Students Honor Anatomy Donors with Testimonials, Music, and Poetry
On May 3 in Hiebert Lounge, anatomy students celebrated those who donated their bodies to medical education in a memorial service featuring songs, music, poems, and prose dedicated to honoring and thanking them and their families.
“We should always remember and honor their sacrifice and the sacrifice their families made in supporting their decision to donate their bodies,” said first-year medical student Sophie Gray to the audience of donor families, students, faculty, and staff. “As students, we will strive to continue their legacies by using the knowledge and skills we have gained by learning from the donors to make a positive impact on the world.”
Each year, approximately 45 donor bodies are required for instruction of 310–370 medical, dental, physician assistant, and graduate medical science students studying in the Gross Anatomy Lab. This year’s ceremony honored the 23 donors whose bodies were studied in anatomy courses held in the past academic year, with 77 family members present among the audience of 200.
“The donors came from all walks of life, but what united them was their selflessness,” said Gray.
“I have lived inside this amazing creation for 91 years,” one donor wrote in a letter to students. “How I envy you the opportunity to learn and figure it all out.”
Nancilee Fuller signed on as a donor in 1990. She worked as a restaurant and office manager and for 20 years as a medical secretary in her local hospital, finally retiring at 80. Fuller loved to garden and was a member of a synchronized skating team until she was 75.
“She just loved being in the medical environment and always knew she wanted to contribute her body to science and further medical knowledge,” said her daughter Heidi Finnegan.
“I didn’t realize how emotional this would be for me,” said Finnegan when she saw her mother’s photo and heard first-year medical student Aaron Ramtulla sing one of her mother’s favorite Adele songs.
“I wanted to show my appreciation for these people, these families, and the donors,” said Ramtulla.
When students first open the body bag of a donor, Jonathan Wisco (PhD’02), associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology, asks them to gently place their hands on the donor.
“This is the first time they have experienced the gift of death, so that they can learn how to preserve life,” said Wisco.
“As soon as I saw the body, I felt this immediate sense of honor by the fact that I had the opportunity to learn from them,” said Ramtulla. “I was overwhelmed with those feelings.”
Until around 20 years ago, the end of anatomy classes for the school year was marked with a moment of silence before students zipped up the donor bags for the last time and the bodies were sent to the crematorium. But Robert Bouchie, manager of the Gross Anatomy Lab and director of the Anatomical Gift program, realized that students wanted more, and the memorial evolved into a nondenominational, student-run ceremony that over the past decade also has included donor families.
One of 14 students on the ceremony’s organizing committee, first-year medical student Giulio Cataldo said meeting donor families at the ceremony completes the circle that begins when they are introduced to the donor bodies and learn about their histories through the physical manifestations—such as an enlarged heart, gallstones, or overdeveloped muscles—that they accumulated during life. The families are key to helping them reunite the body with the person who inhabited it.
“We get to know them very intimately and personally, seeing their internal organs and hearing about their past medical conditions,” said Cataldo. “We were really looking forward to meeting the families. I’m excited to hear the stories about their loved ones.”
“I like that [the ceremony] is student-driven,” said keynote speaker Monica Pessina (PhD’05), clinical associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology. “I think the families are very touched. You hear about the value of the body donation, but they see it and feel it from the students who are there.”
A United Methodist minister in life, Jim Todd was an advocate for peace, social justice, and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. He and his wife Mary decided to donate their bodies to BU nearly 30 years ago. Mary attended the ceremony. “You put your whole self in, and that’s what Jim did,” she said.
“The music was just absolutely beautiful. It was a wonderful service that I felt truly healed by,” said Todd’s daughter Julie. “He would have loved every minute of it.”
The program included an opportunity for the donor families and students to meet and talk while sharing a meal. First-year medical student Keven Cheung sat with the Todds.
“Hearing what kind of man he was really touched me because of the things he was fighting for,” said Cheung. “Connecting with them makes me appreciate the gift that much more, and makes me realize that every one of the donors had decades of life and experiences—things they fought for; hopes and dreams—that live on in the people they knew, in their families, and in us.”
At the close of the ceremony, donor families privately receive the cremated remains of their loved ones, with Bouchie personally delivering them to families unable to attend the service.
Gillian Sanders attended the ceremony with her brother Michael. “I can’t wait to bring her home,” she said of her mother Doris Sanders, who will be reunited with her husband Charles, who donated his body eight years earlier. Doris and Charles met in Germany during WWII; she was German and he was an American soldier. “We were waiting to take them both back to Germany and sprinkle their ashes there.”