Trinity holds appreciation service for ‘Cadaver Walter’

The Trinity School of Medicine has expressed appreciation to the man who donated his body to the institution for medical study upon his death.{{more}}

On November 16, the school held a service of appreciation on the campus for the gift of life afforded the institution by “Cadaver Walter.”

A cadaver is the body of a dead human being. These are used by medical schools in their students’ study of anatomy. Before practising on living human beings, medical students must learn body parts and their functions, and a host of other information about how the body works from the dead.

In 2009, the Trinity School of Medicine received “Cadaver Walter” and since then, their students have been able to “learn first-hand where his arteries and veins traversed, and which nerve served to innervate and cause movement in which group of muscles,” according to Dr Frances Jack.

Dr Jack also called Cadaver Walter’s contribution a selfless gesture, which allowed the students to receive knowledge in the most tangible way.

“What is clearly evident by his ‘selfless’ gift is that he and his family, they believed in humanity and hoped by this single act that they could make a difference, and they believed in something larger than themselves.”

President and CEO of Trinity, Steven Wilson, received on behalf of the institution, a plaque commemorating Walter’s place among cadavers used at Trinity.

Following this, Pastor Dr George Frederick presented words of exhortation to those present. He said that in his 49 years of ministry, he had never taken part in a similar ceremony.

He said the living know that they shall die, but the dead do not know anything, so once people have life they should love it and love people. He implored all to embrace humanity as they only “pass this way once”. He commended Walter’s love of humanity by saying, “Life and living is for all of us to make the best of, because we are all here. Here is someone, ‘Cadaver Walter’, who dedicated his life to the service of humanity and even prior to making his exit, he wanted his remains to be something of value so that others can learn.”

The audience included students who had worked with and learnt from Walter. Reflecting on how Walter touched her life, third term student Avani Shukla, who had begun working with Walter in term one anatomy, explained, “Working with Walter was a nice educational experience, being able to get hands-on to see where each muscle is and where each artery is and the veins. Him giving his body so that we could further our education is a very humbling experience.”

She recalled that she had been a little nervous on the first encounter and remaked, “But we have good professors to help us so it was not too bad.”

Shukla said she quite enjoyed the service of appreciation.

“It was very lovely and I am glad that we were able to do something like this so that we can say thank you properly.

The service was followed by interment at the Kingstown Cemetery.