This past Friday, November 21st, I had an unusual experience but one that I’d had an interest in for a long time. I went with my sister-in-law Megan to a gross anatomy lab. She is in medical school right now and was able to bring along one guest for this trip. Since my wife, understandably, didn’t want to go, I quickly jumped at the opportunity.
Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas is one of the few gross anatomy labs of its kind in the state (Meg can post a correction here for this or anything else I get wrong). It is a state of the art facility that accepts cadaver donations from anyone. After the study of the body is done, it is cremated and disposed of per the family’s wishes - either sent back to the family or kept by the facility for interment in a memorial to be created in the next few years. Respect of the body is one of their foundational tenants. In fact, after a student has finished their 8 months of study, they are told the name of the body they’ve been working on along with the age, what the person did in life, and a few details about them. The reason for this is they want the student to understand the gift that this person has given them in education.
I mentioned this is a state of the art facility. Some explanation from their website
…the College purchased 50 of the latest state-of-the-art cadaver immersion tables. These tables hold the preserved cadavers so when elevated, fluids are drained back into the tank, making the cadaver exceptionally easy to work on. Because of the heavy insulation and master crafting of these tanks, there is virtually no unpleasant odor in the lab when the tanks are closed.
The thing about the odor is true. You can’t smell anything until the cadavers are brought up and you get close. More on that in a minute. We started off with an orientation and then an organ presentation. We were shown lungs, livers, hearts, an esophagus, and brains. Later, we were able to hold and inspect these organs. The most fascinating thing we learned - if you were to spread out your lungs in pancake fashion as thin as you could get them - they would cover a tennis court (and you would probably be dead). Amazing. One of the most astonishing things we saw were two brains together - one was a relatively normal brain that had some divets in it from dementia. Aside from that, it looked and felt normal. Then, there was half of a brain that had been decimated by Alzheimers. It was astonishing. The consistency was that of ground beef that you had purchased from the grocery store…loose and fragile.
We then spent the rest of the time looking at and exploring 4 bodies…3 of them were older males and females who had died from cancer. The 4th was also a cancer victim but a 49 year old male. The skin and facial features were still on the cadavers…something that Meg and I didn’t expect until we noticed the nose, lips, and eyelashes of one of the females (face down) that we had been exploring. There is certainly a funky odor when the cadavers are brought up. It’s a mix of formaldehyde and…I don’t even know how else to describe it. There were a couple of times when I had to step away quickly and get a couple of fresh breaths but for the most part, I was surprised how quickly I got used to the smell. Overall, I was just an outsider and watched amazed as the lab technicians asked for people to identify internal body parts and took questions. I couldn’t bring myself to ask the only question I had - Do you have a contingency plan for a zombie uprising?
One thing that surprised me was that the experience didn’t bother me at all. I know everyone knows this but when you begin exploring a cadaver, you have to put yourself in the mindset that this is just meat. That’s it. No one is home. They have passed over to a better place and are happy to be out of these fragile, diseased shells. Aside from the initial - and very brief - shock of “Wow…these are dead bodies”, I approached the experience as a physician. I marveled at the strength of the carotid artery and jugular veins as I ran my fingers along them and gently tugged at them. I was amazed by the vast and intricate array of veins and tendons running along the arms. And I stared in wonderment and shock at a mass of cancer in the abdominal cavity of one cadaver. It literally - at least in this state - looks like a clump of dirt.
During the lab experience and immediately after, I kept thinking of when David proclaimed in the Psalms “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”. Indeed.
