These X-rays show a knife plunged into the skull of a 16-year-old boy from southeast London. Fortunately, his injuries were nowhere near as serious as they might have been - according to a police officer quoted in The Times, "the blade was a kitchen knife and because of that it was flexible and went around the bone." He has, however, started walking with a limp, and his reaction times have slowed.
Related:
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Via Street Anatomy comes this recent case report from Acta Neurochirurgica, of a man who had a paintbrush stuck into his brain - bristly end first - during a fight, but didn't realize until 6 hours later, when he went to hospital complaining of a headache! Even more remarkably, any brain damage…
PHINEAS GAGE (1823-1860) is one of the earliest documented cases of severe brain injury. Gage is the index case of an individual who suffered major personality changes after brain trauma. As such, he is a legend in the annals of neurology, which is largely based on the study of brain-damaged…
These are extracts from stories about homicides in England found by searching Factiva for "self-defence and (burglar or robber)".
No Charge Over Death Of Burglar.
By Duncan Campbell Crime Correspondent. 23 January 1996 The Guardian A businessman will not be prosecuted over the death…
Four representations of Phineas Gage, from Macmillan, M. (2006). Restoring Phineas Gage: A 150th Retrospective. J. Hist. Neurosci. 9: 46-66. [Abstract]
Here's some more neurohistory from the Beeb: following on from last week's episode of In Our Time, which featured a discussion about the…
scaryyyy , i dnt fink it wz dun by accident who wud do dat az an accident i mean even i cnt get a knife by accidently into my head
1) I'm happy I don't live in London.
2) Any further tests of cognitive performance, or any fMRIs to show the degree of damage done to the tissue? I am sure that many neuropsychologists would like to see the effects of a Phineas Gage imitator.
:P
I'm sure he must have been referred to a neuropsych unit, but the news story is all I have to go on.
I don't think his injury is very similar to Gage's - the knife appears not to have penetrated the brain at all, but instead scraped the outer surface.
Ow. That has completely given me the willies. I think it's actually extra freaky that the knife bent on his skull, although it no doubt saved him a great deal of cognitive functionality.
Fortunately, the skull protected his brain (which is what a skull is supposed to do). It's interesting that the victim is walking with a limp. Is that due to damage to the motor cortex or is something else going on?