“the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain”

If the rod fell from above and yet entered the skull at the angle shown, was the guy napping? Or did he just look up at an inopportune time, perhaps to see why his workmates were yelling “cuidado!”??

It never made the papers, though.

“Miracle” implies divine intervention.

No. That’s just your axe to grind. Miracle comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to wonder at’. Religion may have hijacked the word, but it has a perfectly legitimate non-religious meaning.

By now I like to think that the human body is just made of sturdier stuff than we often give it credit for.

I’m pretty sure modern descriptive dictionaries would give both the ‘supernatural’ and the ‘improbable good’ definitions. Obviously, the heritage of the word is religious, and when used in reporting medical cases it is ambiguous which meaning is meant. I just respectfully disagree with Cleo and copperwatt that this particular vocabulary argument is  worth making.

I would like to see some TV talking head invert the ‘miracle’ trope sometime…

“Yes Bob, it’s been another month of relentless non-miracles in the Sahel as malnutrition and disease continue to take their toll among drought-hit small farmers. Now, back to you.”

Some NPCs have vital quest dialog and are therefore marked ‘essential’ until the player character has completed the relevant quest tree. 

Unfortunately, nobody knows who The Player Character is, so we don’t know who is marked ‘essential’ and those who are can’t just zerg-rush the PC and gain immortality.

It makes as much sense as the ‘omnipotent deity modifies the laws of physics to ensure nonlethal rebar penetration of the skull, is to damn lazy to shove another couple of inches and avoid the problem entirely’ theory…

http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2011/10/the-strange-case-of-phineas-gage.html

Edit: url wasn’t working.