Anatomy – the hands on method

Anatomy – the hands on method

WCC students learn anatomy by studying cadavers

Nicole Bednarski

News Editor

Andreus Vaselius is best known as the father of modern human anatomy for his studies into the dissection of the human body in the 16th century. Lydia Marie Adams DeWitt conducted her research on the anatomy of the human body nearly 300 years later.

Today, the tables have turned, and these two scientific pioneers lay open for dissection at Washtenaw Community College. At least those are the names given to the pair of cadavers by part-time biology professor Susan Starr.

“We give names to cadavers based on people who have influence on anatomy work,” Starr said.

Lydia and Andreus, lent to WCC by the anatomical donations department of the University of Michigan, will reside in the WCC biology-laboratory core for about a year, and be observed by nearly 1,500 students.

The bodies will then be returned to the family to be cremated or buried. And Starr works hard to make sure every part of the body is saved to be sent back to the family. Because first and foremost these cadavers were someone’s loved one, and respect is a big part of participating in the their dissection.

“Humans give their consent,” she said of those who donate their body to science. “This is what these people wanted.”

And according to Starr, the students’ behavior reflects that understanding in the lab.

“The students really do enjoy seeing the bodies,” she said, “and having this opportunity. And they’re so respectful.”

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have any fun in the lab.

Starr recalls a particular class in which the male reproductive organs were examined — and dissected. When a student inquired as to whether or not her husband knew about this part of the job, the class roared with laughter at her response.

“Oh yes,” Starr said, “I remind him.”

The veteran anatomy instructor hasn’t always been so comfortable around the bodies of the deceased. In fact, it was quite the opposite when Starr was a young bio-chemistry major at Eastern Michigan University.

“I was petrified of dead bodies,” she said. “I had this incredible fear, but I’ve always liked science and biology, and I got into anatomy because that’s where the jobs were.

(I was) working part-time at EMU and would have streams of tears at the site of the cadavers.”

Starr has since moved far past her fears, and now enjoys her time in the cadaver labs at WCC, as well as in the plastination labs of UM, where she participates in the process of removing water from cells and replacing it with a plastic polymer — a process designed to preserve the body for educational purposes.

“Susan is the Michelangelo of the department,” said Marvin Boluyt, biology professor and co-chair of the life sciences department. Boluyt shares in Starr’s enthusiasm for the human body.

“The human body is the most beautiful machine I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The more you do this and look into the physiology, the more incredible it is. It’s fascinating, just fascinating. It’s why we get up every day.

A lot of students have to tell us time’s up (in class)…Because once we get started, we just get so excited about this stuff.”

Starr and Boluyt teach just some of the approximately 500 students who will meet Lydia and Andreus this semester. And surprisingly, they admit that students very rarely have a negative reaction to the cadavers.

“It’s a physiological response to pass out,” explained Boluyt. “If you’re unconscious and flat on your back, you’re less likely to bleed to death. One or two people get a little queasy, but… it’s very rare.”

In fact, between all the students Boluyt and Starr have taught, they can only remember a handful who have actually fainted. Most students are eager to learn from the careful dissection of the cadavers.

And the preparation, or dissection, almost exclusively done by Starr, is considered by both professors to be a form of art.

Starr will spend almost 180 hours with Lydia and Andreus during their time at WCC, slowly, meticulously cutting through the skin, separating the connective tissue and pulling away fat cells from the tendons, nerves, muscle and bone — one-by-one — progressively through the semester.

“It takes a lot of time,” Starr said. “Pulling one or two cells at a time, fat cells the size of the small parts in an orange.”

She has already spent 60 hours with Andreus and Lydia this semester, working odd hours to have the bodies prepared for the first labs.

Often working alone, she enjoys an environment that many would never consider comfortable, let alone pleasant.

“I live in a very different world,” she admits.

The laboratory looks exactly the way one would expect. Waist-high cabinets that line the walls are sporadically covered with medical instruments. A model of the chest cavity, sterile scalpel heads, surgical gloves in blue and white, a few 5-gallon buckets and a human brain, preserved by fluid in a large plastic container.

A number of stark white lab coats hang on hooks along another wall. No one is allowed to see the cadavers until they have a lab coat and plastic gloves on, and of course, closed-toed shoes.

Three stainless-steel tables sit in the center of the otherwise open, white tile floor. Each is placed an equal distance from the next, providing ample space for a group of students to observe. The end of every table is connected to a large tube for ventilation. This is because formalin, the preservative fluid injected through the carotid artery of the deceased, can be a bit smelly.

The tops of the two outer tables are enclosed by large metal lids that lock together at the top like a tool box. Within these vaults, the cadavers are held. They are covered with wet towels, stained yellow by the preservatives, to keep the skin moist, and wrapped in a plastic shroud — a large sheet with an elastic band around the edges, like a giant shower cap.

Amidst the layers of cloth, Lydia and Andreus, the third male-female pair to occupy WCC’s cadaver lab, lay awaiting the gentle, precise hand of Starr.

According to Boluyt, the biology department likes to have both a male and female body for the labs in order to accurately represent the anatomy of both sexes. Although many of the organs and muscles do not differ between men and women, their differences must be properly identified to those taking the class.

Having two cadavers onsite is also a benefit to students because they are able to experience human anatomy from different angles during the course of a single semester. Lydia lies face-down in order to study the muscles of the back of the body, while Andreus is laid on his back, so students can ultimately view the reproductive organs, as well the organs of the abdomen and chest cavity.

At the end of the semester, both will be flipped and the opposite side will be dissected.

This will be the fourth year WCC has used human cadavers for anatomical study. Fetal pigs were dissected before the change was made.

“There’s nothing like the real thing,” Boluyt said. “One of the most interesting things about having a (human) cadaver is (that) each one is unique.”

The biology department has found this particularly evident in Andreus, because he has something most bodies donated to science no longer have — youth.

The majority of the cadavers donated that are actually usable for educational purposes are the bodies of elderly individuals — like Lydia — according to Boluyt. Most people who die at a young age were involved in some kind of accident, whereas a person is more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack, or other natural cause of death when they are older.

This was not the case for Andreus — he was only 28 when he died of melanoma, a type of skin cancer, often affiliated with excessive, unprotected exposure to ultraviolet radiation given off by the sun or tanning beds.

“Most of our students are young females,” said Starr, who hopes the story of Andreus will have some impact on the students who expose themselves to cancerous rays.

“Some of the most difficult things that occur when dissecting happen when you have a body like this,” she explained. “The fat and connective tissues wither away and you’re left with a collagen.” This makes the dissection process even more grueling.

But according to Starr, “this is what makes the job…The students, they’re just getting so much more out of it.”

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