Honestly, from my experiences in medical school, cadavers smell strongly like formaldehyde, and all the tissues are brown, atrophied, and hard to distinguish. I remember realizing my understanding of anatomy (at least abdominal) increased way more from watching surgery on healthy tissue than an entire year of clinical anatomy courses...
What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
81–90 of 111 posts
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
My brother, when he attended his anatomy classes, told me the med students were very playful and joked all the time. A coping mechanism, perhaps? I think it's understandable, but respectful they were not. For example, they called one of the corpses "blondie"... and she was headless. Let that one sink in.
Respect to the cadaver was teached in our first dissection class and not even once any incident like that happened. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of disrespect coming from veterinary students, which brought me some disgust.
What other inanimate objects (that can’t kill us easily, like an industrial press or firearm) do we talk about “respect” for?
I think this is a special case of emotional transference.
I don’t personally see a reason to treat cadavers any differently than any other object in a lab. They’re not people. Do we need to be careful to show respect for our mobile phones? How about our coffee mugs?
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking from first-hand, I can't remember any disrespectful behavior. Acting disrespectful toward the donor (what we called the cadavers) would get you kicked out of anatomy lab. There is even a "gift of body" ceremony commemorating the donations every year that family members can attend. Med students will speak about how the donors impacted their medical education and how much they appreciate them. I would hope tha…
> Holding a donors brain in one's hand (it's smaller than one would expect). In the words of a lab partner, "I can't believe we are holding everything that made this person a person, all their personality, everything." Thought provoking. I'll keep this in mind while holding a hundred billion apples during lunch. ;) From another angle, I would argue that the eyes and face are part of what makes a human, as are the han…
> From another angle, I would argue that the eyes and face are part of what makes a human, as are the hands.
I also agree with this take, though in the moment at the lab I didn't interject with a critique of mind-body dualism. Either way, it seems the brain has some sort of primacy over other organs, in terms of contributing to personhood. Pretty much everything else could be lost or transplanted, yet we'd still consider someone the same person. The brain however seems essential in making you you.
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Respect to the cadaver was teached in our first dissection class and not even once any incident like that happened. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of disrespect coming from veterinary students, which brought me some disgust.
What other inanimate objects (that can’t kill us easily, like an industrial press or firearm) do we talk about “respect” for? I think this is a special case of emotional transference. I don’t personally see a reason to treat cadavers any differently than any other object in a lab. They’re not people. Do we need to be careful to show respect for our mobile phones? How about our coffee mugs?
> I don’t personally see a reason to treat cadavers any differently than any other object in a lab
Even from a purely consequentialist point of view: if behavior around the cadavers gets out to the public, and the public deems it disrespectful, the public stops donating cadavers, which negatively impacts medical education. Even if you don't personally believe in treating human remains with respect, a huge part of society does, and you have to at least respect that.
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#85Firstly, its surprising that this school allows what would apparently be the lay public gain access to human anatomical gifts. In Canada, this is restricted to persons with a legitimate interest, ie med students and grad students in bioengineering/bio-adjacent fields. I think that the author is not an individual with such an interest was quite clear from the tone taken on this piece - most discussions involving cadav…
Interesting. I did not take the author’s tone in a disrespectful way. It wasn’t solemn, but it wasn’t flippant. It appeared they had a genuine desire to learn about the body. That seems just as noble as a med student who isn’t really interested in medicine beyond a job that makes money and their parents happy.
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Random side note but feinting at the sight of blood isn't necessarily a squeamish thing. I remember when we were learning to place IV's and the med student a row over from me warned he would feint. The nurses teaching us tried to re-assure him but he interrupted -- "Oh I'm not squeamish or scared or anything, its just a reaction to blood specifically". (TY for sharing your story btw, thought the aside was interesting…
Any advice on how to get over that reaction to blood?
Some sort of training I guess. Start with very little exposure then increase quantities.
From what I understand the cause is an automatic response to lower the blood pressure, so as to limit the blood loss.
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#87This wasn't full on dissection but ... my father was dating a coroner, who really wanted me to go to med school. However, my father was also ridiculously squeamish, to the point where even a few drops of blood could result in a faint. So, she decided to take me to an autopsy she had to sign off on, to see if I was also as delicate. My father refused to even enter the building, but there I am, with my first cadaver, w…
Random side note but feinting at the sight of blood isn't necessarily a squeamish thing. I remember when we were learning to place IV's and the med student a row over from me warned he would feint. The nurses teaching us tried to re-assure him but he interrupted -- "Oh I'm not squeamish or scared or anything, its just a reaction to blood specifically". (TY for sharing your story btw, thought the aside was interesting…
Oh, his squeamishness was legendary. Despised horror films or too-graphic war movies. I saw him stop in his tracks, stagger back, and turn white upon seeing a fake dead rat from a Tom Sawyer costume. (And guess who had to bury the family pets?)
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#88This wasn't full on dissection but ... my father was dating a coroner, who really wanted me to go to med school. However, my father was also ridiculously squeamish, to the point where even a few drops of blood could result in a faint. So, she decided to take me to an autopsy she had to sign off on, to see if I was also as delicate. My father refused to even enter the building, but there I am, with my first cadaver, w…
Did she explain why the law was that way? Is it for evidence / forensics in case the case is reopened?
No, she did not. I gather it was a source of occasional irritation.
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#89This wasn't full on dissection but ... my father was dating a coroner, who really wanted me to go to med school. However, my father was also ridiculously squeamish, to the point where even a few drops of blood could result in a faint. So, she decided to take me to an autopsy she had to sign off on, to see if I was also as delicate. My father refused to even enter the building, but there I am, with my first cadaver, w…
Random side note but feinting at the sight of blood isn't necessarily a squeamish thing. I remember when we were learning to place IV's and the med student a row over from me warned he would feint. The nurses teaching us tried to re-assure him but he interrupted -- "Oh I'm not squeamish or scared or anything, its just a reaction to blood specifically". (TY for sharing your story btw, thought the aside was interesting…
Phlebotomist insisted I look away while she took my blood for testing, I'm pretty certain I would be fine, but I suppose one can't really know short of experience, and she's had enough people gain a bad experience not to want to let anyone gain any!
Surely a med student needs to overcome that though? Even going into say.. radiology, it seems bound to happen from time to time, isn't that just really inconvenient for everyone, embarrassing even for the doctor (by then) himself?
Re: What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any advice on how to get over that reaction to blood?
Some sort of training I guess. Start with very little exposure then increase quantities. From what I understand the cause is an automatic response to lower the blood pressure, so as to limit the blood loss.
Perhaps the brain of the "fainter" is mistakenly interpreting the blood as its own (that of its own body)?