Students get teacher’s body at first dissection

LONDON - It was their first dissection, but students at one of Sweden’s top medical schools were faced with a familiar sight in the classroom - the body on the table belonged to their late teacher.

“The first autopsy is really, really emotional, and we autopsied someone we knew,” one of the shocked students told news agency TT quoted by the Telegraph newspaper here.

“I feel something in the routines went a bit wrong,” said another. Chief physician Birgitta Sundelin called the event “extremely unfortunate”.

She said that students were normally informed before-hand whose body they were to examine and that it was also the case this time.

But according to a student, the class did not find out until they saw their teacher’s name on the body’s toe tag.

Tina Dalianis, head of the department, said she regretted the incident. “It’s terrible, but it’s part of education sometimes. Unfortunately they have to deal with it,” she said.