Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable survival of a rock-blasting accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain’s left frontal lobe, and for that injury’s reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining twelve years of his life—​effects so profound that (for a time at least) friends saw him as “no longer Gage.”

Phineas Gage influenced nineteenth-century discussion about the mind and brain, particularly debate on cerebral localization, and was perhaps the first case to suggest that damage to specific parts of the brain might affect personality.

Bigelow’s esti­mate of the iron’s path (1850). Ratiu et al. (2004) con­clud­ed Gage had been speak­ing at the cru­cial moment, and that his skull “hinged” open as the iron passed through.

Gage “was thrown upon his back by the explosion, and gave a few convulsive motions of the extremities, but spoke in a few minutes,” walked with little assistance, and sat upright in an oxcart for the 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) ride to his lodgings in town. Dr. Edward H. Williams arrived about thirty minutes after the accident:

…Mr. Gage persisted in saying that the bar went through his head. Mr. G. got up and vomited; the effort of vomiting pressed out about half a teacupful of the brain, which fell upon the floor

Via Wikipedia.