Traumatic Brain Injury: Phineas Gage And Tracy Morgan

Survivors of traumatic brain injuries are lucky. Two examples of traumatic brain injury survivors are Phineas Gage and Tracy Morgan. Both survived their accident, and they both were given a second chance at life. However, their lives were forever changed. Phineas Gage was in a railroad blasting accident when his tamping iron struck some black powder. The explosion then sent the tamping iron through Phineas’s head. Phineas should have died in many ways. To demonstrate this, there is a quote saying, “Phineas should have died long before this. A thirteen pound iron rod through the head should have killed a person instantly.” He lost blood, he had brain swelling, and he had various infections. (Pages 9-10) Although there were many reasons

Tracy Morgan is a comedian who got in a horrific car accident in June, 2014, when an 18-wheeler truck that was traveling over the speed limit, hit the limo that Tracy was in. Tracy explained, “People were wondering, 'Can he speak? Does he have 100-percent mental capacity? ' But the truth is I never did. I may even be a few [IQ] points higher now.” (Booker) This shows that Tracy was lucky because he lived through a crash with an 18-wheeler, but more importantly, he even says he felt better than he did before. He also kept his sense of humor, too. Tracy nearly died from the car crash, but he is alive and well today. Others in the same crash were not as lucky. One quote to support this is, “The crash killed Morgan 's friend, fellow comedian known as ‘Jimmy Mack,’ and injured four other passengers, including Morgan.” (Booker) As the quote says, there was a fatality in this crash. Tracy was severely wounded, and was left in critical condition because of the crash. Similar to Phineas Gage’s case, Tracy also made full a physical recovery, and made a return to comedy, as proven by his appearance on Saturday Night Live in October, 2015. “I can’t wait to get back,” he told a journalist. “But right now my goal is just to heal and get better 'cause I 'm not 100 percent yet. And when I 'm there you 'll know it. I 'll get back to making

Phineas Gage could have died in many ways. Tracy Morgan was in a car crash with an 18-wheeler where there were deaths, and he almost lost his life. Hoping for any kind of decent recovery from a traumatic brain injury is wonderful. However, a full recovery is exceptional. Both Tracy Morgan and Phineas Gage are lucky because they ultimately made full recoveries, showing that traumatic brain injury survivors can beat the odds and