Medical students from the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria paid tribute to the people who donated their bodies so they could learn.
Eight cadavers were used to teach the nearly 70 students in the class of 2022. Each doctor-to-be spent about a year working on the same body — lovingly referred to as their first patient.
During a ceremony Thursday, student representatives read reflections from the time spent learning not just about anatomy, but about the person that body belonged to.
"Each of our bodies has a collateral function of being an autobiography," one student wrote. "Thank you to the families for allowing us the privilege to learn, while also privileging us a glimpse of their story."
When the cadavers arrive at the university, all students know are the person's first name and cause of death. But over the course of the dissection, they discover things like how often the person used their muscles, how much sun they got and the posture they carried themselves with through life — all indicators of who that person might have been.
Jolene Harris teaches anatomy at the College of Medicine Peoria. She said working with the cadavers teaches students what they can't learn from a textbook — things like empathy, bedside manner and respect — while also helping them process complex feelings around death.
"Some students really form a bond — not really an ownership, but kind of a relationship or partnership in their education," she said. "They become very familiar with this individual."
As cadavers become less recognizable as the person they were over the course of the dissection process, Harris said, it's helpful for both students and the families of the deceased to end their study by remembering those people for who they were when they were alive.
In addition to reading messages of gratitude, a student acapella group performed songs of tribute while others placed flowers in vases for the deceased.
The College of Medicine Peoria gets their cadavers donated through the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois. The non-profit also handles the cremation and return of remains to the family after the study is complete.
Harris notes that those interested in donating their bodies can request to go to a specific institution and the organization will do their best to honor that.
