Dead Pool 13th September 2020

Without doubt, this weeks big news is the passing of Dame Diana Rigg. As always, with much loved celebrities, nobody had her listed. But onward we go… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Two-time major champion John Daly has revealed he has undergone surgery after being diagnosed with bladder cancer. The 54-year-old American says the cancer was discovered during an appointment related to kidney stones. Daly – winner of the 1991 US PGA Championship and 1995 Open – had surgery to remove the cancer but said there was an 85% chance it could return and require further treatment. “They will probably have to cut it out again, It’s probably going to come back, and then another three months, that you don’t know,” the five-time PGA Tour winner said. “Luckily for me they caught it early, but bladder cancer is something that I don’t know all the details about. But it doesn’t look like it may go away. We will just see what happens. Maybe there’s a miracle. “I always tell people I’ve lived one hell of a life. No matter what happens, I’m not scared to die or anything. I’m still working, I’m still living life, I’m still doing the things I need to do. I can accept the challenge. I’m not scared of that. “I just want my kids to be OK and everyone else in my family.” Daly last played a PGA Tour event at last year’s Safeway Open, where he missed the cut. His 1991 US PGA Championship win saw him claim a major despite only entering the tournament with days to spare when Nick Price withdrew from the field.

Yet another “influencer” has kicked the bucket. Beauty blogger and influencer Ethan Peters, known as Ethan Is Supreme, has died at the age of 17. Ethan’s father Gerald told us: “He was a kind soul, who accepted everyone for who they were.” His friend, fellow influencer Ava Louise, also posted saying she’d lost her “best friend in the entire world”. Both have said that Ethan was struggling with addiction, but his official cause of death is not yet known. Ethan had over half a million Instagram followers and 139,000 YouTube subscribers. A Vice article last year described his makeup style as “characterised by its desire to catch your attention” and “dramatic, emotional and, at times, gory.” He started young, saying that by the summer of 2017 he’d hit 100,000 followers and left his private Christian school because his social media activity “violated their moral conduct code.” He moved to an online school instead. There was some negative response on social media after news of Ethan’s death broke. He had been accused of racism and transphobia in the past. But fans also spoke in his defence – including one of his inspirations, fellow makeup artist Manny MUA, who posted: “He’s made many many mistakes… but to say he deserved to pass away is horrible and inhuman.” The 17-year-old had recently started his own clothing line called Hellboy. Dunno about you, but at 17 I was too busy chasing after girls and trying to find the next bottle of 20/20 to influence fuck all.  

Remember Michael Schumacher? Nope, nor do I. But former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has revealed he saw Michael last week and says the seven-time Formula One world champion is fighting to overcome the devastating injuries that have kept him out of public view for almost seven years. Following a skiing accident on the French Alps in December 2013, Schumacher’s condition has been kept a closely guarded secret from those outside his Lake Geneva home. FIA president Todt, 74, is among just a handful of visitors to see the 51-year-old. The Frenchman oversaw five of Schumacher’s seven titles as team principal for Ferrari. On the eve of the Italian constructor’s 1,000th race, Todt told us: “I saw Michael last week. He is fighting. My God, we know he had a terrible and unfortunate skiing accident which has caused him a lot of problems. But he has an amazing wife next to him, he has his kids, his nurses, and we can only wish him the best and to wish the family the best, too. All I can do is to be close to them until I am able to do something, and then I will do it.” So basically he’s still cabbaged. 

On This Day

  • 1501 – Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. 
  • 1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 114 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behaviour and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions.  
  • 1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.  
  • 1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.  
  • 1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES

Deaths

  • AD 81 – Titus, Roman emperor (b. AD 39)
  • 1996 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper, producer, and actor (b. 1971)

Almost Fatal Injuries

Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable survival of an 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 behaviour over the remaining 12 years of his life‍—‌effects sufficiently profound (for a time at least) that friends saw him as “no longer Gage.” 

Gage was the first of five children born to Jesse Eaton Gage and Hannah Trussell (Swetland) Gage of Grafton County, New Hampshire. Little is known about his upbringing and education beyond that he was literate. 

On September 13, 1848, Gage was direct­ing a work gang blast­ing rock while pre­par­ing the road­bed for the Rut­land & Bur­ling­ton Rail­road south of the village of Cav­en­dish, Ver­mont. As his attention was attracted by his men working behind him. Looking over his right shoulder, and inad­vert­ent­ly bringing his head into line with the blast hole, Gage opened his mouth to speak; in that same instant the tamping iron sparked against the rock and the powder exploded. Rocketed from the hole, the tamping iron — ‌114 inches in diameter, three feet seven inches long, and weighing 1314 pounds —‌ entered the left side of Gage’s face in an upward direction, just forward of the angle of the lower jaw.  

Continuing upward outside the upper jaw and possibly fracturing the cheekbone, it passed behind the left eye, through the left side of the brain, then completely out the top of the skull through the frontal bone. The tamping iron landed point-first some 80 feet (25 m) away, “smeared with blood and brain”. Gage was thrown onto his back and gave some brief convulsions of the arms and legs, but spoke within a few minutes, walked with little assistance, and sat upright in an oxcart for the 34-mile (1.2 km) ride to his lodgings in town. About 30 minutes after the accident physician Edward H. Williams, finding Gage sitting in a chair outside the hotel, was greeted with “one of the great understatements of medical history”

When I drove up he said, “Doctor, here is business enough for you.” I first noticed the wound upon the head before I alighted from my carriage, the pulsations of the brain being very distinct. The top of the head appeared somewhat like an inverted funnel, as if some wedge-shaped body had passed from below upward. Mr. Gage, during the time I was examining this wound, was relating the manner in which he was injured to the bystanders. I did not believe Mr. Gage’s statement at that time, but thought he was deceived. 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 [through the exit hole at the top of the skull], which fell upon the floor!  You will excuse me for remarking here, that the picture presented was, to one unaccustomed to military surgery, truly terrific; but the patient bore his sufferings with the most heroic firmness. He recognised me at once, and said he hoped he was not much hurt. He seemed to be perfectly conscious, but was getting exhausted from the haemorrhage. His person, and the bed on which he was laid, were literally one gore of blood. 

With Williams’ assistance Harlow shaved the scalp around the region of the tamping iron’s exit, then removed coagulated blood, small bone fragments, and “an ounce or more” of protruding brain. After probing for foreign bodies and replacing two large detached pieces of bone, Harlow closed the wound with adhesive straps, leaving it partially open for drainage; the entrance wound in the cheek was bandaged only loosely, for the same reason. A wet compress was applied, then a nightcap, then  further bandaging to secure these dressings. 

12 days after the accident, Gage was semi-comatose, “seldom speaking unless spoken to, and then answering only in monosyllables” the globe of the left eye became more protuberant with infected tissue pushing out rapidly from the internal canthus and wounded brain coming out at the top of the head.” By the 14th day, “The exhalations from the mouth and head are horribly fetid. Will not take nourishment unless strongly urged. The friends and attendants are in hourly expectancy of his death, and have his coffin and clothes in readiness.”  Galvanised to action, Harlow decided to reopen the wound and “cut off fungi which were sprouting out from the top of the brain and filling the opening, and made free application of caustic to them. 

On the 24th day, Gage “succeeded in raising himself up, and took one step to his chair”. One month later, he was walking “up and down stairs, and about the house! By November 25 (10 weeks after his injury), Gage was strong enough to return to his parents’ home in Lebanon, New Hampshire. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Evan Rachel Wood (33), Shannon Elizabeth (47), Toby Jones (54), Julie Kavner (70), Doug Bradley (66), Martin Freeman (49), Heather Thomas (63), Pink (41), Miles Jupp (41), Adam Sandler (54), Henry Thomas (49), Hugh Grant (60), Eric Stonestreet (49), Jeffrey Combs (66), Julia Sawalha (52), Rachel Hunter (51), Guy Ritchie (52), Colin Firth (60), Virginia Madsen (59), Elizabeth Henstridge (33), Roxann Dawson (62), Johnny Vegas (49), Alfie Allen (34), and Linda Gray (80). 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.