cadiva question

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2005

Someone is telling me that some schools buy cadivas. It doesn't matter wether they are left to science or not. Isn't that illegal? I know where I live you only get a cadiva if they donated their body to science. So then this guy says they give the bodies that belong to immigrants to the schools. I find this hard to believe. Please advise me on what you know about this issue

My understanding is that people donate their bodies to science, but the cadavers are purchased as a means of reimbursement for their procurement, preparation, storage, and other associated costs.

Your friend is a victim of an urban legend.

Momto3andNurse2B · Jun 28, 2005

STIFF is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I had to take the dust jacket off (I go out to eat by myself and take a book to read) whenever I'd read it in public b/c I'd suddenly find myself laughing - and given that the picture on the cover is a foot with a toe tag on it I figured discretion may indeed be in order!

Carolina, I recall reading your post about this book on another thread. It's the next book I'm going to read, based on your recommendation!

Richele

Princess74 · Jun 28, 2005

My school uses them and I attend a CC. We also use cats, lamb brains, pig hearts etc....

AS far as I know, most schools around here do use cadavers.

BabyRN2Be · Jun 28, 2005

I guess it would depend on the school's budget. If they want to spend the money on human cadaver's, they will pay the cost. They are expensive as someone stated above, for their procurement, transfer, storage, etc. From what I understand, a cadaver will be used for more than one A&P class. A group of students may start out with a "fresh" cadaver while another class works on one that's already been dissected.

It would be pretty cool to be able to do an A&P lab on a real cadaver.

My brain is mush today... I almost said "live" cadaver. Must. Get. Coffee. :)

begalli · Jun 28, 2005

STIFF is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

I think that I get so spell-bound at what the author's talking about that I forget to laugh. I know exactly when she's making jokes and being funny, but for some reason I see this book more as a schooling on cadavers (which in and of itself, is rater strange and funny).

It's a GREAT book!

In my anatomy lab we had all kinds of things in jars. We also had a full intact human skeleton and human bones galore to examine and explore. I think the MOST disturbing thing we did was dissect sheep's eyeballs. My micro lab was almost as good with 100 foot tapeworms in jars and other various grossnesses.

It's weird. In that book when a cadaver was studied, even hundreds of years ago, the head/face and hands were always covered until that particular part was dissected. Seeing these "parts" personalized the cadaver when one of the ways in dealing with what we are working on in scientific dissection was to objectify it. Covering such intimate "parts" helps people doing the work to see the cadaver as an object: "it" instead of "she" or "him." It's not meant to be disrespectful - it's a coping mechanism, I think. Does that make sense? This is also the explanation our lab instructor gave us when we asked why the head, hands, and feet were wrapped on our lady.

So we never saw the face, hands or feet of our cadaver (that's why the sheep's eyeballs and like I said, we had bones galore with a foot and a hand in a jars with all the tendons and ligaments). We did dissect her brain, just never saw her facial features. She was an 82 year old woman who had a tattoo of a butterfly above her right scapula! This was almost 15 years ago. Having a tattoo at her age, she must have been quite the radical in her day!

I will NEVER forget "it" for what it taught me and I will forever appreciate that faceless, used to be living breathing human being for her contribution to science.

p.s. couldn't eat chicken for years after that lab!

begalli · Jun 28, 2005

From what I understand, a cadaver will be used for more than one A&P class. A group of students may start out with a "fresh" cadaver while another class works on one that's already been dissected.

Our cadaver hung around for two years.

Fortunately for me, my class was the class that dissected it for the next year and a half of labs.

ARNPsomeday · Jun 28, 2005

I was lucky to have taken my community college A&P with a professor who just happened to be the head of a local university's cadaver lab. The cadavers had already been dissected by medical students and the inner organs were kept in sealed plastic bads in a separate refrigeration unit. We only went once.

Ours had its face covered. I just had to look at the face, sort of as a respectful gesture, before seeing the body as an object of learning. It was a woman. She had prepared well for her final mission. Her finger- and toenails were nicely manicured and sported the same shade of pink!

NoCrumping · Jun 28, 2005

I took A&P at a community college - we had a cadaver (Fred). He was already dissected, but we took him out to look at whatever area we were studying at the time.
I know the University I went to used cadavers in their A&P classes. No med school there.

wow... im jealous.... lol... My a&p class only offered measly cats, and a pig heart. I got jipped..... I honestly thought only med students got to learn on cadavers...????

nursejoey05 · Jun 28, 2005

p.s. couldn't eat chicken for years after that lab!

I just STARTED eating chicken again, one year after the sheep eyeball lab. Thanks for the reminder. Guess I'll change what I planned to fix for dinner. :rotfl:

I never will eat pork again after those cute little pigs with their tiny little eyelashes. Didn't gross me out, just felt sorry for the pig! :rolleyes:

BabyRN2Be · Jun 28, 2005

I never will eat pork again after those cute little pigs with their tiny little eyelashes. Didn't gross me out, just felt sorry for the pig!

Ohhhh!! I know, I know!! In my 10th grade biology class we dissected fetal pigs. I remember those little eyelashes! :sniff:

Now I have to change what we were going to have for dinner. After remembering that, I don't think I can eat pork tonight, even if it was going to be marinaded in Hawaiian sauce and be put on the grill.

Oh, poor piggy!

allnurses Guide · Jun 29, 2005

p.s. couldn't eat chicken for years after that lab!

I just STARTED eating chicken again, one year after the sheep eyeball lab. Thanks for the reminder. Guess I'll change what I planned to fix for dinner. :rotfl:

I never will eat pork again after those cute little pigs with their tiny little eyelashes. Didn't gross me out, just felt sorry for the pig! :rolleyes:

I didn't eat chicken either . . well, actually I didn't eat any meat. I still don't eat pork after seeing those lovely worms under the microscope.

steph

OHmom2boys · Jun 29, 2005

I thought "cadiva" was a new kind of ice cream or something. :)
steph

I thought maybe it was a misspelling of Godiva...you know....CHOCOLATE! :)

Why in the world are these types of replies necessary??? They surely can't be considered supportive....so why post them at all? Why try to humiliate the poster just to entertain yourself? Are these disrespectful posters that lacking in self esteem that they need to insult other's lack of knowledge to create their own feelings of superiority??? What's up?? I'm sure there was a time in your own life/education/career that you didn't know the correct spelling or meaning of a word...how would you have felt if someone ridiculed you like that over a simple question?? Over a desire to further your own knowledge???

CRAZY~

I just don't understand. Why not RESPECTFULLY correct misspellings (like some other posters did) and mispronunciations and go on to help answer the question?

Where is the support and help that so many people claim they give on this board? I may finally get myself banned for this post, but I just can't see why this type of "support" is allowed.

If I'm banned..so be it...but at least I know I didn't stand by and watch or participate in humiliating someone asking a simple question. So what if it was not spelled correctly? So what if most of you already knew the answer....the poster didn't. If they knew the answer previously I'm sure they wouldn't have subjected themselves to this type of ridicule.

Ridiculous......but at least the majority of replies were posted with respect.