Tower Of Babel

Well, the title of this post actually answers the question, “Have you ever seen a dead body?” And you might ask yourself, “Doesn’t he have anything else to post about?”

Let me explain. In recent times I am finding that it is becoming increasingly difficult to write posts that I consider interesting; posts that I feel can entice readers who come here to leave comments that will result in healthy conversation and exchanging of ideas. I like that. I really do not like putting up some post that is worth not a fart in my opinion. I think I have stated before, that for me, without readers and comments, this site would cease to exist rather quickly, as I really do not do this for ME, like some other writers do. I would like to think that the reason why people keep coming here is because they find what I write of some interest to them. And in all honesty, I don’t consider listing what happens to oneself on a daily basis as an interesting blog post. Fine, occasionally, a post may be stimulated by an unusual event on a particular day that might have stimulated thoughts about your or another persons actions. Anyway, enough said, I think you get the point.

I’ve been lacking for things that I consider worthy of discussion in recent times, and I’m not getting into the US-Iraq war discussion at all. (And that could easily go on for ages after the actual combat has elapsed.) My opinion about that was shared from long before it started. Does this mean that the life span of this site is near? Well, if this continues, that may well be the case.

Anyhow, I had to go to a site called Blogideas in order to get something to stimulate a post. It was recommended by Mad Bull to my sister Rufie recently when she was asking for topics to post about. Still, we haven’t seen much activity in that territiory! I found a lot of the suggested posts to be not my sort of thing, but, the question, “Have you ever seen a dead body”? made me stop and think for a while.

Now, prior to entering Medical School, I did see a few corpses, mostly those of relatives at their funerals. Not that I make it a habit of looking into coffins at funerals, but I’m sure you know that sometimes it is difficult to not see the body as the coffin in placed right at the entrance to the church with the lid open and the body of the deceased there for all to see. I usually hold my head straight. This is because I like to remember those people that I hold dear the way they were in life. People tend to look so very different after they have died especially when their death results from serious illness. So, I don’t look at people at their funerals. And, is it just me? Or, do you find that the use of a camcorder at a funeral, zooming down on the face of the deceased is a bit strange? So that you can have the funeral service of a loved one, added to your collection of family home videos?? That seems so morbid to me. Do you really treasure the memory of a relative’s funeral?

When I was returning to Jamaica from England in 1998, the girlfriend of a bredren I had there, asked me if I could take a videotape back to Jamaica for her. I told her that it was no problem. When she handed it to me, she said it was the tape of the funeral of an Aunt who had recently died from cancer there in London. I delivered the tape to her relatives here, but, I really thought it strange. There’s more if you wish…..

I entered Medical School in 1989. And of course, this endurance course called Anatomy, where I was expected to learn every last detail about the human body, was thrust upon me. Now, trust me, there is no system to studying Anatomy….it is just a never ending ocean of facts that you need to learn. Here, at this medical School, from day one, it is instilled in you that, “Anatomy is learned in the dissecting room, looking at cadavers….not by studying textbooks!” Now that is true in a sense. Nothing beats seeing anatomy on a body and even better on a living body at that. Hence, where possible, we would use our own bodies and those of fellow classmates to go over muscles and so on. However, when it comes to the details of inner structures, the best we could do was with cadavers and textbooks.

The first time I went into the anatomy room, I got a very eerie feeling (and the smell of formaldehyde hits you!) We start the year with new cadavers, new in the sense that they have not been dissected by anyone else before. Those bodies last us for a full academic year, after which the remains are buried. In all honesty, cadavers, because they have been preserved, bear very little resemblance to the body of a living human being……at least to me. They almost seem plastic as a result of the preservative.

I persevered through that endurance course called Anatomy and achieved my goal….to pass on first attempt without having to do an oral examination. I must also admit that 90% of all the detail that I had learned in order to sit that final examination, left the repoistory of my neuronal circuits and synapses the moment that I discovered that I had passed. (I don’t know if any of you share similar experiences about other subject areas that you studied at school or in University?? But, if so, then you know what I am referring to.)

Eventually, I became a Clinical Medical Student, where you start to learn medicine by becoming an apprentice on Wards and in Clinics. Medicine is still largely learned as an apprenticeship, as no matter how well you know the textbooks, there are lots of things about disease and patient care that is just not present in the books and that you only begin to understand by treating patients. This is perhaps why it is said that one never really stops learning Medicine. That is even more true in today’s world where newer and better ways of handling disease are being discovered.

The first time I actually experienced the death of a patient was on Internal Medicine. It made me realize from then how very finite human life is. This was a relatively young man who was admitted for treatment of kidney failure and was doing well. We were on Ward Rounds and the man would have been discharged in a few days had he continued to improve. He was on the mend and chatted with the medical team and we moved on to see the other patients. A few beds down the line, a Nurse on the ward made an alarm for the doctors, the patient had arrested (stopped breathng and was pulseless). Now, quickly, the resuscitation effort started, but after about 15 minutes, it was called off by the medical team. It was unsuccessful. The patient was pronounced dead.

I went home a depressed Medical Student that day. The man was seemingly doing well and in matter of minutes was gone from this life. In my early days as a Medical Student I had this idea that there was scarcely anything that we could not fix in Medicine. Doctors should always have the answer. There should always be something more that can be done. I learned quite quickly that that was not the case. In many cases, try as we may and not for want of doing our best, patients do succumb to their illnesses.

Most of the patients that I have pronounced dead were during my Internship. I always try to do this with some degree of respect and dignity. Patients deserve this. I may not be the most ardent churchgoer, but, I do have faith and believe in God, and there is the spiritual side to any death. Informing relatives of the death of a loved one is never easy. That perhaps is a post for another time. I’m sorry to have to share thoughts of such a serious nature, but, I guess that is just how it is sometimes. We are faced with serious issues in life from time to time.

Nevertheless, it’s Saturday, whatever you do enjoy it. Comments……if you wish.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2003 at 4:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.