Poor Betty. She was rather anomalous and gave us a rather tough time more often than not when looking for a certain structure. She had a port-a-cath (that can really throw you for a loop if you aren't expecting it), no musculocutaneous nerve in the brachial plexus, a titanium knee, a brain aneurism, no gallbladder, a barely visible uterus, essentially no authentic teeth, no tonsils, and the teeniest biceps muscles ever (like bandaid size). All that and she died of Hodgkin's.
And then we did horrible things. We hemi-sected the leg, bisected the clitoris (ouch), removed her head, transected her head, filleted her lungs and pulled out her eyes. Her breasts went into a zip lock, as did her brain, and the head of her humerus floated around the humidor for months until it looked like a red rudolph nose.
But that's not what I wanted to say.
I wanted to say thank you to Betty. And to Betty's family. Thank you for donating your body so that I could learn medicine. No matter how much I hated every single minute of it, no matter that my eyes burned every day, no matter that I stunk and had latex allergies. I do appreciate that people are willing to sacrifice any last shred of dignity so that future physicians can intimately learn the human body.
And learn it we did.
And Betty, for the record, I was always your advocate when those who shall remain nameless affixed your (rather large) labia to your external acoustic meatus and called them ears.
It seems as though dissecting a cadavar would be an incredible experience. No chance I'll ever get to do it, but I really liked reading First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab. Sorry you haven't much enjoyed your anatomy course. Thanks for sharing a little of it here.
ReplyDeleteWe never named our cadaver, a woman so young she had a follicle cyst on one ovary. My group had four women students in it (and there weren't all that many women in our class). One day, we came in to anatomy lab and found someone had cut out her ovaries and left candy hearts behind. I shudder to think which of my classmates practicing what specialty at this point is out in the world with women entrusting their lives to him.
ReplyDeleteAfter dissecting our dead guy "slim shady" in medical school I decided I want my body to be used the same way when I go. Heck, I'll be in a better place and won't need it anymore. Just as long as those future med students (hopefully distant future) try and keep track of all my pieces so my family will have something to bury.
ReplyDeleteMy dead guy had a tattoo in the same place as mine. It makes me wonder what future med students will think about me from my tattoo. It's fun to see tiny pieces of personality left in the body.
It would have been fun to know old slim. I bet he was quite a guy.
I think I've just changed my mind about donating my body. While I appreciate your gratitude to Betty, the part about the labia shows such disrespect that I can no longer think about donation. How was that tolerated? Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that 99% (including all of my lab partners) of the students are highly respectful of the cadavers. I think that what happens is that students begin the class highly unnerved by the reality of dissecting a human... yet we have to dissect the entire body over a period of 3 months and 50 sessions. I think in order to "deal" with the trauma of the situation, students begin to get silly and let their better judgement lapse. This incident that I wrote of was a small moment between the four of us after a labial dissection... which was actually rectified immediately when my partners realized that this was crossing over the line. I suppose my post made it seem that the cadaver was mutilated and humiliated in front of 100's of students... which certainly was not the case. That being said, I personally will never donate my body to a medical school for dissection knowing that these things do happen in lab....even if privately. I would feel better about donating my body for living organs or the like... or for specific research if I had a rare disease.
ReplyDeleteThere is no substitute for dissection, even in this day of magnificent computer simulations. It is one rite of passage we physicians will always have to endure, and rightly so. I'll forgive your lab partners their indiscretion, with hopes that they and everyone else learned what you did, Ella. The gift of one's body to science is a noble one, and the donor deserves our utmost respect and gratitude. My brother died of head/neck cancer last June and per his wishes, his body was donated to the local medical school. He hoped this act might position some future doctor to make some minor achievement someday that will truly make a difference. I'm sure you will be one of those who truly positively impact medicine. I really enjoy your blog, even though it brings back some occasionally unpleasant memories!
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