State's medical school honors those who donated their body to science

Families of donors attended The University of Mississippi Medical Center's Ceremony of Thanksgiving to remember and honor individuals whose bodies were examined for education and research purposes. The ceremony included medical students from different disciplines reading the names of donors and expressing their gratitude to them.

Kayla Pavlick is a Third-Year clinical anatomy PhD student. The last donor's name she read was the name of her own grandfather, who chose to have his body studied in Texas.

"When he was towards the end of his life, he started asking, you know, more and more trying to understand more about what I was doing and was just hearing how the donors I had worked with prior to that has impacted me," she said. "He made the decision on his own to donate to honor both me and our future students, future physicians and their future patients."

The event was mostly student-led, but a few faculty members joined in the memorial. Dr. Norma Ojeda is the Chair of the Department of Advanced Biomedical Education. She says these donors play a significant role in medical education.

"To keep these heroes immortal, we have to remember them, because what they are doing is so selfless." she said. "This is so important for science and for education."

Ojeda says she wants to assure family members that donated bodies are treated with the "utmost respect."