Maharashtra : People registering to donate bodies to medical students on the rise

Byculla : The anatomy department at Sir JJ Hospital witnessed a surge in the number of people who have registered to donate their bodies from 412 to 1,288 between 2013 and 2016.

The number of cadavers however has dropped by 27% during the same period.

“The numbers of donations have decreased, but not to the point that it affects the student’s learning. But, more cadavers would mean lesser number of students per cadaver and better leaning of the subject,” said a doctor from the department of anatomy, JJ Hospital.

For the first year medical students, more number of cadavers would mean more dissection sessions, leading to a better and more elaborate understanding of the structure of human organs.

“It is the most important subjects that any medical student learns . There are 12-14 students per cadaver and sometimes, we don’t get to spend enough time with each student to develop the skills of making incisions and differentiating between different tissues,” said a medical student of JJ Hospital.

Stressing on the fact that increasing awareness was the only way to encourage donations, Dr Anjali Sabnis, head of department of anatomy, MGM medical college Kamothe, Navi Mumbai said “I have been to senior citizen forums and delivered lectures on cadaver donations. We will get more donations only if people are sensitised about the issue. Ideally there should be one cadaver for every five to six students. There is no doubt that the students learn better when there are not too many students learning to dissect the same body."

The number of donations to the anatomy department increased from 26 to 39, in the last year as a result of her efforts to create and increase awareness.

A city based ENT surgeon, high lighting the importance of the need to study dissection in- depth said, “The blood vessels and nerves are so close that one cannot afford to make any mistakes.”