Dear Donor,
Anatomy has always been challenging for me, but was especially challenging this second-year of medical school. Last year, we did a lot of organ system dissection, dissecting very prominent structures that were relatively easy to identify. This year during the neurology and musculoskeletal units, we dissected more nerves than I will ever in my life be able to name perfectly, and countless more muscles than I realized existed in our body.
The cranial nerves were definitely fun, and the brain and orbit dissection were some of my favorites. I was awestruck at how large the eyeball was, and how many different muscles there are to control eye movement, and how each one is innervated differently. Just these past few weeks, I have been blown away at how many muscles there are in our forearms and hands, and these dissections have given me an extremely deep appreciation for the wonder of the human body. Who knew that motions as simple as typing on the keyboard, holding up a peace sign, or doing a bicep curl could engage so many different muscles in different locations of the arm, innervated by different nerves and supplied by different arteries?
You have provided an invaluable opportunity to my anatomy group to see in person how exactly our body functions and why it can do all the things it does, and allowed us to develop our appreciation for the medical field and anatomists in particular. In addition, you had a massive hip fracture and bleed that spurred the anatomists’ curiosity and interest, so we ended up dislocating your hip to find a prosthetic implant in the femur! It was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever seen, and such an interesting experience.
Thank you, donor, so much for teaching me so much. I will remember you fondly whenever I am in clinic or make anatomical correlations.
Sincerely,
Alex Hua
