Memorial Service
This past Friday we had a memorial service for all the individuals who donated their bodies for our medical education. Their families attended in attempts to gain closure, while we came to express our gratitude for the incredible gift that these individuals gave to us. We just finished Anatomy block in December, and I have been meaning to post about what a whirlwind experience it has been. After the somber mood set by the memorial ceremony on Friday, I feel odd chronicling about how much I enjoyed this experience, but this was in truth, the one course I had been waiting for ever since my very first dissection in middle school.
I can say for certain, however, that beyond the knowledge gleaned from this experience, the memories formed with my classmates and with our cadaver, will always remain with me. Penelope, Penny for short, (as we called her) allowed us to do the most disturbing things to her body. She donated herself for the medical education of complete strangers, but little did she know that we would leave having formed unbreakable bonds with her.
First Impressions
We were introduced to Penny on the first day we walked into Anatomy lab. With four students per cadaver, we walked into a room full of about 25 bodies covered in blue body-bags. Much like I imagine a surgeon meeting with his patient the day before a major surgical procedure, this first day was dedicated to getting to know our lifeless patient. The next day, we started our Back and Upper Limbs unit. Armed with my razor-sharp scalpel, I made the first cut - I still remember thinking how easy it was to cut through skin, fat, muscle, but at the same time wondering if she felt any pain.
Intricately Beautiful
Pretty soon, it became second-nature to forget about the possibility that I was hurting her. I became a little obsessed with dissection, going beyond what the lab manual directed us to do - intrigued by the incredible beauty of the human body, the intricacies, complexities, and even discrepancies. Following a regional approach to the body, instead of learning about each body system at a time, we studied all the systems related to a certain area of the body. So for the first unit, Back and Upper Limb - we learned about the muscles, vessels, nerves, and bones. We used autopsy saws to saw through the back bone - to study the vertebrae, spinal cord, nerves and ligaments. The most breathtaking part of this unit and one of my favorite segments of the entire block was dissecting the hand. Look at your hand right now and you'll see the tendons that run to each of your fingers. Bend your joints and you'll do so without even realizing the incredible harmony with which these tendons work together.
Here is a general Anatomy photo of the muscles and tendons of the arm and hand:
If you look at the second picture - at the FDS (flexor digitorum superficialis) and FDP (flexor digiotorum profundus) - you'll see how the FDP comes out from in between the FDS. And it is exactly like that in the real human hand. These Anatomy photos don't do it justice, but literally the FDS just splits into two to let the FDP come through it and then the FDS joins back up again. So beautiful. Here's an actual photo of a hand dissection, but this one shows the back of the hand:
Look at those tendons running to the knuckles. You and I have the same tendons - I'm using the muscles of these very tendons to type these words. It was one of those few moments in lab when I was dissecting the exact muscles that I myself was using to dissect with. I was using my hands to discover the mechanics with which my hand was working. I think I've said it enough times now, but still: absolutely mind-blowing, right?
This past Friday we had a memorial service for all the individuals who donated their bodies for our medical education. Their families attended in attempts to gain closure, while we came to express our gratitude for the incredible gift that these individuals gave to us. We just finished Anatomy block in December, and I have been meaning to post about what a whirlwind experience it has been. After the somber mood set by the memorial ceremony on Friday, I feel odd chronicling about how much I enjoyed this experience, but this was in truth, the one course I had been waiting for ever since my very first dissection in middle school.
I can say for certain, however, that beyond the knowledge gleaned from this experience, the memories formed with my classmates and with our cadaver, will always remain with me. Penelope, Penny for short, (as we called her) allowed us to do the most disturbing things to her body. She donated herself for the medical education of complete strangers, but little did she know that we would leave having formed unbreakable bonds with her.
First Impressions
We were introduced to Penny on the first day we walked into Anatomy lab. With four students per cadaver, we walked into a room full of about 25 bodies covered in blue body-bags. Much like I imagine a surgeon meeting with his patient the day before a major surgical procedure, this first day was dedicated to getting to know our lifeless patient. The next day, we started our Back and Upper Limbs unit. Armed with my razor-sharp scalpel, I made the first cut - I still remember thinking how easy it was to cut through skin, fat, muscle, but at the same time wondering if she felt any pain.
Intricately Beautiful
Pretty soon, it became second-nature to forget about the possibility that I was hurting her. I became a little obsessed with dissection, going beyond what the lab manual directed us to do - intrigued by the incredible beauty of the human body, the intricacies, complexities, and even discrepancies. Following a regional approach to the body, instead of learning about each body system at a time, we studied all the systems related to a certain area of the body. So for the first unit, Back and Upper Limb - we learned about the muscles, vessels, nerves, and bones. We used autopsy saws to saw through the back bone - to study the vertebrae, spinal cord, nerves and ligaments. The most breathtaking part of this unit and one of my favorite segments of the entire block was dissecting the hand. Look at your hand right now and you'll see the tendons that run to each of your fingers. Bend your joints and you'll do so without even realizing the incredible harmony with which these tendons work together.
Here is a general Anatomy photo of the muscles and tendons of the arm and hand:
Here's a more zoomed-in photo of just the hand:
If you look at the second picture - at the FDS (flexor digitorum superficialis) and FDP (flexor digiotorum profundus) - you'll see how the FDP comes out from in between the FDS. And it is exactly like that in the real human hand. These Anatomy photos don't do it justice, but literally the FDS just splits into two to let the FDP come through it and then the FDS joins back up again. So beautiful. Here's an actual photo of a hand dissection, but this one shows the back of the hand: Look at those tendons running to the knuckles. You and I have the same tendons - I'm using the muscles of these very tendons to type these words. It was one of those few moments in lab when I was dissecting the exact muscles that I myself was using to dissect with. I was using my hands to discover the mechanics with which my hand was working. I think I've said it enough times now, but still: absolutely mind-blowing, right? More to Come
I wasn't planning on writing so much about just the hand, but each and every single day in Anatomy lab was such an adventure and each unit deserves a thorough post. So, over the next few days I'll try to add a couple more posts about our heart-stopping Abdomen and Thorax unit (where we dissected out that beautiful machine that pumps blood to your entire body), the Lower Limbs and Pelvic units, and of course the Head and Neck unit with all of its microscopic anatomy. I am entirely indebted to Penny and the rest of her friends for teaching us so much in the last few months - please say a little prayer for them - may they rest in peace.