The University of Liverpool contains one of 17 medical schools throughout the country which educate their students using donated bodies.
Years ago, a Channel 5 documentary told the story of two terminally ill people, Diana King and Mike Bowyer, who had arranged for their bodies to be donated to the University of Liverpool after they died. This week, the ECHO spoke to Claire Crumbleholme, who runs the body donation programme at the university, about the importance of body donation and why people chose to leave their physical being to science and education once they pass away.
Claire, from Liverpool, said "dignity and respect" are perhaps the most important tenets of her job. This doesn't just apply as she is making arrangements with the generous people (whom they refer to as "silent teachers") who chose to donate their bodies, but also in how the silent teachers are treated by students and staff in the name of research and education after the donation has been recieved.
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Claire, who has been bequeathals manager at the univerity's Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC) for six years, told the ECHO: " Part of my job is to be on the end of the phone to the public, for people who are making inquiries about body donation, and I talk them through the steps to registering.
" People will often share with me their reasons for donating. I remember talking to a science teacher who wanted to continue teaching science after he had died, by becoming one of our silent teachers and enabling students in that way. Others want to avoid what they perceive to be the trauma of a funeral.
"It can be emotional at times because not only do I speak to the donors when they’re considering registering, but also when the donor dies I’ll often be one of the first people the relatives contact."
Recently, the University ran a thanksgiving service in honour of the generous silent teachers. Thirty-three donors were honoured, and a flower tribute for each donor was laid at the memorial stone in Abercromby Square, dedicated to the generous donors.
The impact of the university's body donation scheme is "almost unquantifiable," according to Claire. She said: "In one year, we teach over 700 student doctors and dentist, plus 800 healthcare students, including the likes of nurses and physiotherapists. So if each one of those goes to help countless patients, then the ripple effect of these donor’s generosity, which helped them learn, is enormous.
"What we hear from students is a really deep gratitude, that it's has been an extremely special privilege to learn anatomy not just from textbooks or models, but to be able to learn the intricacies of it from a human body. Because ach human is unique and different, studying models is very different to a silent teacher."
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