Dooley Noted: 4/9/2015
This past weekend, my mom asked me the most touching and rewarding question I’ve been asked in my life:
“Jo, how do your dad and I donate ourselves to the Anatomical Gift Program?”
I had to bite my cheek to not tear up.
The doctor I’ve become is largely because of this amazing program of donation.
In the past decade, I’ve helped to dissect over 900 donor cadavers to the institutions at which I teach.
Human dissection is such an honor to experience. A person selflessly allowed future doctors to learn from the life they lived.
We students get the privilege of learning the ultimate lessons of how the sum is greater than the parts.
As we study these donors, ideas are born about surgical techniques.
As we study these donors, hypotheses are made about how to recognize and treat pathologies.
As we study with other doctors, we discuss treatment methods and invent new ways of treatment approach.
A level of understanding is achieved that would be completely impossible without the experience of human dissection.
If not for my time dissecting, I would have missed out on educating over 2,000 people annually about the anatomy of the human.
And my mom and dad know exactly how dedicated I am.
They gave me the ultimate gift by offering to give themselves as the ultimate gift to other doctors.
I know it reads as morbid, but I hope you consider donating yourself to the Anatomical Gift Program.
If you don’t have religious or personal connection to burial, you can donate your body for the use of education and research.
After dissection is complete, the body is cremated and sent back to the family.
The schools for which I teach also host a beautiful memorial service, giving thanks to the families for the opportunity to learn from the donor.
The Anatomical Gift Program also helps families save enormous funds they’d have normally spent on burial.
To learn more about this amazing program, please contact the anatomy program at a medical or chiropractic school near you.
If you live in New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine has a wonderful program you can read about below.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
https://www.einstein.yu.edu/departments/anatomy-structural-biology/anatomical-gift.aspx