Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Donors are a medical student’s first teacher

Dr. Joshua Inglis
Education
April 30, 2017
Share
Tweet
Share

I have fond memories of my first class in the anatomy laboratory. It was the Monday of my first week at medical school. I’d spent the last night pouring over my newly purchased anatomy textbooks. I wondered how I would ever appreciate the countless anatomical details of the human body. But as I stood around the benches with a body donor, everything changed. Suddenly all the organs, vessels and tissues that I’d read about in the textbooks were put into context in a way that would not have been possible without the generosity of a body donor.

I remember my teacher pointing out the appendix in one donor. It was a small finger-like organ arising from the bowel down in the lower right side of the abdomen. “You can’t always find it,” he told us. I remembered reading in a textbook that, although the appendix no longer served a function, it was still prone to becoming infected and causing fever, loss of appetite and a nasty abdominal pain.

I returned home with a renewed enthusiasm for learning. The donors had sparked a candle inside me that burned brightly into the night. I poured over the same textbooks but this time with a renewed vigor. These extraordinarily generous donors, were my first patients, my first teachers and a source of inspiration.

Three years later, I was driving along the highway past the shifting sands and spinifex grass, onto my first clinical placement with a general surgeon in rural Australia. On my first day, the surgeon led me to the emergency department. We had been called to see an 18-year-old man presenting with abdominal pain. The surgeon examined his abdomen and discovered an area of exquisite tenderness — right where I remember finding the appendix in the body donors years ago.

Hours later, I watched in awe as the surgeon performed an operation to remove his appendix. It was exactly where I expected it to be. And yet, its appearance bore no resemblance to the healthy appendixes I remembered from the body donors. This man’s appendix was large, red and angry. “No wonder he was in such pain,” I thought to myself. I remember seeing him the morning after his operation. He’d had a miraculous recovery. He sat upright in bed, eating breakfast, delighted when we told him he could go home.

And now, for my first three months as a doctor, I have been working as an intern on a surgical unit. Every day, I rise at the crack of dawn to attend our morning ward rounds. We see the patients who have presented to the emergency department overnight. Except that now it is me who is examining them, ordering pain relief, charting antibiotics and even assisting with their operations. And as I do, I am often reminded of the donors. They taught me to appreciate the human body and gave me the utmost respect for human life.

To the families and friends of the donors, it takes a lot to do what your loved ones have done. It takes bravery, conviction and a passion for educating the next generation of health professionals. On behalf of all past and present medical students, I thank them for the precious gift they have given us. Their legacy will forever remain within us as our first patients, our first teachers, and an eternal inspiration.

Adapted from a speech given at the Annual Memorial and Dedication Service at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Joshua Inglis is an intern who can be reached on Twitter @inglisjosh.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

A patient thought she knew who the real doctor was. She was wrong.

April 30, 2017 Kevin 4
…
Next

I've seen over 8,000 medical professionals. Here's what I've learned.

April 30, 2017 Kevin 23
…

Tagged as: Medical school

Post navigation

< Previous Post
A patient thought she knew who the real doctor was. She was wrong.
Next Post >
I've seen over 8,000 medical professionals. Here's what I've learned.

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Dr. Joshua Inglis

  • Focus on what you want to do, not what you want to be

    Dr. Joshua Inglis

Related Posts

  • What inspires this medical student

    Jamie Katuna
  • Why this medical student tutors

    Michelle Ikoma
  • Patients are an integral part of medical student education

    Orly Farber
  • A medical student finds a reason to dance

    Nikita Mittal
  • The medical student who cries

    Orly Farber
  • A medical student’s letter to her parents

    Hillary McKinley

More in Education

  • Gen Z’s DIY approach to health care

    Amanda Heidemann, MD
  • What street medicine taught me about healing

    Alina Kang
  • How listening makes you a better doctor before your first prescription

    Kelly Dórea França
  • What it means to be a woman in medicine today

    Annie M. Trumbull
  • How Japan and the U.S. can collaborate for better health care

    Vikram Madireddy, MD, Masashi Hamada, MD, PhD, and Hibiki Yamazaki
  • The case for a standard pre-med major in U.S. universities

    Devin Behjatnia
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
    • The silent cost of choosing personalization over privacy in health care

      Dr. Giriraj Tosh Purohit | Tech
    • Civil discourse as a survival skill in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • A physician employment agreement term that often tricks physicians

      Dennis Hursh, Esq | Finance
    • Why taxing remittances harms families and global health care

      Dalia Saha, MD | Finance
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • Civil discourse as a survival skill in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Focusing on well-being versus wellness: What it means for physicians (and their patients)

      Kim Downey, PT & Nikolai Blinow & Tonya Caylor, MD | Physician
    • Why hiring physician intrapreneurs is the future of health care leadership

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
    • How the One Big Beautiful Bill could reshape your medical career

      Kara Pepper, MD | Policy
    • A new telehealth model for adolescent obesity [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
    • The silent cost of choosing personalization over privacy in health care

      Dr. Giriraj Tosh Purohit | Tech
    • Civil discourse as a survival skill in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • A physician employment agreement term that often tricks physicians

      Dennis Hursh, Esq | Finance
    • Why taxing remittances harms families and global health care

      Dalia Saha, MD | Finance
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • Civil discourse as a survival skill in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Focusing on well-being versus wellness: What it means for physicians (and their patients)

      Kim Downey, PT & Nikolai Blinow & Tonya Caylor, MD | Physician
    • Why hiring physician intrapreneurs is the future of health care leadership

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
    • How the One Big Beautiful Bill could reshape your medical career

      Kara Pepper, MD | Policy
    • A new telehealth model for adolescent obesity [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Donors are a medical student’s first teacher
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...