{"id":130251,"date":"2025-02-04T15:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=130251"},"modified":"2025-04-18T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T19:18:35","slug":"students-honor-anatomy-donors-with-testimonials-music-and-poetry","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/medicine\/articles\/2025\/students-honor-anatomy-donors-with-testimonials-music-and-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Honor Anatomy Donors with Testimonials, Music, and Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Medical students spoke at the donor memorial service.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudents Honor Anatomy Donors with Testimonials, Music, and Poetry\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should always remember and honor their sacrifice and the sacrifice their families made in supporting their decision to donate their bodies,\u201d said first-year medical student Sophie Gray to the audience of donor families, students, faculty, and staff. \u201cAs 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, approximately 45 donor bodies are required for instruction of 310\u2013370 medical, dental, physician assistant, and graduate medical science students studying in the Gross Anatomy Lab. This year\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe donors came from all walks of life, but what united them was their selflessness,\u201d said Gray. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have lived inside this amazing creation for 91 years,\u201d one donor wrote in a letter to students. \u201cHow I envy you the opportunity to learn and figure it all out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe just loved being in the medical environment and always knew she wanted to contribute her body to science and further medical knowledge,\u201d said her daughter Heidi Finnegan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how emotional this would be for me,\u201d said Finnegan when she saw her mother\u2019s photo and heard first-year medical student Aaron Ramtulla sing one of her mother\u2019s favorite Adele songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to show my appreciation for these people, these families, and the donors,\u201d said Ramtulla. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When students first open the body bag of a donor, Jonathan Wisco (PhD\u201902), associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology, asks them to gently place their hands on the donor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the first time they have experienced the gift of death, so that they can learn how to preserve life,\u201d said Wisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d said Ramtulla. \u201cI was overwhelmed with those feelings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of 14 students on the ceremony\u2019s 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\u2014such as an enlarged heart, gallstones, or overdeveloped muscles\u2014that they accumulated during life. The families are key to helping them reunite the body with the person who inhabited it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get to know them very intimately and personally, seeing their internal organs and hearing about their past medical conditions,\u201d said Cataldo. \u201cWe were really looking forward to meeting the families. I\u2019m excited to hear the stories about their loved ones.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like that [the ceremony] is student-driven,\u201d said keynote speaker Monica Pessina (PhD\u201905), clinical associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology. \u201cI 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cYou put your whole self in, and that\u2019s what Jim did,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe music was just absolutely beautiful. It was a wonderful service that I felt truly healed by,\u201d said Todd\u2019s daughter Julie. \u201cHe would have loved every minute of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHearing what kind of man he was really touched me because of the things he was fighting for,\u201d said Cheung. \u201cConnecting 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\u2014things they fought for; hopes and dreams\u2014that live on in the people they knew, in their families, and in us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gillian Sanders attended the ceremony with her brother Michael. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to bring her home,\u201d 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. \u201cWe were waiting to take them both back to Germany and sprinkle their ashes there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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