"To honor those who donate their body to further our learning of anatomy, RVU holds a donor memorial service every May. The following poem was read aloud at the last donor memorial service and we were taken away by the raw truth and appreciation this poem holds. The RVU SAAO chapter hopes this poem will be a reminder to second, third, and fourth years how important our knowledge of anatomy is to osteopathic medicine. We hope as first years begin their gross anatomy course they will see what a vital gift learning anatomy is."
MAKE YOUR MARK
by Stephen Groendyk
Chapter Member
I had a dream one night, but it wasn’t just any dream it was the kind that when you wake up, you feel different. Somewhere between emotionally unsettled and overwhelmed with the feeling of “what did I just experience?” In the dream, I was vividly imagining the body I was given to dissect and in the blink of an eye, his face changed. It was suddenly pink and warm, and with it he became fully animated. I
then saw myself sitting with this glowing joyous human being who then introduced himself to me. I was taken back and clumsily replied “Thank you… for everything”. As he smiled, I woke up and throughout the day I was in a stupor thinking about what had happened – He shared his name with me. Huh, as is he hasn’t given me enough already. This man gave me, a complete stranger, his entire physical manifestation. He gave what some people call a temple for the soul away to someone he has never heard of, someone he has never even seen in passing. As if he didn’t give me enough, he wanted to share his name with me, a bit of what made him him here on earth. I felt so grateful for this gift and before leaving each day I sent in lab I would take him by the hand and thank him for the special opportunity to learn.
Throughout my dissection I would do my best to carefully preserve even the most insignificant of structures just out of the shear respect for the gift that I was given. Although on some days when I was overcome with the Niagara of information that I need to carefully place in my head, or on days of dissection that were just plain exciting like when we cracked the chest for the first time or got to saw the body in half, it was easy to get lost in the objectiveness of what needed to be done. But there was one moment in particular that took me crashing back into the actuality of the situation so hard I will never forget it. On the day of decapitation, I walked into lab and the air was thick with anticipation, half of the students were excited about what was to come, and the other half was understandably distraught. Being in the former group I gladly volunteered to take the chisel, and as I was pounding it into his spine my excitement helped me ignored the few disgusted looks I caught from a lab partner. By the time I had HVLA’ed the head off of the body and laid it on his stomach, we were all speechless. Not knowing what to think. Staring at a mess of human flesh that looked as if a serial killer had enjoyed his trade, my other lab spoke words that shook me to the bone. Shaking her head she just said “… What an honorable man”. These words haunted me for days to come. At the beginning of dissection I was truly inspired by this man, to the point where I wanted to donate my body to medical students so that they could have the same opportunities that I was given, but as time went on the mutilations that we inflicted on this man had me second guessing. But after this day I truly understood what it meant to give yourself up for a greater good. Not carrying about the gross disarticulations that will befall your body after you are gone, in exchange for making a difference in this world. Giving yourself up to serve a generation that will serve many generations to come. The memory of you inseparable with the feeling of gratitude and honor living on inside of the entire class that you have helped. I promise to you and to every other person that gave their bodies for our education, that I will use my knowledge now to the fullest to help as many people in this world as possible, to payback your sacrifice ten times over. I will never forget you. ❉
Introduction written by: Katie Rose, National Representative.
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