A New Life...

Monday, 14 of August, 1330 hours, in the bowels of the medical school, we stood among our first patients. The pungency of formalin righteously inflamed our nostrils. I sat there and thought about the next few minutes. The potential whirlwind of emotion, touching the dead, cold, yet moist body, nobody knows how they will react under such circumstances. I remember looking up and around before we started. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stood dead serious. Upon completion of prayer, our instructors asked us to commence, starting with removal of the denim, plastic, and white cloth. While looking up at each other, my lab partners and I stepped into almost robotic procedure of pulling back the cadavers covers. She was old, her skin no longer soft. Her head and arms were still wrapped and contained. Some of us placed our hands on her body in an attempt to reach out and thank her as she would reveal some of her deepest secrets. She knowingly gave up her body to allow us to learn in the name of science, of humanity, of humility. Our scalpels in hand, we questioned how much pressure to avoid causing harm to our first patient. Although I had dissected many animals, this would be my first human. The first cut came easily as did the second and third. We became more engrossed in making sure we didnt damage the body in a way to lessen our learning experience and less in the fact the person before us was living at one point. As the week rolled on, our cadaver revealed more and more secrets. It took little time amidst a human dissection to realize the complexity of the body. So to keep this experience personal and not remove ourselves from the fact the cadaver was once living and breathing, we decided to name our cadaver, as is the case with many lab groups at this school and most others around the world. A few of us started to brainstorm as we worked our way through the muscles and vasculature of the back. Irma, Irma was the perfect name. Irma spoke of a grandmother; a grandmother who taught her grandchildren about life and that is exactly what she is in the process of doing. The students of Irma use her name with the utmost respect and in some ways she lives with us everyday.