Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Talking History with Our Cleveland Brain Injury Lawyer: The Case of Phineas Gage

Why does modern brain science owe its very existence to an 1800s era railroad worker? As our brain injury lawyer in Cleveland points out, the case of Phineas Gage led to some fundamental revelations on the nature of the brain, and is often used as a reference point for further discovery.

While blowing up rocks to clear the way for new railway lines, Gage set off a metal spark that in turn drove a tamping iron up and out of the hole, through his left cheek, behind his eye socket, and out of the top of his head. Gage didn’t die, but most of the frontal lobe of his brain was destroyed.

The injury led to dramatic changes in Gage’s personality.

“He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity, which was not previously his custom,” wrote John Martyn Harlow, the physician who treated Gage after the accident.

Laying the Foundation of a New Science

As a recent article in NPR points out, Gage’s case led to the development of modern brain science. “If you talk about hard core neurology and the relationship between structural damage to the brain and particular changes in behavior, this is ground zero,” Allan Ropper, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told NPR. “It’s one region [of the brain], it’s really obvious, and the changes in personality were stunning.”

Healing and Time

The good news? The personality change was temporary, lasting likely only two to three years. Gage went onto work as a long-distance stagecoach driver in Chile, which requires a good deal of focus and planning capabilities.

“Even in cases of massive brain damage and massive incapacity, rehabilitation is always possible,” Malcolm Macmillan, an honorary professor at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, told NPR.

That’s inspiring news for the clients of a brain injury attorney in Cleveland. It may take patience, but time and hard work in rehabilitation will ultimately heal the wound and life goes on.