Medical Students Honor Body Donors

Temple/St. Luke’s (TSL) medical students and their mentors held a ceremony in October to thank and honor the cadaver donors that the students studied during their recently-concluded anatomy class. Anatomy is the first course medical students complete on the road to becoming physicians.

The 42 class of 2028 first-year students, along with prior students and TSL leaders, shared inspirational readings and student reflections, played music and showed a slide presentation of photos from the anatomy class, then painted rocks with symbols and pictures to memorialize their learnings from the course. 

The goal of these 90-minutes was to help the newest doctors-to-be understand and express their feelings arising from the anatomy course experience. The ceremony, which has become an annual tradition at TSL, is modeled after the event held at Temple University School of Medicine and other medicals schools. 

Fourth-year student John Santare, who helped launch the first TSL Anatomy Donor Celebration in 2021, said that studying human anatomy is important and a profound right-of-passage for every med student who often “treat their cadaver as their first patient.” 

“To hold the person’s brain in your hands and ponder consciousness is one of the greatest experiences, realizing they gave us the ultimate gift that has shaped our future.” 

Santare served as a teaching assistant for the course, which took place in the anatomy lab at DeSales University. He also helped arrange for speakers and the event’s activities.

During the Anatomy Donor Celebration at Temple/St. Luke’s, Senior Associate Dean Shaden Eldakar-Hein, MD, recounted her father-in-law’s decision to donate his body to medical science. Reflecting on the experience, she described it as "a selfless act that embodies the ultimate gift to medical education and future patients." Her story underscored the ceremony’s purpose: to honor the donors who profoundly impact the students’ journey toward becoming compassionate physicians.

According to the school’s Associate Dean for Student Support Tecile Andolino, MD, “One of your very first educators in your collective journey to becoming a physician is through the silent gift of your donor. It is an immense privilege to have blind faith bestowed upon you by a stranger to participate in an act of selflessness which for many of you will be a core foundational memory for years to come.”

Second-year TSL student Zach D’Haem read a poem he had written for last year’s ceremony, which told the donors, “Thank you for your one and only body. Your gift will forever persist: within each of us, with our future patients. Your donation meant the beginning of our journey as caretakers, as confidants, as couriers of knowledge. Your gift helps shape the future of the art of medicine.”

Giving the closing remarks for the ceremony-preceding the rock painting, Mia Hess, M1, called the course and ceremony “inspiring.” 

“We are grateful to the donors, though ‘thank you’ wasn’t enough for the lessons we learned (during the course) and for the impact they will have on our lives.”

“Who were they? What brought us to this moment? Are we worthy of such an honor of holding your heart in our hands?” she asked. 

The 42 students placed their multicolored decorated rocks in a garden in front of the school, creating a memorial to the donors who helped these future physicians take their first steps towards becoming healers.