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UC Medical Students Offer Thanks to Body Donors and Their Families

headshot of Cedric Ricks By Cedric Ricks 260-415-8554
7 minute read September 28, 2016

CINCINNATI—Mahima Venkatesh hopes to offer a thank you to families that neither she nor her fellow medical students at the University of Cincinnati have met, but feel indebted to as they continue their journey into medicine.

Venkatesh, a second-year medical student, says anatomy is key to understanding disease processes and how the body responds. It’s a lesson best taught by the cadavers the UC College of Medicine is able to provide for medical students because of the generosity of hundreds of body donors and their families each year.

She and three other second-year medical students—Matthew Stewart, Matthew Kasson and Bora Buyuktimkin—will address the college’s annual memorial service for individuals who have donated their bodies for medical education. The service is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, in Kresge Auditorium on the UC medical campus. The ceremony is open to the public.

"When I had my first experience meeting our body donor (cadaver) assigned to my study group, I not only felt a sense of curiosity, but also a deep respect and gratitude to have this amazing opportunity,” says Venkatesh. "So much of our learning is via technology in this age, but to have the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on learning is so valuable. I am able to see the internal anatomy because of our body donors and it helps me understand the material we as med students learn in our classes because I am a very visual learner. I believe that serving as a body donor is the ultimate service to the community.”

Kasson says that medical students are taught respect for the bodies they examine in the gross anatomy lab from day one. Instructors make sure white sheets are draped over donor faces and areas of the body not used for instruction. Bodies are also covered when not in use.

"I remember there was a respectful quiet that fell over us students the first time we were introduced to our assigned bodies,” says Kasson. "It became immediately clear that we were a privileged group, given an opportunity entirely unique and essential. Attempting to learn human anatomy from a book is akin to exploring the world from your chair with a simple globe. Working with the bodies of our generous donors allowed me as a student not simply to study the human form, but to learn from it.”

Last year, the College of Medicine received 481 donor bodies, says Laura Garrison, program director of the college’s Body Donation Program. The bodies are used to train medical students each year of their medical degree program, starting in year one with a gross anatomy course. Donors are also helpful in training nursing and physical therapy students along with aiding physicians in learning or teaching, she says.

"It’s important to our students because a lot of medical schools are using the electronic dissectors, programs designed to mimic dissection of a body, and they don’t receive the real hands-on experience,” says Garrison. "That’s one of the reasons why our medical students want to come to UC because many medical schools aren’t using actual bodies for instruction.”

Garrison said the ceremony this Saturday will honor 175 body donors who chose to be buried in the university plot at Spring Grove Cemetery. The College of Medicine accepts all bodies that have been pre-registered and will also accept some bodies on an after-death basis, however, certain requirements must be met, explains Garrison.

The UC program looks for bodies that are free of infectious diseases such as hepatitis or sepsis, are of appropriate body mass index, have not been autopsied or amputated. Garrison said the bodies are used on average for two-and-a-half years, though they can remain in use for up to four years before they are cremated. Families have the choice of getting the remains returned or buried and honored with a memorial service.
 
"The annual dedication service celebrates donors for the gift they have given to medical education,” says Garrison. "It thanks the families by honoring their loved ones. Without our donors our future physicians would not be as prepared and we try to let our families know how special the gift is and give them closure and acknowledge the importance of their donations.”

"I think the families come in not knowing what to expect they are almost nervous that it is going to be a sad occasion, but they leave feeling so good because they don’t realize how important a gift their family member has offered to medical students and physicians.

"Until families come to the service and hear the students speak I don’t think they realize the huge contribution and impact their loved one made to medical education. They usually leave feeling very proud and uplifted. You can see it on their faces. They are really happy.”

UC’s Body Donation Program supports medical education, not research, says Garrison.

Many potential donors or their families will ask about donating their bodies to find cures for specific illnesses or to advance so other medical breakthrough, but the UC program is designed to train the next generation of physicians in understanding human anatomy, says Garrison.

Interested donors are encouraged to talk with their family and stress their desire to make a donation upon death. To be accepted as a donor, pre-registration (with signature from next of kin) is required prior to a donor’s death.

More information about UC Body Donation Program available online or call 513-558-5612.

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