Human Cadavers

[queserasera]

I almost passed out from excitement today when my A&P teacher said we'd have an optional opportunity to explore a flash frozen human cadaver!! I thought I'd only experience this if I chose medical school! Anyways, I am obviously so excited. Professor will be doing the dissection of abdomen and thoracic cavity and then we get to go in and explore, hold organs, move stuff around. Anyone else ever gotten to do this?

[doxielover304]

That sounds awesome.... an experience I would never forget if I had the chance to do it!!! We're dissecting a cat in my Anatomy class which is pretty cool, but a human cadaver would be amazing.

[phuretrotr]

WHAT?! So many students without cadavers!!! Our school has 4, granted it's a private school, but it helped me learn so much! One of the things I remember most was our professor showing us the tendon's and making the fingers move. At first it is quite different, especially being a 17 year old, however, it is a great learning opportunity! But, even if you don't get cadavers in the lab, we did a lot with animals too: pig lungs that we got to intubate and blow up, a cows eyeball that we discussed, a sheep's brain, another animal's kidney's. Even with human parts, not whole cadavers, you get to see a lot. We had a human heart the size of a football...

Ah, anatomy...

[nguyency77, CNA]

I went on a field trip when I was a senior in high school to the gross anatomy lab at the university. They had a cadaver already dissected for us. It was awesome!

[Devon Rex, ADN, BSN]

Can you sneak me into that room with you ??!! I'd love to be able to experience that! WOW!

[hodgieRN]

Serisouly jealous right now! I wish I could do that!

[Katsmeow]

Awesome!!! Tell us how it goes. Have fun :)

[chibiRN]

So jealous! We had 2 cadavers that had been preserved in formaldehyde and were starting to fall apart. The muscles reminded me a lot of beef jerky (yuck). It would be pretty cool to see one with all the fluids still intact!

[amoLucia]

Years ago for nsg school, I attended an autopsy with my class. Nothing participatory, just observational, but it was an awesome experience.

Two things still stick out vividly - 1) the size, shape, color of the liver; and 2) a black, sticky chewing gum-like substance in the lungs (tar & nicotine? pt was a smoker.

[queserasera, RN]

Years ago for nsg school, I attended an autopsy with my class. Nothing participatory, just observational, but it was an awesome experience.

Two things still stick out vividly - 1) the size, shape, color of the liver; and 2) a black, sticky chewing gum-like substance in the lungs (tar & nicotine? pt was a smoker.

I've been thinking about how different it will be to see things that, thus far, I've only seen pictures of. It'll be a great reward to get to actually interact with what I've been working so hard to learn.

[cass1320]

I did human dissections in undergrad (I was a sophomore). There were three others on my dissection team, but they were lazy and I ended up doing most of the dissections myself. We did ALL the dissections except for those that required a bone saw (hemi-sections, skull cap, spinal column, etc.) The cadavers were all recently deceased (within the last 6 months), so they were all pretty fresh. It was the hardest class I've ever taken, but probably the one I learned the most in. Not only do you get a good understanding of the structures, but most of the cadavers had died of some sort of disease. Things like atherosclerosis didn't mean a thing to me until I was able to crunch someones aorta under my fingers, and I never really understood how BAD smoking was until a set of lungs left greasy, tarry black slime all over my gloves. It's truly an experience that you'll never forget.

I will say, the worst thing about human cadaver dissection is the smell. The embalming fluid they use clings to your skin and hair and seeps into your pores. My roommate hated, she said I came home smelling like a corpse everyday.

[amoLucia]

To OP cass1320 - TY. You've validated my observation of the lung secretion that I noted so many years ago. I was smoking at the time and I believe that observation helped to contribute to my decision to quit.

To anyone else out there, I would absolutely recommend any opportunity/chance to participate/observe first-hand the wonders of the body human. Such a learning experience that rarely can be duplicated by other means.

[queserasera, RN]

I will say, the worst thing about human cadaver dissection is the smell. The embalming fluid they use clings to your skin and hair and seeps into your pores. My roommate hated, she said I came home smelling like a corpse everyday.

No chemical smell! Theres no embalming fluid in the cadavers we will be using from what I understand. something about the method they use to preserve them.