Monday, November 22, 2021

LUCOM Class of 2024 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony.

Chris Breedlove, LUCOM Marketing

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) held its annual Donor Memorial Ceremony on Friday, Nov. 19. The symbolic event was hosted by the Class of 2024, now second-year osteopathic medical students, to honor their first patients and the lessons they learned during their first year of anatomical dissection and science. The ceremony was held on the main campus of Liberty University at the Center for Music and the Worship Arts and attended by the invited family members whose loved ones donated their bodies to medical education.

Welcome remarks were made by LUCOM Student Government Association President Andrew Han: “We have prepared a time of remembering and reflecting on the donors who wished to make this gift of their remains for medical study and the gracious acknowledgement by their families and friends. As medical students, we are truly privileged to have this opportunity to study the human body, each so unique and magnificent in the way they were made by our Creator.”

Following Han, an opening prayer was delivered by Kevin L. Bolden Sr., director of building operations, with special music provided by second-year osteopathic medical students Stephen Patag, Harrison Scott, and Savannah Whitney.

LUCOM Class of 2024 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony.This year, the Class of 2024 remembered over 20 individuals who purposefully donated their body for the study of anatomy by Liberty University osteopathic medical students. “We remember a World War II veteran, a teacher of special needs students, a gardener, a literacy volunteer, a worker in radio and television, a Greek immigrant, a civil rights proponent, a veteran of the U.S. Army and department of corrections, and many others with life involvements and accomplishments,” said Laurieanne Hemric, PhD, associate professor of anatomy. “Student-doctors, these men and women represent the patients who will need your healing skills one day.”

Using eight specific illustrations from the Bible and stories from when Jesus Christ healed people, Dr. Hemric added, “As you listened to the biblical accounts, did you notice Jesus’ strong interest in their spiritual condition while he was healing their physical bodies? This is because He knew the true diagnosis of humanity’s spiritual condition [referencing Romans 3].”

“This memorial ceremony, along with remembering our donors and expressing thankfulness for their gifts is an opportunity to consider ultimate questions and examine the state of our lives, both in the present and in the coming eternal life,” she said. “An ultimate question is posed firstly in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: ‘What is the chief end of man?’ And the answer: ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever,’” said Dr. Hemric.

LUCOM Class of 2024 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony.Commenting on the cadaveric role within medical education, R. James Swanson, PhD, said, “At the beginning of the year, we ask the students to regard the donor’s remains as their first patient from which they will learn the wonders of our Creator’s design. I like to quote the Latin phrase, ‘Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.’ Translated, it means, ‘This place is where death delights in helping life.’ Or more loosely, ‘This is where the dead enjoyed teaching the living.’ The Creator God has revealed himself in his Word, the Bible, to be infinitely holy, just, omniscient, or all-knowing and everywhere present, but at the same time, He is also infinitely loving, merciful, and gracious. This great God has created us in His image, spiritual not physical, to be intelligent, rational, and thoughtful human beings that can have a relationship with God himself. For this reason, our students are instructed to give due respect to the empty house from which the soul has departed.”

Speaking directly to the invited families of the donors, Dr. Swanson said, “As chair of the anatomy department, I speak for all our faculty and students in expressing our gratitude for the loan of your loved ones as the first patient and teachers of anatomy to our students, and we appreciate your time and energy in coming here to honor their gift to us. Thank you.”

The lessons taught by anatomical donors to medical students include humility and appreciation for the human body, as well as a profound understanding of how the approach in osteopathic medicine allows the body to heal itself by properly diagnosing and treating the musculoskeletal system. Student-doctor Jeong Min Natalie Kim expressed her appreciation of the anatomical dissection experience. “The first cut I made on my cadaver with a scalpel came to me as a shock … I was cutting into tissue. This donated body was an individual masterpiece that embodied an unbelievable network of approximately 100 trillion cells and demonstrated the beauty of variability. As I moved on to different organ systems, I stood in awe. Holding in my blue-gloved hands was an organ that told a piece of the donor’s life story … one that declared the resilience of the human body and the soul who persevered against physical obstacles. I am able to train as an aspiring doctor because the donor chose to make the ultimate gift, their body.”

LUCOM Class of 2024 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony.For Joshua Lencke, Class of 2024, the anatomy lab was more than another requirement in medical school. It was a place of community where he was taught to appreciate the complex anatomy of the human body during COVID-19. “In a year of uncertainty because of a pandemic, the anatomy lab was one place that brought my classmates and I together for a common goal, to learn anatomy so we could become the best physicians we can be. In a year filled with isolation and a lot of virtual interaction, being able to go through and learn the complexity of the body with my classmates in person was a refreshing experience. The anatomy lab and these donors provided us a way to create a community. Also, my time in anatomy was a daily reminder of why I am pursuing this path of becoming a physician: to serve people. While our ‘first patients,’ these donors, are not patients that we will get to interact with in a traditional sense, they are ‘patients,’ and I will remember this experience for a long time because they provided me the opportunity to learn and to better serve my future patients.”

Offering closing remarks, Jason E. Wells, PhD, assistant dean of academics and professor of neurosciences said, “We have tremendous appreciation for the incredible privilege of learning, in the best way possible, how God has knit together the human body. When an individual passes away, memorial services are often held to focus on celebrating and remembering the life of the individual.  And in that sense, this service is no different. However, in another sense, this ceremony is a unique one. Beyond being a service of celebration, it is also a service of admiration and a service of appreciation, in memoriam of those who have given so much of themselves, and in their giving, they have taught us so much about the wonders and the mysteries of the human body — and they did it without using a single word.

LUCOM Class of 2024 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony.“We learn bravery. Thinking ahead to our final moments and making tough decisions and plans about what will happen to us after our spirit has departed our body is not a comfortable thing to do, yet these donors did so. They taught us to be brave. And they taught us about selflessness — they gave as much as they could ever give to make certain that future physicians from Liberty University would have the best, possible preparation. Each of us — the faculty, the students — are forever grateful,” Dr. Wells concluded.

A closing prayer was delivered by Donald R. Raleigh, EdD, senior associate dean of academic affairs.

View more images from the event on Facebook.