Getting your head handed to you is a fairly common dating experience, though usually in a metaphoric sense.
In regards to the OP - unfortunately, yes, many times. Which is not unusual for a pathologist.*
*There was a movie awhile back with Bruce Willis and some dopey child who was in contact with the spirit world. The ads showed this child saying in creepy fashion, “I see dead people.”
Whoopee, kid, so do I. :rolleyes:
Sampiro- haven’t been here in a while, thus out of the loop. So sorry about your loss.
Two bodies in Anatomy class, got to know them both pretty well, as I spent 4 hours a week in their company , every week for a year. The first was an elderly gentleman for first year anatomy (neck to toes), the second was an elderly lady for second year neuroanatomy and the anatomy of the head and neck.
Four unsuccessful resuscitations this year…most of whom I’ve bagged and masked or cannulated. A couple I’ve done chest compressions, but only until someone bigger and stronger arrived (I’m not optimum chest compression material).
I’ve sort of lost count of the number of people whose deaths I have verified (listened to chests, shone lights in eyes etc.). I do know that the majority of them were elderly, and for most of them it was a good and expected death. I close their eyes and say the Aaronic blessing* (in my head, not aloud) when I’m done. It seems sort of appropriate (it’s probably not- but it makes me feel better).
Siam Sam- I am horrified by those stories. In my medical school you aren’t allowed to chew gum or wear a hat in the anatomy department (religious headcoverings accepted) out of respect. All tissue and organs had to be labelled with the donor’s ID and all pieces of fascia, skin, fat etc. went into a special container at the end of each dissecting table. This is so that each donor’s remains were returned as intact as possible to their family at the end of the year for the family to cremate or bury as they saw fit. Even pieces of tissue paper which had been used to wipe off scapels went into that container.
Anyone having a “fascia fight” would have been out on their ear faster than you could blink. All of our donors had left their bodies by choice, we don’t use unclaimed bodies or bodies from overseas. Part of anatomy is to be respectful of the donor and their gift to you, and to remember that you are depriving their family of some closure until the body is returned (usually 12-18months after donation).
I don’t doubt that a dead body is just an empty shell, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve some respect because of what it used to contain.
*“The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and grant you peace”
Not intentionally. Many years ago, when I was in my salad days as a reporter, I had the body of a drowned guy fall on top of me while the sheriff’s deputies were taking it out of the rescue boat. Freaked me right straight out. Ended up having to talk to some processional guys about it for a few months afterward.
When my mom died, I was at the hospital with my brother and father. The doctor said we could go back to the ER and see her. I went. Pop kissed her good-bye. My brother caressed her forehead. I couldn’t do it. I don’t know why.
No, but I once poked one with a stick…
Since the thread is sliding inexorably from mere “touching” toward ever more lurid incidents of corpse violation, this seems like a good opportunity to mention an anecdote told by an associate of mine, who once worked as a nurse’s aide among many other diverse and colorful jobs. He claimed that he was removing the endotracheal apparatus from a recently deceased hospital patron, when he was bitten by the cadaver in question.
Sam was the only guy I knew personally who could boast of being bitten by a dead man, a tiger (kept as a mascot at a hotel somewhere out west) and a quality assortment of venomous reptiles (not work-related; Sam was an unhealthily enthusiastic herpetophile, whose carpal ligaments were so shriveled by snake venom that almost none of his fingers pointed in the same direction. When he passed away-- in an uncharacteristically mundane manner-- the state wildlife people had to be called out to remove all his venomous snakes, some of which were reportedly being housed in unexpected places like desk drawers. I like to think that there’s a mortuary attendant somewhere with a scar and a story about Sam taking a bite out of him. RIP, you nut.)
Maybe not technically a corpse, but my brother and I spent 10 minutes giving CPR to my cousin in law when he collapsed at Thanksgiving.
Never came back.
God speed Howie. You where way too young.
Well, I kissed my aunt and two of my uncles while they were in the caskets. I was with my mother when she died, and kissed her.
But the hard one happened about a year ago. As some of you may know (and others of you surely don’t care), I’m Baha’i. There’s some special preparation that goes along with Baha’i burial. Obviously, funeral home employees can be informed of these requirements, and meet them. But my friend R had always told her grandmother that she would do the preparations: the final washing, put on the burial ring, wind the body in a 9-layer shroud of silk. Well, when R’s grandmother died, R was 7 months pregnant, and couldn’t be manhandling around an adult-sized corpse like that. So her aunt called me and asked me to help. I really, really, really didn’t want to do it. But I had a background in home nursing, knew how to roll people around without straining your back, etc. and besides, how could I really say no? So I did it. It was a less-than-pleasant way to spend an evening. But I felt good afterwards for helping a friend make good on an obligation.
congrats
One more “no” vote. I probably will when my parents go. The whole idea gives me the willies.
There’s at least one medical school where a memorial service is held after the gross anatomy class, and relatives of the deceased and medical students are encouraged to attend.
The people who donate their bodies so that doctors in training can learn anatomy are to be saluted. In my medical school there was no disrespect shown toward the bodies, unless you count the occasional nickname (our corpse was known as “Abner Cadaver”).
Yes, my mother died in the hospital, about a week after a massive stroke. We had to pull life support. Afterwards, I kissed her cheek.
I found my late husband several hours after his death. That was pretty freaky. He had been ill a long time with a heart condition, and it was expected that he would go sometime, but the actuality of it was disconcerting to say the least. I touched him to make sure he was gone, and he was cold. Also, the paramedics (or whatever) had me remove his necklace and rings, prior to transport.
<snerk!>
No. And I swear to god dude, if your next question is “do you want to” this date is sooo over.
Ok, not really.
Several. I’ve been a cop and an EMT. I’ve seen (and handled) them in all stages from warm and still oozing to long dead and oozing.
As far as full bodies go, only in the casket. But as for body parts – I once held a human brain in my (gloved) hands. I have never had such a humbling experience in my life. With no exaggeration, I nearly passed out.
Oh, I didn’t say I condoned it. I’m merely reporting it. Remember, too, this was a number of decades ago, so regulations may have been tightened up since then. And it was in Texas.
But she was not playing with a full deck. Fun girl, though. She finally ended up flunking out of medical school. But I dated her and two nurses in my life, and I’m convinced that people in the medical profession march to a different drummer, shall we say. (After we stopped dating, she began seeing a fellow medical student who ended up stalking her in an extreme manner out of jealousy. I knew him, too, and he was a real work, let me tell ya.) And I knew a cop back in Texas who was married to a nurse; he was forever telling me the same thing.
Ex-EMT here…dozens.
If you brush your teeth you won’t inspire that reaction 
My wife aka the doper Cyn has to handle fetal demises all the time working in labor&delivery/post partum.
Those are rarely good days.
Yep, we have a 4 yearly memorial service in the chapel, it’s a nice multi-faith service with readings from the Bible (old and new Testaments), the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, a Buddhist text (it was from the Diamond Sutra the year I attended) and a Humanist poem for those of no religion.
I think the religions were only limited to those that are practised by the medical students, I vaguely remember a sign-up sheet where you could sign up to do a reading from your religion, so I think it was pretty open. There was also a lot of music- the medical school has a choir and there were some talented musicians too, again, I recall a sign-up sheet.
It was a really nice service and the families seemed to appreciate it.
Touched brain. Physiological Psychology class. Prof was…“OH COME ON!!! YOU KNOW YOU GUYS WANT TO TOUCH BRAIN!”
Never a full dead body.