0:00:02 > 0:00:10This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing
0:00:22 > 0:00:26If other people think, "Why would he want to do that",
0:00:26 > 0:00:27that's their problem not mine.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31I don't have a problem.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34We will be opening up a cadaver,
0:00:34 > 0:00:36a body bag,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39to show you a dead person.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Hold the scalpel handle something like this,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53between the thumb and middle finger.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57It's going to be very scary, I'll be right up there at the front,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00but it will be very, very scary.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Today we're going to remove the calvaria, which is the skull cap,
0:01:06 > 0:01:08and expose the brain.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Looking at the dissection and realising just how much
0:01:12 > 0:01:16we had taken apart this person...
0:01:16 > 0:01:19To have it affect me so much this year, it kind of shocked me,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22cos I was like, "I'm not supposed to feel like this.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25"Why can't I handle it? Why can't I just go in and dissect my body?"
0:01:26 > 0:01:30I'm mourning for the loss of a death that I just didn't know.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34To a life that I missed out on...
0:01:36 > 0:01:38..and...
0:01:41 > 0:01:43..a body that I destroyed.
0:02:23 > 0:02:29On behalf of Pam, James, Callum, Natalie and Ian's extended family,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33it is my privilege to thank you for coming today.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37When we were planning the funeral I thought, "How do we do this?"
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Because a lot of people didn't know about Ian's decision.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44So I did think about asking to have an empty casket up there
0:02:44 > 0:02:48so that people wouldn't walk in and go, "Oh! Where's the body?"
0:02:50 > 0:02:54We had the service for our closure,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57not for any religious things
0:02:57 > 0:03:00because we're not a religious family.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05And a lot of people, friends, hadn't realised that Ian was sick,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08so we just wanted to...
0:03:08 > 0:03:12have the service and just remember him.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03I hope that it doesn't upset in any way.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07For me, I'm quite calm about the whole thing.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11It's a body, they can treat it with respect,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15which I have no doubt that they will do.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20Apart from that, they just use it the best way they can.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24It's there to be used. I hope they use it and use it wisely.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27I always knew that Dad was going to donate his body,
0:04:27 > 0:04:33so that was always there, but nearer the time when the process...
0:04:33 > 0:04:36When you actually start thinking, "What is going to happen?"
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Small things, like his body wasn't going to be at the funeral.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11The decision to donate my body is...
0:05:14 > 0:05:19..simply to help the students...
0:05:19 > 0:05:25and to make my parting easier for my family and loved ones.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Good morning, everybody.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Just to remind you, I'm Helen Nicholson
0:05:47 > 0:05:49and I'm going to talk to you today
0:05:49 > 0:05:55about the use of cadavers and the ethics behind them.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06'Going back to our bequestee,'
0:06:06 > 0:06:09he's - or she's - put in storage,
0:06:09 > 0:06:10then in about a year's time,
0:06:10 > 0:06:15he'll come out to the dissecting room and you guys and the physios
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and the dentists will all work on these bodies for the next two years.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was 11.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26It was when I first decided that I loved science
0:06:26 > 0:06:28and was actually quite good at science.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37I guess I want to be a hero. I want to save people's lives, I think.
0:06:37 > 0:06:42I think...you know, you watch programmes like ER...
0:06:42 > 0:06:45not Shortland Street, but ER and you just...
0:06:47 > 0:06:49I just want to save people's lives.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59My father has a kidney transplant
0:06:59 > 0:07:04and so I've always kind of been interested in wanting to help him
0:07:04 > 0:07:07and it just really annoyed me just sitting there
0:07:07 > 0:07:09and not knowing what to do to help.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25I'd like to say that my attitude to the body would be impassionate,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30that I would feel nothing looking at them
0:07:30 > 0:07:34because they were just a body, but it's hard not to see a body
0:07:34 > 0:07:35and not think of a life.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38So, I shall see.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11'I think I've seen death quite a lot in life.
0:08:11 > 0:08:12'I've met it and I...
0:08:14 > 0:08:16'..acknowledged it.'
0:08:16 > 0:08:21And I think that made me see death in a more positive way,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23I'm not scared of it.
0:08:23 > 0:08:29Cell phones turned off, either left here or in your pocket, OK?
0:08:30 > 0:08:35As a teenager, I had an obsession with my own mortality
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and quite a strong fear of death.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41And, er...
0:08:41 > 0:08:44I think dealing with dead bodies and human dissection
0:08:44 > 0:08:48will allow me to kind of cross a bridge, which I need to.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25On the first day, when the students come in,
0:09:25 > 0:09:30it's just the environment, the smells here,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35the body bags - they are very daunting for them.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56We will be opening up a cadaver,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00a body bag, to show you a dead person,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and I will take you in little groups to do that.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09I think that I've had a pretty good body.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13It's never let me down.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17I've never really been... Apart from having lead poisoning
0:10:17 > 0:10:21and now cancer, I've never really had anything bad wrong with me.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37It is quite normal to feel sick,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40it is quite normal to feel sad,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43it is quite normal to feel unwell.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47I've never seen a dead body before,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51and to have all these people, you know, that are dead...
0:10:51 > 0:10:55That could be someone's mother or father or sister.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57It'll be quite full on.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Come around, come around.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14What we'll do is we'll just expose up to the belly button.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16Has anyone got any questions?
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Looking at the body for the first time was a little bit shocking
0:11:47 > 0:11:50because you weren't expecting his eyes to be open,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53you weren't expecting his expression to be like he was in pain,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55or anything like that.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I guess it was a bit naive to think that they'd look like
0:11:58 > 0:12:01the person was asleep, which was completely not true at all.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04He looked very unhealthy.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06This person must have thought about donating his body
0:12:06 > 0:12:12WELL before 52, so in his 40s, and young people do not do that,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15so this person is particularly special.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20'It's such an amazing thing.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23to sort of give up your loved one's body
0:12:23 > 0:12:26even though their soul's, like, obviously somewhere else,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29but it's still what you have left of them.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33To give it to...well, me... so that I can learn.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37- Is the loss of weight after...? - No, you see, the history said
0:12:37 > 0:12:42that he had cancer, so that's before he died, they become cachectic,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and in the end stages of cancer, they lose a lot of weight.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53It's a pretty harrowing experience, you know, really,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58because I've never seen a dead body before and...
0:12:58 > 0:13:01I don't know, you feel...
0:13:02 > 0:13:04..like you're invading someone's privacy
0:13:04 > 0:13:08by looking at, you know, their body.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10- You all right?- Yeah.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19It was something like I've never experienced before.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22It was incredibly stressful.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25I found it really, really difficult.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30'Occasionally, we have students in the first week who decide
0:13:30 > 0:13:33'they do not want to do medicine anymore because of the stress
0:13:33 > 0:13:36'that they go through in the first week.'
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I always think that these kind of people will make very good doctors.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46They are emotional people so they will be sympathetic to others
0:13:46 > 0:13:51that they deal with later on in life.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53But we just need to wait and see
0:13:53 > 0:13:58how they react to the actual dissection procedures,
0:13:58 > 0:14:03how they face the concept of picking up instruments
0:14:03 > 0:14:05and getting into the actual procedures.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21When the students get their first chance to dissect,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25often it's a limb that they will do first,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28so their first chance of holding a scalpel,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32of making that incision and watching how they cope with that...
0:14:32 > 0:14:35that's a fascinating thing to watch.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38For nearly all of you,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42this will be a completely new experience,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45so I thought would be helpful, at the start,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50to go over some of the basic techniques of dissection.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55It's going to be scary, it's going to be very scary,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57I'll be right up there at the front,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00but it will be very, very scary.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Hold the scalpel handle
0:15:03 > 0:15:07something like this, between the thumb and middle finger
0:15:07 > 0:15:13and then put your index finger on the shoulder of the handle.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16If you hold it like that, you can put quite a lot of pressure
0:15:16 > 0:15:19on the scalpel handle and push it downwards.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22You can apply quite a firm pressure on that blade.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Walking up to the dissection room
0:15:25 > 0:15:29and being able to dissect on real bodies
0:15:29 > 0:15:33will be both intimidating and fascinating.
0:15:33 > 0:15:39I would gently move the scalpel blade downwards like this,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41following that line, cutting along that line.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45I'm not cutting very deeply because of the thickness of the skin.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50I remember feeling extremely nervous the first time
0:15:50 > 0:15:54I went in to a dissection room. I remember feeling rather horrified
0:15:54 > 0:15:57the first time I saw an incision on a cadaver.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02'Usually, when you look at a dead body,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'I guess you say, "This is so and so's body",'
0:16:05 > 0:16:07but...
0:16:08 > 0:16:12..you think of their character still being part of it.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14I guess...
0:16:14 > 0:16:17once I start, you know,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21handling dead bodies, in a sense...
0:16:21 > 0:16:25I'll have to remove myself, or I wouldn't be able to do it.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27I would cut like this,
0:16:27 > 0:16:32and I would try to take the skin away as a layer.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The body's not like a piece of meat in a supermarket.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38You know, it's a human body,
0:16:38 > 0:16:42it used to be a person, you know.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46A person that's laughed and a person that's cried
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and now I'm going to cut them up.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51That's uncomfortable.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23'When you're dead, you're dead.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27'It's not as though you're there living through something
0:17:27 > 0:17:30'that you wouldn't want to live through.'
0:17:30 > 0:17:32And whether that is because of our active mind telling us
0:17:32 > 0:17:36that, "Gee whizz, they're going to do this to me and that to me",
0:17:36 > 0:17:38I don't know, but that part of it does not worry me.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43'I went first because...'
0:17:43 > 0:17:46if I didn't, we might never have started.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48We were all just standing there looking at it
0:17:48 > 0:17:52and nobody wanted to be that person to make that first incision.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55We could have been still standing there
0:17:55 > 0:17:58staring at his body at the end of the session.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29'When we first started doing the dissection,'
0:18:29 > 0:18:31I actually stood back a bit.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36We had some very keen future surgeons in our group
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and they were happy to get in there, and that was fine by me.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43I was quite happy just to stand back and watch for a bit.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49'I could just imagine someone doing the same thing to my leg'
0:18:49 > 0:18:51and how painful that would feel,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54and actually making the incision
0:18:54 > 0:18:56was even worse, because...
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Well, nothing quite prepares you
0:18:58 > 0:19:01for cutting through someone else's skin, I think.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07'When they actually have to make the incisions themselves,'
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and it's the excitement of the discovery,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and the realisation that they are cutting open a human body.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18To me, that's a very rewarding and enriching experience.
0:19:20 > 0:19:21His skin was very...
0:19:22 > 0:19:25..kind of thin and delicate
0:19:25 > 0:19:29and it gave way very easily, so...
0:19:29 > 0:19:33But it wasn't like slicing up a piece of meat for dinner.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35It was a very different experience.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44'It was quite brutal, I must admit.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47'And it was quite hard to go through the layers
0:19:47 > 0:19:50'and see the different structures
0:19:50 > 0:19:54'that we had to identify and all that.'
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I've always been proud of my back. I've always had a very strong back.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01My back has never given me trouble until now.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05I've done some fairly hard work in my life.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08I was a milkman for quite a few years
0:20:08 > 0:20:11and your back gets a fair hammering at being a milkman.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25One thing that I realised was...
0:20:25 > 0:20:29how easy it was to start...
0:20:30 > 0:20:35..seeing the body as a tool of learning rather than a person.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40And so after...
0:20:40 > 0:20:44two or three times of dissection classes,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49I have to remind myself again of how this was a live person.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54'Clearly, there's a practical element to the dissection,'
0:20:54 > 0:20:58but I think there's a huge emotional element to dissection
0:20:58 > 0:21:02that is very hard to quantify and put your finger on.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It's to do with dealing with the dead human body,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09coming to terms with what a privilege it is to do that...
0:21:11 > 0:21:14..and I think our students do that well on the whole.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I hope that they look at it.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22They don't just do it as a daily routine that we've got to do this
0:21:22 > 0:21:23and we've got to do that.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26They look at it and...
0:21:26 > 0:21:29remember the part of the anatomy they're working on
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and hopefully, that might help somebody
0:21:32 > 0:21:34that has got something wrong with them in the future
0:21:34 > 0:21:37just by the fact that they took a bit more careful notice
0:21:37 > 0:21:38of what they were doing.
0:21:38 > 0:21:44I think it's probably going to be one of the most important
0:21:44 > 0:21:46learning things I'll do
0:21:46 > 0:21:51because...you know, you'll look at a heart or you'll go to a patient
0:21:51 > 0:21:56and see their heart and in your mind, you'll know every single heart
0:21:56 > 0:22:00will sort of be the heart of the first body you dissected.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Today you'll be fracturing some ribs.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Not your own, but the cadaver's, you WILL be fracturing some
0:22:12 > 0:22:16and that's not very pleasant. You'll have to take a rib cutter
0:22:16 > 0:22:20at some stage in the proceedings, towards the end of the dissection,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and you will have to be cutting through the ribs laterally
0:22:23 > 0:22:29and medially in order to detach the anterior and lateral chest wall
0:22:29 > 0:22:31to expose the underlying lungs and pleura.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Be careful when you come to do that manoeuvre -
0:22:34 > 0:22:38the bone spikes can be pretty sharp and you can injure yourself,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40so please be careful with that.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Opening the chest was a bit difficult
0:22:50 > 0:22:53because you had to cut through ribs and cut through the clavicle,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55and cut a bit here and a bit there.
0:22:55 > 0:23:01The tools that we used to do that are quite...wooden tools,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03like wooden work tools.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07I smoked for 48 years...
0:23:07 > 0:23:12I don't really have a lot of lung trouble that I really know of.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16But grateful for the day that I decided to knock off smoking
0:23:16 > 0:23:1820 odd years ago.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35'The lungs were a lot heavier than I expected.'
0:23:35 > 0:23:38I don't know... I kind of had this idea that they were light
0:23:38 > 0:23:40and fluffy, but they're not.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48I couldn't really take my hands off it
0:23:48 > 0:23:51because I just wanted to see it inflate and deflate.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57'I don't find the lungs very fascinating.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59'In a cadaver, they remind me of pneumonia -'
0:23:59 > 0:24:02they are heavy, they are sodden, they are discoloured.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Whereas in a living person they are pink, they are aerated,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09they are collapsible.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11They are beautiful structures in a living person.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15So I find the lungs in the cadaver very disappointing,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17very different to how I find the heart in a cadaver.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29To me, opening the chest and taking out the heart is something
0:24:29 > 0:24:31that is so exciting
0:24:31 > 0:24:35because the heart is such a wondrous structure.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40I never, ever cease to be amazed when you open the heart
0:24:40 > 0:24:43and you look at those delicate valves inside the heart
0:24:43 > 0:24:45and the beautiful little strings
0:24:45 > 0:24:48that connect the valves to the muscle.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52I find it astonishing that that structure can beat
0:24:52 > 0:24:55almost three billion times in a lifetime.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59My father, he had a very strong heart
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and when he died they said it wasn't his heart that let him down.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06He actually had emphysema.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11And I've feel that I've always had a heart like my dad.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16My best bit would have to be my heart because my brain's buggered.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23'It's pretty inspiring, actually.'
0:25:26 > 0:25:30I don't know why, but I've always seen the heart
0:25:30 > 0:25:33as sort of just the heart and not the seat of the soul,
0:25:33 > 0:25:39so it was quite inspiring to pull it out and take a look at it.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44You'll see that some of them will have red latex
0:25:44 > 0:25:46injected into the arteries.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49This makes it easier for you to dissect.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10'The way you hold muscle is different to the way you hold a heart.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13'You know, the heart, it's deep inside the chest
0:26:13 > 0:26:14'and it's protected all around'
0:26:14 > 0:26:20and, you know, there's so much sort of romanticising that goes on
0:26:20 > 0:26:23about the heart, you know.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27It's "love with all your heart" or "do with all your heart".
0:26:27 > 0:26:29When you put your head against someone's chest
0:26:29 > 0:26:31you hear their heart beat.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34And when you have a pulse, it means that someone's alive.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38So it's like it gives life and it gives emotion.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44It's definitely more than just a muscle...
0:26:45 > 0:26:47..it's something amazing.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52'It was only a heart, it was only a pump.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56'It was really nothing that special for me.'
0:26:56 > 0:26:58It's only a machine
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and it's attached with a lot of pipes
0:27:01 > 0:27:03to other areas of the body,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07but it's not actually who we are, and it's not our soul.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11'You know, some days,'
0:27:11 > 0:27:17I think I'm OK with what I'm doing, you know.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20And you know, some days, I think I'm not.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26And I'd just rather sit back and let somebody else do it
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and take in what I can without actually...
0:27:28 > 0:27:30you know...
0:27:32 > 0:27:35..being part of it.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Ian's decision
0:27:47 > 0:27:51to donate his body has made it difficult
0:27:51 > 0:27:54to actually walk past the medical school without thinking,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58"I wonder if he's in there, I wonder where he is."
0:28:00 > 0:28:02When someone dies, and they're buried,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06that's where they are, you know. They're not going anywhere,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08or you've got their ashes and that's where they are.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16'This service is an opportunity for us students'
0:28:16 > 0:28:18and staff to say thank you.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22To say thank you to your loved ones for the huge gift
0:28:22 > 0:28:23that they've given us.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31When somebody dies and comes to us,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33they come to us very quickly...
0:28:35 > 0:28:39..so the family don't have a normal funeral service -
0:28:39 > 0:28:43they don't have a funeral service with the body in a coffin.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48'I did feel at the funeral, there was no body.'
0:28:48 > 0:28:54There was a bunch of flowers and that was different, um,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58I suppose it rattled my cage a bit that Dad wasn't at his funeral.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03And when you're sitting in a church or at a service
0:29:03 > 0:29:07and there's a bunch of flowers, it's not the same.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11We went to the funeral
0:29:11 > 0:29:15and there was no coffin, there was no body there,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19and we said to Mum, you know, "Where is she?"
0:29:19 > 0:29:22And she said her body had been donated.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26She drove us past the building, the anatomy department building,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30and said, "She's in there", so I always actually expected,
0:29:30 > 0:29:32if I went into the building,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35I expected her to be in a bottle peering out.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37So I never go into that building.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43I didn't realise that so many people donated their body
0:29:43 > 0:29:49and when the medical students got up and talked...
0:29:50 > 0:29:55..they showed such respect for the bodies.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58"A time to weep and a time to laugh,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02"a time to mourn and a time to dance."
0:30:04 > 0:30:08'I talked to the relatives of the donors and...'
0:30:10 > 0:30:12..it just...
0:30:12 > 0:30:14it kind of started to hit me
0:30:14 > 0:30:16how hard it was for them.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18And what do they do with the bits
0:30:18 > 0:30:21after you've finished with it? It gets cremated...?
0:30:21 > 0:30:23I think they get cremated.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26That's what we heard - they were cremated and the ashes sprinkled.
0:30:26 > 0:30:27Yes.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Quite devastated not to say goodbye to Noel.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37It's been a little wound that needed a bit of healing,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39I knew it needed to come to closure,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43so when I saw this was on, I thought, "That's an absolute gift."
0:30:43 > 0:30:47INAUDIBLE SPEECH
0:30:50 > 0:30:55Today we're going to progress with the abdomen, we're going to start
0:30:55 > 0:30:59looking inside the abdomen, and this is what a surgeon does
0:30:59 > 0:31:02when they do something called a laparotomy,
0:31:02 > 0:31:03looking inside the abdomen.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06To me, it's very exciting opening the abdomen,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09because the abdomen is like a black box, really.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18You operate on people with severe abdominal pain
0:31:18 > 0:31:21and you don't always know what you're going to find.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28When you actually get in there and you open up the abdomen,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32you can see that it IS actually...
0:31:32 > 0:31:36where the textbooks say it is. It does look almost exactly the same.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Conveniently, the bile ducts are all coloured green,
0:31:40 > 0:31:42like they are in the textbooks.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45And it's just amazing to actually see where it all fits.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52When I take my tablets now, I take them all together
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and I look at them and think,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58"How the hell do you know which way you're supposed to go?" You know.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02But the body knows which one, where it's supposed to go to.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06So it's a pretty clever piece of mechanism when you think about it.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11'I think a very underrated organ is the human bowel.'
0:32:11 > 0:32:15I think that students tend to look at this as
0:32:15 > 0:32:19rather an indelicate piece of tubing
0:32:19 > 0:32:23which is potentially smelly and rather unpleasant.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27Probably the best way to describe the pelvis and the abdomen was
0:32:27 > 0:32:29brown and smelly.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31Um, that's pretty much what I got from it.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34I enjoyed dissecting it again, but it was...
0:32:34 > 0:32:40It didn't look as cool as what I guess it looks in textbooks.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47'I didn't really cope very well with the abdomen,'
0:32:47 > 0:32:51because I wasn't taking into account what it was going to smell like,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55and the smell kind of hit me a lot stronger than I was expecting it to.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00Um, cos I was kind of getting to the point where I could cope
0:33:00 > 0:33:04quite decently after the thorax,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07but abdomen was a whole different thing.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Perhaps this isn't the most PC thing to say,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16but while we were doing it, all I could think about was
0:33:16 > 0:33:19"Wow, you can actually hold a lot of crap inside,"
0:33:19 > 0:33:23because we actually had to slice rectum into two,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26and it kind of smushed out on the side,
0:33:26 > 0:33:28and I was like, "Wow."
0:33:28 > 0:33:31See the stomach and the spleen are connected there? >
0:33:31 > 0:33:32Gastric arteries... >
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Got a beautiful appendix...
0:33:37 > 0:33:41I hope to God I'm there when some know-all decides
0:33:41 > 0:33:44he's going to find my bits that are missing.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47I can just imagine, you know,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"Oh, you said the gall bladder's...uh?
0:33:50 > 0:33:52"The gall bladder's not there."
0:33:52 > 0:33:55< Take this clot out and you will see
0:33:55 > 0:33:57< where the hepatic veins drain.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59< As you can see,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02< the IVC is hugged by the liver
0:34:02 > 0:34:07and so you don't see the hepatic veins anywhere outside.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23We'll open that up and we'll see
0:34:23 > 0:34:24what's happening inside.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28So you will be the people diagnosing the other way,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31diagnosing what the surgeon has done. OK?
0:34:41 > 0:34:43There's a lump there.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46You'll have to discover what that lump is.
0:34:46 > 0:34:47OK.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49The homework is to read
0:34:49 > 0:34:54and see what could be a mass in this area.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59It's in the right iliac fossa area. Come up with some ideas.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03'I was quite frustrated that I didn't know what it was.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05'It just looked odd.'
0:35:05 > 0:35:07It was in the wrong place and the wrong shape
0:35:07 > 0:35:10for everything that's supposed to be there and it was just odd.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15Ah! What did you find?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18- A kidney.- Well done, you.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Then we found he had a kidney transplant, and...
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Well, half the story behind it. That was very interesting.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28'If I have a real case and a real story behind it, I'll remember it.'
0:35:28 > 0:35:30There, it's sitting so nicely.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34This is what you'd find in the lumbar area where the kidney is sitting,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36so they've made a space in the iliac fossa.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38'I was really interested to see it,
0:35:38 > 0:35:41'cos my dad has a kidney transplant.'
0:35:41 > 0:35:44I was surprised to see they put it in the iliac fossa
0:35:44 > 0:35:47because I obviously hadn't done my reading, but, um...
0:35:47 > 0:35:50yeah, it's like, "Woah, this is what's in my dad," you know.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53I was just really interested from that kind of view.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56And, yeah, so I picked it up and had a look at it.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58< Dr Samalia's table over there,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01< they have a cadaver who's had a kidney transplant.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24Today we're going to remove the calvaria, which is the skullcap,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27and expose the brain. Now, this is probably
0:36:27 > 0:36:31the most difficult thing for you to do,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34I mean, difficult in that it's not an easy dissection.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36We give them a preamble, we try to talk to them a lot about it,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39and we get the demonstrators to talk very carefully
0:36:39 > 0:36:42through the procedure. You are seeing something you will probably
0:36:42 > 0:36:44never see again in your career.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48And then there is nothing more than having to just go and do it.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51'We're presented with, you know, our cadaver,'
0:36:51 > 0:36:56and the head has been, you know, sort of prepared -
0:36:56 > 0:36:59they saw around the skull
0:36:59 > 0:37:01and the calvaria.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22There's a levering. Suddenly the skullcap is removed
0:37:22 > 0:37:24and the brain is removed in front of you
0:37:24 > 0:37:27with a suction noise when the cap comes off.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31'Almost like a Velcro sound,'
0:37:31 > 0:37:35but more violent, more ripping.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42'It was like opening a gift.'
0:37:42 > 0:37:46I had no idea what was inside it and how does it look in a real human.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49For me, it was unique. I will never get that experience again
0:37:49 > 0:37:51and that's so special.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57We had to use what they call a "brain knife",
0:37:57 > 0:38:00which was this interesting-looking knife
0:38:00 > 0:38:02which you couldn't saw back and forth,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05you had to make one clean cut. And that was quite challenging,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08because the brain's kind of soft and spongy,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11so if you press it down, it feels like you're injuring it somehow.
0:38:17 > 0:38:18'When students do this,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21'it does detach them a bit from what they're doing,'
0:38:21 > 0:38:25'and they start thinking about it in terms of what they're learning.'
0:38:25 > 0:38:28I don't think I'd want to be part of it if I didn't think it was of use.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49'When you study the human body more and more,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52'you realise that the brain
0:38:52 > 0:38:56'is the most complicated part of it.'
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Your personality and so much of you depend upon your brain,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02like your movement depended on your brain,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04feeling depended on your brain,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08who you were depended on how hormones interacted with your brain.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13'If it wasn't for your brain you wouldn't be doing anything,'
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I mean...so that's got to be the most interesting.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18It was strange initially,
0:39:18 > 0:39:23cos I've never imagined that this small mushy thing,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26is the thing that actually makes us work and makes us who we are,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30I kept bringing it back to myself and this is what's in my head
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and this is what makes me who I am.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37'I haven't got a clue how my brain works,'
0:39:37 > 0:39:41erm, so maybe I'm not as clever as I thought I was!
0:39:43 > 0:39:46'To hold someone's brain in your hand is incredible,'
0:39:46 > 0:39:50it's the most incredible feeling.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02We know, we've learnt all the pathways about how a neuron fires
0:40:02 > 0:40:04and that makes us move our arm,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06but there's absolutely no concept
0:40:06 > 0:40:09of what is it that makes the neuron fire in the first place?
0:40:09 > 0:40:12What is it that makes us decide we want to move our arm?
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Like, that is what absolutely fascinates me.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18The idea of thought and where that comes from is amazing.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22It was like looking at a motherboard of a computer,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24it's just a mass of wiring.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28'When you try to learn about what the brain does,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31'you start to realise just how much,'
0:40:31 > 0:40:35like, how complex it is, and how much it is impossible
0:40:35 > 0:40:38to learn everything that the brain does.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42No matter how much we study it, and...
0:40:45 > 0:40:49..how many levels we dissect it to and how far we break it down,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53we will never capture the essence of what makes it work.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17This is a very historic day for you,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20because this is your last dissection session.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23You're completing a journey today
0:41:23 > 0:41:26that you started almost two years ago,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30and I think we need to reflect for a moment on one or two things.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34First, we need to reflect once again on the outstanding generosity
0:41:34 > 0:41:37of the people who have bequested their bodies
0:41:37 > 0:41:42to allow you to study to become knowledgeable and safe doctors.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50'Yoomi, Katherine and I started to organise the pieces together
0:41:50 > 0:41:54'putting it together, and it was important to do.'
0:41:54 > 0:41:56And I felt quite good.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59I felt kind of... saying thank you out loud,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02but that would've been awkward.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04I was...
0:42:05 > 0:42:06I was sad...
0:42:08 > 0:42:12..because he'd given us so much
0:42:12 > 0:42:15and we just seemed to take and take and take from him.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19When we tried to put him back together,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21we couldn't. It was...
0:42:21 > 0:42:23I didn't really like that part very much.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27I got quite attached to our guy.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29Never going to see him again.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33It probably would've upset me if we'd left him
0:42:33 > 0:42:36without putting him back the way he should be.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40And I don't even know why. I think it's probably just...
0:42:43 > 0:42:47..some natural instinct that it's what should happen.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53By the end of the dissection, looking at the dissection
0:42:53 > 0:42:54and realising...
0:42:54 > 0:42:59just how much we had taken apart this person,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03I guess in some ways that was great
0:43:03 > 0:43:06because we got the most out of this gift as we possibly could have.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Initially, I thought...
0:43:11 > 0:43:16..what we were doing in dissection was desecration.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24But now I don't think so.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27I think there is no other way
0:43:27 > 0:43:31to learn what we've learned from dissection.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38I've always prided myself on being able to man up and take it.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41"It doesn't bother me, I'm not an emotional person,"
0:43:41 > 0:43:45and then to have it affect me so much this year, it kind of shocked me.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47I was like, "I'm not supposed to be feeling like this.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51"Why can't I handle it? Why can't I just go and dissect my body?"
0:43:51 > 0:43:54I think I've come to like that part of me and appreciate
0:43:54 > 0:43:56how important it is.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00I think the body's life in the dissection room is different.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03I would say it's a specimen, it's a subject,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06it's just more like tissue,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10which is a sad thing to say, but that's the reality of it.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15I think everyone treated the body as well as we could've treated it.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20This journey, these two years in dissection, have been like...
0:44:22 > 0:44:27..unveiling a shroud of mystery of the human body.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29A comparison would be...
0:44:29 > 0:44:33gaining the X-ray eyes of Superman.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39I learnt that I am much more sensitive than I'd like to admit.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41I learnt that...
0:44:42 > 0:44:44..I'm not very good with death.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49I'm not a lot like a lot of my classmates...
0:44:51 > 0:44:56..in that I'm not nearly as driven or sure that this is what I want.
0:44:57 > 0:44:58I guess...
0:45:00 > 0:45:04..I've learnt that at the end of the day,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08we came from dust and we're coming back to be dust, really.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12There's a lot in between - we have a full life in between -
0:45:12 > 0:45:15but the body itself is only...
0:45:16 > 0:45:19..material, really.
0:45:19 > 0:45:20There's nothing more to it.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27I don't so much have a problem with death any more,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31and...I could put it down to time,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35or I could put it down to education,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38but it's probably more along the lines
0:45:38 > 0:45:42of I've spent the better part of two years...
0:45:43 > 0:45:47..looking at dead people and their body parts.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50I'm not so afraid of death any more.
0:45:51 > 0:45:52Relieved.
0:45:54 > 0:45:55Relieved, emancipated.
0:45:57 > 0:45:58I feel...
0:45:58 > 0:46:00free.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19I'd like to know why he made the decisions he did, and...
0:46:20 > 0:46:25..I'd like to see how he came to be the man who lies on our table.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29'We had the chance to see the interview with the donors.'
0:46:31 > 0:46:35I felt extremely privileged to be able to see...
0:46:37 > 0:46:39..the people that they used to be
0:46:39 > 0:46:42and their thoughts and their feelings and their...
0:46:42 > 0:46:44insight about what they're going to do.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49'All in all, looking back, I've had a very interesting life'
0:46:49 > 0:46:51and I've had a wonderful, caring family,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54which I'm absolutely grateful for.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29'Brought up through the worst part of the Depression...'
0:47:29 > 0:47:31It was an amazing experience
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and I think it's going to stay with me forever.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40And that's going to be, for me, fulfilling their wishes.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43I think there's no replacement for that feeling,
0:47:43 > 0:47:45I think it was...it was amazing
0:47:45 > 0:47:48and it was extremely important for me to see that.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52It was weird seeing him talk and kind of...
0:47:52 > 0:47:54see bits on him that I do remember,
0:47:54 > 0:47:56how it looked in the dissection room,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00and it was really weird thinking, when he talked about his heart,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03yes, his heart was a really good heart and his lungs were really good
0:48:03 > 0:48:05and I wouldn't have suspected he smoked,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09I just thought he may have been exposed to cities or something.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13It's actually sort of a revelation for me because...
0:48:13 > 0:48:15I initially thought...
0:48:15 > 0:48:18you know, "It used to be a person,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21"this is someone's loved one."
0:48:21 > 0:48:26But it's not, it's not someone's loved one at all - it's just a body.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49It just really hits you that it's not just a cadaver,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51it was a person.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Just to hear him say in that interview
0:48:55 > 0:48:58that the last thing...he wanted
0:48:58 > 0:49:00was people to think he was selfish...
0:49:02 > 0:49:05..just made me a bit, well, really upset.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07I've had a terrific life,
0:49:07 > 0:49:09I reckon I've crammed about...
0:49:10 > 0:49:12..three lives into one.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16I never expected to get past 40 -
0:49:16 > 0:49:19I'll be 75 this year, that's a lot of extra years,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23a lot of extra fun and things that I've been able to do for people
0:49:23 > 0:49:26and that's what I feel life is all about.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36In the last few months, he showed a way different side to his character
0:49:36 > 0:49:39that I hadn't seen, a strength actually that I hadn't seen.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42And I was really proud of the way he...
0:49:43 > 0:49:46..he found closure with the family.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56I'm mourning for the loss of a death that I just didn't know,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00to a life that I missed out on...
0:50:02 > 0:50:03..and...
0:50:07 > 0:50:09..and a body that I destroyed.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14And the worst part is...
0:50:14 > 0:50:15that's what he wanted.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20He didn't want us...
0:50:22 > 0:50:26..to do what I'm doing now. He just...
0:50:26 > 0:50:28wanted us to learn.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39I guess thank you doesn't really cut it because, you know...
0:50:43 > 0:50:45I ho...
0:50:45 > 0:50:46I hope...
0:50:49 > 0:50:53I hope if they saw, I hope if the donor saw what we did,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56they'd still be pleased that they did it.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59# It's always a struggle
0:50:59 > 0:51:02# To let somebody go... #
0:51:03 > 0:51:07I hope everyone understands why Dad did it,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09but I appreciate that, no, probably not all will.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14If other people think, "Why would he want to do that?"
0:51:14 > 0:51:16that's their problem, not mine.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20I don't have a problem.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35# Take me to the fantastic place
0:51:35 > 0:51:40# Keep the rest of my life away
0:51:41 > 0:51:46# Take me to the fantastic place
0:51:46 > 0:51:50# Keep the rest of my life away
0:51:53 > 0:51:55# Take me to the island
0:51:55 > 0:52:01# I'll watch the rain over your shoulder
0:52:03 > 0:52:05# The streetlights in the water... #
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:52:07 > 0:52:09E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk