedly
visiting him, expecting any moment tobe his last, as family had even
started making funeral and casket arrangements.It's pretty serious, yeah, yeah,
(13:56):
but nope, bounce back. SoGauge, however, managed to make what
appeared to be a full recovery afew months following the incident. He did
have to kind of regain some strengthand muscle, but he was physically able
to work within a few months ofhaving his brain quite literally impaled, and
he had no apparent motor, speech, strength, or memory losses or deficits.
Once he was healed. The onlyissue following the event was he had
(14:16):
loss of vision and function in hisleft eye. That's pretty miraculous considering you've
got a Polshov through your ukuranium.Right. So, nowadays we do understand
that the frontal lobe plays a veryimportant role in rational thinking. Decision making,
and other higher up cognitive functions thatcan contribute to emotional regulation and personality.
(14:39):
Hence, why say children have suchdifficult time with emotional regulation their frontal
lobe is the last portion of theirbrain to fully develop. Turns out,
the importance of that frontal lobe wasmade exceptionally clear once Gauge's personality seemed to
change pretty significantly, so Gage's friendsand family would go on to describe him
as quote no longer gauge unquote.One of the quotes from doctor Harlowe from
(15:01):
his reporting on follow up care saidthat, quote, the balance between his
intellectual faculties and animal propensities seemed goneunquote. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Gage
was previously considered an upstanding employee,but he was unable to return to his
railway job due to the significant changein his personality, moods, and impulse
control following his accident. He allegedlywent from being a polite gentleman to constantly
(15:26):
spewing pretty extreme profanities, had littleregard for his friends and family and social
etiquette in general, and just couldn'tseem to stick to any previously made plans,
either personal or professional. Uh.One of the ways they described it
as he seemed to be lacking significantforethought, which that's what the frontal lobe
does. That's your forethought, punction, forethought function of the brain. That
(15:50):
was not easy to say. So. Beyond the reports of Gage's personality in
the year following his recovery from theaccident, little else's report about the details
of his personality and behavioral changes inofficial records, But there's a lot of
speculation. Gage did end up movingto Chile for a short period of time,
where he worked as a stagecoach driverfrom nineteen fifty two to nineteen fifty
(16:11):
nine. In nineteen fifty nine,Gage's physical health began to fail him.
Gage moved from Chile to California,where his parents and family had moved from
New Hampshire, in a state thathis mother described as frail and feeble.
And I want to make it clearthat Gauge, the state that he was
(16:33):
in was frail and feeble, notthat California itself was frail and feeble.
I did not word that sentenced verywell, and I'm realizing now that I'm
reading it out loud. His motherattempted to nurse him back to health,
and he was eventually able to findemployment doing some farming in the Santa Clara
area, but unfortunately, a fewshort months later in eighteen sixty, Gage
(16:55):
began to experience epileptic seizures which wouldend up taking his life that same year,
when Gay was only thirty six yearsold. So today Gageous skull and
the iron rod that impaled him areon display at Harvard University's Warren Anatomical Museum.
Gageous skull was studied by physicians followinghis death to gain a better understanding
of brain anatomy. So following hisburial, his family approved the exhumation of
(17:21):
his skull so that they could studythe injury and anatomy of the brain.
So interestingly, some literature suggests thatthe initial changes reported by Gage's friends and
family either resolved or became less pronouncedover time. That I thought was really
really interesting. So this suggests adegree of plasticity and healing to the damaged
(17:41):
brain tissue, and this was describedin some writings about Gaigeous Case as his
quote social recovery unquote, which describedhis ability to reintegrate into social settings appropriately
as time went on. So GageousCase is believed to be the first,
which caused physicians and scientists to considerhow different portions of the brain may serve
different functions, seeing us how Gauge'smotor and speech skills were practically untouched,
(18:03):
while his higher cognitive functions like personality, behavior, impulse control, forethought,
social keys, et cetera, appearedto be pretty gravely affected, at least
initially. But Gage's social recovery ispartially evidenced by his job in Chile,
where he would have had to planhis days pretty significantly and had a degree
of self driven discipline in order tohave continued his job with the stage coach
(18:26):
for as long as he did,which was about eight years. So even
though there's very little record of Gauge'stime in Chile, we can reasonably assume
he was able to handle the tasksof the job since it served his employer
successfully for multiple years. But Gage'scase is very interesting and it's become kind
(18:47):
of famous kind of quickly. Soa lot of writings of Gage's personality changes
were really strongly exaggerated and still continueto circulate as urban legend to this day,
including that he began to physically abusehis family, going so far as
to say he beat his wife andkids, of which he has no record
of ever having been married or hadany children, That he threw himself into
gambling, letrous behavior, drug usage, and other general debauchery, although there's
(19:11):
no evidence to reasonably support such extremebehaviors. Sure, there's not a lot
of official record about what he didduring his time in Chile, but we've
really got no official reason to suspectthat he just became I don't know,
al capone. And so there's beensome speculation. Because this incident is a
case study, we couldn't really tellwas it just his frontal lobe on the
(19:34):
left side that was destroyed, washis right side partially affected, or was
it left completely alone, allowing itto compensate so that he could have his
healing and his social recovery. Wherethe epileptic caesars related Honestly, probably I
imagine a pull through the brain andthen a subsequent infection. Probably has some
long term issues. But at theend of the day, there's been a
(19:56):
lot of studies, a lot ofspeculation, but it's so difficult to know
for sure because this was a railwayaccident that happened in a split second in
the mid eighteen hundreds and a lotof Gauge was lost to follow up.
That's yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that's and that was a short one.
(20:17):
But that is the story of PhineasGauge. The very interesting start to
physicians considering that different parts of thebrain do in fact serve different functions and
they are entirely correct. Now weknow that like the let's say, what
is this one back of the headis at the outcipital lobe, I think,
so that one deals with your vision. The parietal lobes deal with your
(20:41):
hearing. There's entire sections of yourbrain dedicated to things like touch speech,
and in fact, there's different sectionsof your brain dedicated to comprehending speech and
speaking speech. So if you havean injury to one part, you can
speak but not understand when you're beingspoken to, or you can listen but
(21:03):
not speak, which is one ofthe most interesting things. I feel like
I learned an ap psych in highschool. Yeah, the brain is a
weird, weird organ like any littlething that could happen, and it just
I don't know. The brain isso strange to me because also technically nerves
and neurons don't heal, but theydo, you know what I mean,
(21:27):
Like nerves don't regenerate because your brainhas to keep those neurologic connections. Otherwise
you'd constantly be having to relearn ifthose cells were always being replaced the way
that your skin cells or your liningof your GI tract are. But the
brain is still a very malleable andplastic organ to the way that I mean,
(21:47):
there's people out there who have halfa hemisphere and survive and are effectively
functional. You know, they canhave jobs, have families, be independent,
and they've got half a brain.It's amazing the way that the remaining
tissue can learn to compensate when there'san injury to a different section of the
(22:08):
brain. I don't know, Ifeel like there's still so much to learn
about the brain. Like maybe thatold myth where like you only use ten
percent of your brain in the Midimholemovie about it. Oh yeah, yeah,
old ass myth. The best wayI've seen that described by scientists is
basically, if you used one hundredpercent of your brain all at once,
(22:32):
it would be like trying to watchall five hundred cable channels all at once,
you know, Like it wouldn't necessarilymake you more powerful or more smarter
or anything like that. It wouldjust be massive quantities of overstimulation. I
feel like that's the seizure, right, isn't the seizure, just like all
of your brain is firing all atonce incorrectly. Yeah, And that is
(22:56):
what I have. That is whatI have on Phineas Gage expecting there to
be a little bit more stuffed tothis episode. And I mean if I
got into the real neurological and brainanatomy nitty gritty, there could have been,
but this was not the week forthat. And I just I think
it's so interesting how this case isis. So it's so much more intense
(23:19):
in rumor, but I think thetruth is a lot more interesting that even
though he had that initial personality changethat was so pronounced, he recovered Like
that's crazy. Yeah, Like Idon't know, like where you find some
of these stories because it's a littlecrazy, Twita. Oh, I found
this on Twitter, believe it ornot. Yeah, ex sorry, I
(23:40):
found this one on x X.I love that Willie has been here this
entire time. He's just been watchinghim like chew on his toes or whatever
he's doing. Yeah's Luna's doing notake, only throw. Eventually I'll get
my shiba u up here on screen. She's pretty. She just hates being
picked up. I don't know ifyou've ever tried to pick up a sheet,
(24:02):
but you knew. But they makethis face like they look like they're
really trying hard not to fart duringa meeting. So I want to hear,
well, you guys think about thiscase. If there's anything major you
feel like I missed, If youguys have any updates, anything additional,
(24:22):
I'll include my sources. As always. This was a really fun one to
talk about because it was a freakaccident, but it wasn't terribly tragic,
you know. I mean it was, but it wasn't you know, like
he walked away from it. Hewalked away, he got twelve more good
years out of it. It's like, it's not like covering stuff like the
Nutty Putty Cave incident, where you'relike, there's nothing here, feel even
(24:45):
remote better about the situation. Thisone is kind of like, hey,
we learned a lot about the brain, and Gauge lived for that or twelve
years. That's pretty great. Yeah, So yeah, you guys can leave
a comment under the video. Wecan send us an email at a Little
Good podcast at gmail dot com.On our main page is like our link.
(25:07):
Sure you can click that and findout where all of podcasts is at,
where all our socials are at website, the whole shebang, uh,
including the Patreon. We're actually gonnabe recording the bonus episode of the next
week or two. I'm excited forthat one. That's gonna be me.
I'm gonna be covering the next bonusepisode. I'm I'm being pulled to the
(25:29):
bottom of the screen by my dog. That's what's happening for those of you
on the YouTube. And I havea feeling they're gonna pick cryptids only because
ninety percent of the time they pickcryptids. But hey, if you do,
it's my episode that if you pickcryptids, it's fine. It will
not be Cala's thirteenth reason. Therewill be no tears shed during this month
benus episode, like falling to yourknees in Walmart because you see the patrons
(25:55):
picked cryptids again. Yes, that'sme with colt or uh not cults.
I'm really good at cults, allthem. What is it conspiracies? I
can't find good conspiracies. You're somuch better at conspiracies than me, because
I just I go on Google.I'm like, let's see here. Conspiracy
(26:17):
is about let's see here trees.Let's see what. Let's see what Google's
got for me. Actually, Ido have a good conspiracy about trees.
It's it's that, okay. It'sbasically the conspiracy about trees is that mesas
the rock formations in the deserts arethe stumps of forests of times past,
and that there were alien giants thatbasically raised the planet and then had to
(26:40):
start over by like planting trees.So like all the trees that currently exist
are just like saplings, and they'reall eventually gonna get as big as Masa's
okay, and the giant red onesare just like the oldest ones. I
could ride with that. That's myfavorite tree based conspiracy. I can't do
(27:02):
a whole episode on that, butlike, boy was that fun. Yeah,
we're we just got a goot ourown niches. But yeah, it'll
be Lexi's months. You guys canpick cryptids if you if you're feeling frisky
for it conspiracies, if you're wantingto give me a challenge, yeah,
(27:29):
so I think that was that wasinterestingly wicked. I think that was neurologically
wicked. Yeah,
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