Recently, Mrs. Jackman’s Anatomy class and Mrs. Turben’s Health Care and Med Term class went to Gannon University to take part in a cadaver lab to experience a hands-on learning environment.
Students arrived at Gannon at 9:00 a.m. and walked straight to the lab. In the cadaver lab five preservative tanks were open with cadavers available to dissect, with laminated sheets describing the subjects gender, job, and age, with a line for cause of death underneath. In the back of the room were three closed preservative tanks, on two of which were trays holding organs including, brains, livers, spleens, and kidneys.
After Professor Dalvi and his student assistant, Griffin, gave a brief introduction, students put on gloves and goggles and were allowed to begin internal examination.
“I love the look of wonder as students actually see up close and personal what we have been learning about, Mrs. Turben said. “It makes everything make sense. We see how habits affect the inside of the body, not just the outside.”
The Gannon students had started the dissection, so the cadavers started out whole with incisions present upon entrance. Students pulled back the skin to reveal the abdominopelvic cavity and the front of the ribs, connected by the sternum, which were cut. Lifting this structure up revealed the thoracic cavity, where the heart and lungs could then be removed from.
The cadavers’ skin was yellow in appearance, a possible effect of the preservative formaldehyde, along with an intense smell, and pools of formaldehyde in the thoracic and abdominopelvic cavities. Also shown were the different types of sizes and shapes that could occur.
A set of four pancreases sat in the back of the room, showing different levels of swelling, with a regular pancreas being about five inches long, to the most inflamed being about five times the size. On a nearby tray, there were four brains, a right hemisphere, a segment cut, a whole brain, and a whole brain with the spinal nerves and pia mater still attached.
“It was a very good experience overall,” Kaygen Rogers said. “Dr. Dalvi and his assistant did a very good job at helping identify and explain details. All together it was a very educational day!”
Following the dissections, Professor Dalvi, Griffin, and another student assistant, Matt, gave insight about the program and school, including what the course was like and what campus life is like.
Cameron Ricketts said of the trip, “It was a very fun and interesting experience, and helped me learn about my future career.”
After students left the facility, they were taken to Chipotle for lunch with ice cream from Granny’s Freezer as dessert.
“I think it was a very educating experience. I learned a lot about what takes place at the school,” student Kingston Jackson said.
