Reaction Paper on Cadaver Visit

Make it or Break it

On the fifth of October 2016, we were surprised to know that our cadaver visit was moved to this day. Our whole block was rejoicing and was so pumped to know that finally we got our chance to prove to ourselves that we are cut out to be doctors someday. There was a ton of “what if’s” in my mind then. If we’ll get motivated to push forward and come out of the room with our dreams in tacked, or stick with our profession as a biochemist and maybe pursue further study in the field instead, the ones that does not involve cold bodies being dissected wide open.  It was a make or break moment for all of us. It was a glimpse of what we will deal with when we pursue medical school. It really was something to look forward to for a student dreaming about hospital lab coats and stethoscopes.

When we got to the front doors of San Martin de Porres building. Everyone was ecstatic. You can really feel everyone’s excitement, including myself of course. We took photos as a group right in front the building and talked about our future plans if we ever get in (hopefully!). It was our dream building in all of University of Santo Tomas. As we stepped into the hallways of the 4th floor, I could feel my heart raising and my palms sweating. This is really it. We went into the museum and we checked out those cadavers that were long dissected, submerged in formalin. It was fascinating to see. I guess it is easier to understand things when they are right in front of you.

Finally we went into the cadaver area and saw the dark brown to blackish skin of the cadavers. Their skin was rubbery like and their body seemed so stiff. Their axial area was already dissected and we can see their bones and muscles. I was actually expecting to see their organs inside and how is it attached to the body. Although we haven’t seen their organs yet, you can see what our body structurally made of. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was. It was just like studying the frog but in a larger scale, but I guess it’ll get to me if it was someone alive as the live frogs did. I finally understood how all the systems of our body works together to make us into a functional organism, like the skeletal and muscular systems. We can never have just one system alone and expect to do other things that another system is responsible for and maybe, that’s the reason why medical students study the body regionally.

I guess we were lucky to still be in the baby process were we learning things in a systematic way instead of the regional way. It must have been difficult for them to deal with all those systems in just one small area of the body. We saw the medical student perform their practical exams with their own cadavers and although we can’t really see what they were doing in a closer look, we can definitely see how dedicated they are to get a high grade. I can already imagine myself doing the same exact thing in the future and I surely cannot wait to get to medical school.