Originally posted by RoxnDox There was a movie that busted my wife and I up, years and years ago when she was still in Med School. There was a scene where some students were in the library studying, and some other students walked past (the ones the flick was about). The ones studying all start gagging on this horrible stench, asking each other "What the (sic)heck is that?". The punchline of course, is when one of them says "Oh, they're first-year medical students" -- they're walking out of their hands-on Anatomy course and the stench is the formaldehyde preserving their cadavers.
Nobody else in the theater understood why we were laughing so hard... Sue always came home with a cloud of scent permeating her clothes, hair, everything...
Think of it as paying your dues, Sly Fox
Yep, I've heard stories like that. However, since formaldehyde has been classified as a 'possible human carcinogenic', regulations have become very strict. The Bavarian ministry in charge actually tried to close down all dissection classes, but our department head went through a lot of hassle and a costly renovation, including installation of advanced ventilation systems that suck the air right out through little slits running along the rim of the tables, in order to keep the classes going. They also experimented with different formaldehyde contents in order to get the concentration down as much as possible without getting to a point where the bodies start to rot. As a result the smell isn't nearly as bad as stories suggest, and if I smell my clothes afterwards I am never quite sure whether I can actually smell it, or am just imagining it. Certainly haven't got any strange looks in the subway yet
Funny enough, the smell seems to be different for everyone. For me it smells a bit like a Christmas market (alcoholic + sweet smell = mulled wine?
), others smelled bananas, one girl smelled cheeseburgers, and others again just think it smells of alcohol.
Originally posted by Rupert Bring them on
....I'll take whatever you've got.....stories, anecdotes, fabrications....whatever!
Anything that is entertaining, interesting, or just plain ridiculous!
Okay, let's start with a good one. This one I call
Spoon in the Brain.
The university hospital I did the research for my MSc in is one of only two institutions left in the UK that still do psychosurgery - pretty much neurosurgery for mental disorders. It was a big thing back in the days, but as it became apparent that cutting around in people's brains usually doesn't help much (think 'lobotomy') it has fallen out of favour. It can still be effective in certain cases though (don't ask me how or when, I'm not an expert on that
). So my second supervisor, who happened to be the clinical head of the research division, told me the story of a patient who came in and had this kind of surgery. He was tested again afterwards and it got a bit better. However, he wasn't quite satisfied, so after he got home he took a knife, opened the fresh suture, took out the piece of bone again, grabbed a kitchen spoon (I assume a tea spoon, but he didn't specify) and scrambled around in his brain a bit. Now, that sounds pretty crazy (and it is!), but there are no pain receptors in the brain, so once he was in the scrambling itself wouldn't have hurt. Obviously it bled a lot, so he went back to the hospital where everyone started facepalming and freaking out. They patched him up again and did very extensive testing. The result: he got even better. He did a better job with a spoon than the surgeons did in the OR.
This is the kind of story that I'd safely classify as an urban legend, but given I got it as a first-hand account from a renowned professor, I tend to believe it
And thanks for the wishes Rupert. It sure is a lot of work, but so interesting that I cannot really complain.