Human Gift Registry

           Last week we started our summer semester!   We have two classes, Systemic Pathology and Clinical Pathology.  We have Systemic Pathology every day.  We are learning about disease processes in different organs and systems. It is a lot of reading and studying, but so far so good!  We have questions to answer while we are reading and we receive homework grades for them and we have quizzes almost every day. Our first exam is on Friday and it is on the lung, pancreas, eye, and the gastrointestinal system.  Clinical Pathology is every Tuesday and we are learning about the other side of Pathology that relies heavily on laboratory tests and why the tests are performed and what they are testing for.  We have quizzes every week on the information we went over the week before.

            If you have read the blog before then you will remember me talking about our cadaver lab experience last semester.  I do not know if you ever wondered how the university acquires the cadavers, but there is something called the Human Gift Registry where people sign up while they are living to donate their body to science when they pass away.  At WVU, our program, dentistry, medicine, and physical therapy utilize cadavers for our learning experiences.  This Saturday, the university held a memorial service for the family members of the participants of the Human Gift Registry.  If their family member had passed, they were invited to participate in the service.  Students volunteered to help, perform musical numbers,  and speech to thank the families for their contribution.  Myself and most of my class attended and volunteered.  It was a nice and touching service and I think it is awesome that WVU hosts this event each year.  It really is such a great gift to donate their body to science.  The human body is so intricate and complex and it would be impossible to learn about it without the lab experience.