Medical Research 'bodies' in large pools?

Factual Questions
21

I, too, read, “Stiff.” Mary Roach didn’t really get to the nuts and bolts of medical school cadaver prep/storage. She merely postulated on who severed the heads for the plastic surgeon’s practice labs. She further berated the “stern” woman who explained the class as an intro to the MDs who attended.

In reality, the morticians and family members did the dirty work. YUP! The cadavers were brought back down from the anatomy labs to the prep room. (Those with intact facial features, anyway,) to be decapitated by my step-dad, my sisters and ME! Big glass jars, (filled with formaldehyde,) were used for storage until ready for class. The same glass jars that held the deformed babies, also for study. Two-headed, Cyclops, mermaid syndrome, hydrocephalic, et al.)

The heads were used primarily by dental students.

Yeppers. Messed-up childhood. :smack:

22

My father (long passed) spoke of the pool at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences building across from the VA in Oklahoma City and how they would “hook” a cadaver and drag it in for use. My sister also spoke of visiting this pool in her high school biology class in the early '60’s.