Autopsy

As part of our pathology class, we're required to view an autopsy. While you would think being around a dead body a few times a week would fully prepare us for what to expect, a freshly dead, nonfixed cadaver is quite a different matter. The first difference is that there is blood, a lot of it, and the fact that our patient had a form of leukemia and had poor platelet production really didn't help. Then there was the fact that the organs are soft.. as you would expect, right? But somehow you still expect the freshly dead to feel the same as the one on our dissecting table each day. Finally, there's the face. Despite working on the same body for 15 hours a week, we still have never seen our cadavers face which we keep carefully covered up in cloth. On the autopsy table though, there's no hesitation to take the cloth off when it come times to remove the brain.

As I watch the dead body, I wonder if I should feel afraid or shocked or any of those other feeling you read about in both fiction and nonfiction. All I felt was fascination. It was cool. Sure, I felt that it was unfortunate that the person had died, death happens; but it's not common that I have this chance to observe how and why it does. While I could see that the residents and technicians working on the case felt the same sentiments, we were far from insensitive. They all seemed so fascinated, exclaiming over various anatomical variations they described as "cute", and gushed over how great it was that the woman's family allowed them to do something as wonderful as the autopsy. I was grateful, and fascinated, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

So is death supposed to be shocking? What happened to the book descriptions of the feelings that someone is supposed to go through? I doubt the desensitization process has taken over me that fast.. the only conclusion I can come to is that death happens, and we should and do make the best of it.