Today was the first time I've ever seen a dead person. I actually got to see four of them...without their skin on. During A&P lab we were introduced to the cadaver lab and the 4 humans we would be dissecting. I walked in the room and was immediately hit with the pungent smell of formaldehyde. Throughout the room were about 20 gurney size tables covered in white plastic coverings. The mounds and bumps under the plastic all represented humans that had once been walking, talking people. I felt faint.
A classmate helped me set my mind into a mode of science and logic. However, throughout class I found myself slipping back and forth between seeing the muscles and bodies as objects for learning and then imagining them moving and they way their voice sounded. The hands and head are the hardest to look at. The heads stay covered with cloth but their bare fingers still have the skin and nails on them. One cadaver had hands like my grandmother. I'm not a morbid person but I suppose anyone can sound that way when talking about skinned cadavers.
Near the end of lab today I had my gloved hand gripping the biceps brachii and smoothing out the latisimis dorsi of these dear people. Although I seemed to be in a logical mindset my feelings hadn't dissappeared. I was in awe at their willingness to be donated to science and promised them to do my best to respect and treat them with care as we explore the human body.
