A Conversation with Cadaver (standard:Fan Fiction, 752 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Oct 26 2010	Views/Reads: 3136/2147	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
This is a story about a first year medical student attending Anatomy classes.

A Conversation with Cadaver Subba Rao 

As a first-year medical student Maya attends anatomy lab to dissect a
corpse or in medical jargon cadaver to learn more about human body from 
a dead person to understand a living one. 

Around 8 students share a cadaver. Each student work on different part
of the body, sometimes they team up to dissect one part.  Dissecting a 
face is perhaps the hardest. After dissecting the body for a week, Maya 
felt that the cadaver was trying to communicate with her. It was a 
strange feeling.  Obviously she doesn't want to share her thoughts on 
the cadaver with fellow students so she went to the lab after hours to 
be with the cadaver alone. 

Maya removed the cover to expose the face of the cadaver. Eyes closed
and tight lipped, the cadaver for a moment appeared dead.  And then, 
the eyes opened slowly, the cadaver glanced at Maya with a smile.  For 
a moment, Maya froze but then she was very familiar with the body, deep 
into inner layers through dissections, she touched body's hand as an 
acquaintance. 

“Hello Maya,” a male voice sounded softly. 

“Hello,” Maya replied. 

“From day one when you started working on my body, I am trying to
communicate with you but with my body parts dismembered, obviously 
dead, I can only express my feelings within myself to talk to you,” the 
male voice was friendly. 

“When I saw your face on the very first day, I felt I know you from the
past, a distant past.” 

“Perhaps your forefathers may be from the same country I came from.” 

“You are much younger than rest of the bodies in the lab,” said Maya
looking around the lab. 

“True, when I look around I felt the same, as you might have learned
that I died accidentally.” 

“But how?” 

“In the American civil war.” 

“But the civil war ended in 1865.” 

“I died in the American civil war enactment; as a bystander watching a
reenactment show of civil war scene in our town, I got shot 
accidentally by one of the actors that fired a rifle mistakenly loaded 
with live ammunition.” 

“But not many people sign up to allow their body to use as a cadaver in
the anatomy lab.” 

“Well, I thought I serve a better purpose dead than alive, so I signed
up to be a cadaver.” 

“That is very noble.” 

“Thank you.” 

While other students were struggling to identify a specific muscle,
nerve or a blood vessel, Maya has no problem since the cadaver was 
giving walkthrough instructions only Maya could hear;  for example, you 
are cutting too deep; be careful in that area you may damage the nerve 
or cut the blood vessel; slowly slice it to its left then lift it 
carefully; there you go, you got it now, etc.” 

“How you know so much about human anatomy?” 

“Well, every time I ask health related questions, my brother-in-law, a
surgeon, will start with simple lesson in anatomy first before going 
into physiology and then treatment options. He is a darn good teacher 
of anatomy; the only problem was it was too much information for me, 


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