Gage’s Extraordinary Accident

Phineas Gage made a dire mistake and said man was now suffering the consequences. Gage had this problem where he was tasked with the tedious job of packing explosive powder into a hole located in a railroad bed, the same one he had been working on for the past week or so. As the respectful and accepting man he was, he took the job with no complaints to his supervisor, stating he’d have it done in no time at all!

Of course, the task had proved to be too difficult for what he bargained for, why did they need to pack the black powder into the railroad beds anyway? Well, it wasn’t exactly the railroad beds themselves; it was what was near them. There were too many obstacles, better known as rocks, near the railway, Gage was tasked with taking out the lot near the entrance of a tunnel, or what was to be a tunnel. Jobs like these had been much more in demand, ever since the transcontinental railroad system had been put into place. Gage had been looking for a job, and he and his friends had found a good opening near a town in Vermont, Cavendish. After all, the new railroad system had many applicants, but most of them were from people who were immigrants far from where “America” lay, you wouldn’t get men such as Gage to be able to work on jobs involving a “railway” of sorts, seeing that his family was doing quite well for themselves in this time and age.

“I will say, Gage! You still have not gotten to packing that powder into the railroad bed?”

Gage snapped out of his thoughts, cursing at the fact that he didn’t notice one of his friends coming up behind him.

“It’s a difficult task you know. I’ll have to pack it in exactly right if I want to make it out alive,” Gage jokes, as he turned back to see his friend smile enticingly.

“Ah well be careful alright? Make sure to put the rods back when you’re done,” he said back, turning back around and heading back to his worksite.

Shaking his head, Gage grabbed the drill near his feet before turning back to face his task at hand… ah what he would give to be back at home, relaxing on his bed and taking a quick nap. Perhaps he should have left this job up to the immigrants, but the job did pay decently, well whatever you could call decent in this time.

Taking the drill, he created a small hole into where he was supposed to pack the powder, the hole being small but deep enough for the recommended amount of black dust to be added for the other workers to detonate.

Grabbing the long, metal rod beside him, he gripped it tightly as he eased the metal into the area the powder lay in, slowly pushing the powder back. Deciding he was in a good stance, he began to pack the powder deeper into the railroad bed at a faster pace, gaining confidence as he continued to work.

Unfortunately for Gage, things weren’t going to be that easy.

As he was in the process of packing the dust into the hole, something went wrong. Thousands of small, tiny particles of black dust exploded as Phineas drove the rod into the railroad bed, perhaps the rod had been coated by explosive material, or maybe something was wrong about the railroad bed itself. Whatever it was, it led to the small explosion, not powerful enough to cause damage to the bed itself, but enough to fight against Phineas’ strength and enough to send the rod upwards right towards Gage’s own head.

“Gah!”

Gage cried out in alarm as the rod hit his eyeball, roaring straight into it and up to his skull, where it would exit the top of his head and land 45 meters away.

The same rod would glisten under the sunlight, a taint splatter of thick red liquid surrounding the same man it had just exited.

Gage’s hand immediately went to cover where his left eye should have been, stumbling a bit as he struggled to regain balance.

He didn’t seem to notice that his left eye no longer seemed to be functioning, most likely because it wasn’t there.

Gage’s brain wasn’t doing so well either, the mind racing and the brain bumping against his skull, cells electrifying creating calming vibrations, confused about whether it should be in pain or not. Gage felt the thick red liquid run down his face as he slightly rubbed his head, moving his hand from his eye a bit upward towards his forehead.

He winced in pain, a migraine starting to grow as he decided on going back to covering his eye instead.

Gage felt quite dizzy, and he faintly recalled the sound of his friend yelling out in shock behind him, other workers rushing towards his work area.

He didn’t quite know why they were so worried, he had just been in a small accident, that’s all.

“Gage! Gage! Buddy speak to me! Are you alright?!”

Gage didn’t know why but he felt a rush of annoyance.

He knew his friend was most likely just worried, after all, he seemed to be bleeding, but really, he was fine. There was no need to worry! He swore all he had was a small migraine, that’s all. Though there was one thing he would admit to.

“Don’t worry you worrywart, I’m fine! Perhaps… I might have to go see a doctor.”

Gage’s friend looked at him like he was insane, not like Gage could quite understand why he was being looked at that way. The other men had formed a crowd, mutters of witchcraft being real or that maybe Gage hadn’t been impaled being spread throughout the crowd, but the pool of blood around the blood definitely did prove there had been some type of accident. The other thing that should have been a fact, however, was the little inkling that Gage should be dead. But here he was, covering his left eye socket, standing by himself, scowling at the crowd, like they were the ones who were crazy.

“… Gage are you sure? You… you don’t look so well there pal,” Gage’s friend started, reaching out to let Gage lean against him, but Gage bit back with words of his own, causing the other man to back up quickly.

“Didn’t I tell you! I’m fine… good golly what a bumbling idiot,” Gage yelled, lashing out, muttering the last part under his breath.

Everyone was shocked, no one had seen Gage lash out like that before, though, at the time, no one could blame him.

After all, seeing that he was a bleeding mess… Gage wasn’t in the right state of mind.

“Gage… at least let me walk you to a cart…”

Gage’s friend regained his composure, his shock turning into sickening worry as he calmly approached Gage once again.

“… Alright, alright. If it’ll make the rest of you stop googling with your mouths open like the drunkards at the bar.”

Everyone continued to stare anyway.

Gage started to walk off by himself, leaving his friend stumbling after him, wondering where in life did, he exactly go wrong?

It was a short walk to find a cart into town really, it also helped that Gage did not seem to be physically impaired, even if he was still heavily bleeding from his eye like a soldier who had been shot multiple times, then stabbed with a bayonet.

Alright maybe that wasn’t the most accurate description, but I suppose what I, the narrator, am trying to say is that Gage should, positively, be dead.

Yet again, he wasn’t.

“What are you looking at, poor dumb- “

“Gage I think that’s enough out of you,” Gage’s friend said, cutting his companion off, ignoring the cart driver’s gawking at his impaled friend, who at the moment was suffering from said impalement.

“Please kind sir, take him into town for me… he doesn’t seem to be in quite “stable” condition…,” he said to the driver, handing him a dollar and some coins for his time, whispering the last part so Gage wouldn’t hear.

He understood his friend wasn’t in the most… pleasant of moods, and anything would set him off. He made sure to relay this information to the cart driver as well, who was now grimacing at the string of insults being thrown his way by the man in the back.

“Alright… I’ll make sure this man gets to the doctor’s immediately,” the driver said, cracking his whip, the horses whined then started to trot, slowly leaving Gage’s friend behind.

“Don’t worry now Joe! I’ll be back to work by tomorrow, now stop looking so worried you scamp.”

Joe sighed, the man in question finally being named as he stared at Gage being pulled away.

Somehow, he knew he wouldn’t see Gage for quite a while.

Right he was, as Gage would never return to the railroad bed back in Cavendish Vermont, as after a few hours he got to the doctors, he fell into a deep, deep sleep. One he wouldn’t wake up from for at least two or three months.

Though when he did wake up, it was confirmed that he most likely wouldn’t be coming back at all, seeing there would be no way a man with a personality such as himself would never be able to hold a job, much less good relations.

“Gage is one of the kindest men I ever had the pleasure of meeting! Whatever you’re saying… it just doesn’t make sense, doctor.”

“My son would never say such things! He’s a man of the North I tell you; such vulgar opinions could never come out of his mouth.

“This is all utter hogwash! There is no possible way Gage could say those… things. He’s always been a man of neutral resolve.

Statements from family and friends flooded the doctor’s mind as he recorded Gage’s medical mystery in his journal, to be later shared with others across the state, the country, and later other lands. His case was something never seen before, an impact made directly in the human brain, an easy case to study but a difficult one to understand.

The statement Gage’s family made… seemed to depict a man quite opposite from the man Gage was now.

“I’ll say, those men at the railroad worksites are utter idiots’ doctors. Can’t do anything without me, always acting like worthless poor men walking through the market.”

That was a statement that flew out of Gage’s mouth once.

The ironic part was that his old co-workers had walked over the day before just to check up on the man.

Gage’s entire personality seemed to have switched, going from a seemingly hard-working man to an unpleasant douche with a habit of cursing, despite his mother claiming he was a “Pure Christian” and he had never cursed a day in his life!

What the doctor didn’t know at the time was that Gage’s personality change was due to him losing more than half his left frontal lobe, which is destroyed by the impact of the rod against his skull.

That alone was enough to flip Gage’s personality on its back and throw his brain for a loop. Now it was confusing, not knowing when to act kind or not.

His case is still an enigma, and perhaps it would have been better if Gage had stayed in the hospital, seeing he suffered from seizures for the rest of his life.

But at the time, the doctor could do nothing for Gage, and ultimately released him into the public world.

“Say… Molly is quite… lovely don’t you say? I would love to… how do you say this-,” was all Gage was able to get out before Molly’s husband… who was the bartender at the bar Gage was currently at, punched his lights out.

You couldn’t quite say it wasn’t well deserved, seeing that Gage had been making… inappropriate comments towards his wife the entire night.

Just as the doctor predicted, there was no way Gage could hold down a job, his rude attitude and awful choice of words getting him kicked out every time. Joe tried to help, he did, but in the end, he chose his own family, a wife, and a daughter, over Gage.

It wasn’t fair to him for him to take care of a friend that was seemingly too far gone anyway.

“Gage… I’m afraid… we have to send you away.”

This is what his mother told him, holding back tears as she looked at the shell of the man her son used to be. She had decided to send him south, far south, to Chile, to live with relatives.

She just couldn’t handle him anymore, he was too much, and she was much too old to deal with Phineas’ aggressive behavior.

Gage didn’t say much back and left without saying goodbye… he had been strangely silent the last few days.

Maybe his brain was finally giving up… or maybe, just maybe something extraordinary was going to happen. Something big, but not well known to public ears.

“Gage, I heard of this free opening to drive cart’s around the area, the locals would appreciate it greatly you know?”

“Alright… I suppose I could give it a try,” Gage replied to his distant cousin thrice removed, he swore that he didn’t understand how his mother had so many connections. Something had changed though, and most of his distant family members agreed it was for the better.

“Gage seems to be much calmer these days, perhaps he’s gotten better Matilda,” his distant great-aunt said in a letter to his mother once, telling her of Gage’s improvements.

He was able to hold the cart job down, becoming well known in the small town of western immigrants, regaining a bit of his calm personality.

“You know Mother… I never did tell you I was sorry for calling you such terrible names… I apologize for that. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for committing such a heinous act.”

That’s what Gage wrote to his mother in a letter once, after explaining his exports and adventures in the small town, a smile coming to his face while writing his thoughts down.

What most don’t know is that Gage’s personality changes only lasted two years at most, maybe three, as his brain was somewhat able to slowly build itself up after its brief destruction. Slowly but surely, he became calm and subdued once again, a nice man finally breaking from a hollow shell that he had been trapped in.

“I say… I really do need to visit the doctor again.”

Gage said that to himself, as he winced from one of his migraines. He had been getting them much more often lately.

Joe laughed behind him.

“Hah! This reminds me of that one time you got- “

“Please don’t remind me of that Joe.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Gage reconciled with his friend after he moved to San Francisco to reconnect with his mother.

“You did have quite the extraordinary accident Gage,” Joe said jokingly behind him, and Gage sighed.

“Yes, but I had quite the extraordinary comeback as well.”

“I guess you’re right, now come on. We have work to do,” Joe said, standing up, stretching as he yawned. Suppose they were both cart drivers now.

“Alright, alright, don’t be in such a hurry now. There’s still time.”

Gage stood up with Joe, and they both walked off to attend to their horses, talking about the latest news in the making.

Phineas Gage had a big accident, and he made a big recovery, one that allowed him to come back to normal life for the rest of his days, which he would spend in San Francisco, U.S.A, for a few more months till dying of seizure related to the deadly rod incident.

His case is still quite strange to learn about today, but one thing is for sure.

Gage really did need to see a doctor.