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Parting R obert Bouchie “Declare the are the remains of see a ratio closer to will never forget the value?” Bouchie says. Elizabeth Berninger, four to one, but the day he was forced to “What should I put? who was ninety-four University is one of value a human body It’s a billion dollars, years old at the time four medical pro- at $0. and that’s not enough. of her death from a grams competing for As the newly If someone’s life is cerebral hemorrhage body donations in hired head of BU’s changed because of last year. Massachusetts. Har- anatomical gift pro- any damage that’s Bouchie is bring- vard leads the pack gram and manager of done to this pack- ing her home. with upwards of 140 the School of Medi- age, what is the value “It means a lot to a year (Tufts Uni- cine anatomy lab, of that? It’s immeas- me,” he says. “She versity and the Uni- Bouchie (SMG’92) urable. And that’s was a part of my life. versity of Massachu- was following proto- what the Post Of- It’s a ceremonial setts are the others). col. A family had fice said: ‘You have step where I’ll finally Nationally, it’s esti- called about the ashes to put zero because say thank you to the mated that 20,000 of their loved one. it’s impossible to family on behalf of bodies, from 115 Typically, after medi- replace.’” BU and hand her whole body dona- cal programs are fin- Bouchie tells over.” tion programs, are ished with donated this story during a Each year, 345 used each year to bodies, the remains drive to Rockport, Boston University help prepare future are cremated and Massachusetts, medical and dental doctors and dentists. mailed to the family on a warm July students dissect Unless the donor’s by certified mail. afternoon. Belted and prosect some next of kin is beyond For insurance pur- into a child’s car seat forty bodies — eight driving distance, poses, however, the in the back row of students per cadaver, Bouchie delivers the Post Office requires his GMC Yukon is a four on each side. ashes himself. He has that a value be stated. blue package. Inside Bouchie would like to returned as many as Robert Bouchie adds one final lesson to training in the med school’s anatomy lab: how to honor the dead By Caleb Daniloff Gifts 42 BOSTONIA Fall 2009 42-47 Parting Gifts.indd 42 9/17/09 10:35 AM Robert Bouchie (far left) leads a moment of silence in the anatomy lab before a body is cremated and returned to the donor’s loved ones. The pine box also contains notes of thanks from the students. PHOTOGRAPHS BY KALMAN ZABARSKY Fall 2009 BOSTONIA 43 42-47 Parting Gifts.indd 43 9/17/09 10:32 AM Fourth-year OB/GYN students observe the prosection of a ninety-three-year-old woman’s pelvis. Donated bodies are also used by BU’s dental students, as well as by the FBI for fingerprint- lifting techniques. four sets of remains in A RITE OF PASSAGE in fact. Many students see amazing thing, because it’s one day. This past academic year, their cadaver as their first such a big part of a human’s For this delivery, he is Berninger spent many hours patient. Over five months, life,” Bouchie says. “And the wearing dark slacks and on a stainless steel table on they examine every detail, brain, the same thing. It’s a powder blue shirt and the tenth floor of MED’s from skin to skeleton. Their very stimulating to hold that tie, with a dab of cologne, Instructional Building. Like first cuts are to the back in your hand.” respectful but not somber. all of BU’s willed bodies, and the limbs, followed by The age of donors “I usually don’t hand Berninger’s was embalmed dissection of the abdomen, ranges from fifty to ninety, over the cremains until I’m by Bouchie. chest, and pelvis. Finally, although Bouchie has ready,” he says. “I’ll keep the “For ninety-three, she students remove the heart received cadavers as young box on my lap while we talk. had good muscular defini- and then the brain, peeling as nineteen. Within twenty- I like for it to be a special tion, a defined vascular sys- the skin from the face and four hours of death, he thing. Not just for me to tem,” he says. “Her organs examining the vessels and must qualify and embalm hand them over and have the were hardy, and overall she tissues of the head and neck. the body, so his cell phone action just take place.” was a great candidate.” “When they pull back the is always on and he always Today, he is meeting Body dissection is a muscles in the chest cavity answers. Unless candidates with Berninger’s daughter, critical part of a medical and finally take the heart had suffered gangrene or Marjorie Schell. education, a rite of passage, from the body, it’s just an had a contagious disease 44 BOSTONIA Fall 2009 42-47 Parting Gifts.indd 44 9/17/09 10:36 AM like AIDS or hepatitis, he clean, with seven rows of needed to make this call tucked in, too, just before will usually green-light the stainless steel tables. More so I could at least tell the Bouchie hammers down the donor, even amputees. than a dozen large windows students. They were very coffin lids. “If you had to stereotype let in plenty of natural light disappointed to say the people who donate, they’re and reveal a carpet of city least.” KEEPING THE BODY WHOLE all very similar,” Bouchie rooftops, with Commercial Erkeda Derouen In one corner of the anat- says. “At Christmastime, Point in the distance. The air (MED’12) says her first omy lab, Bill Pearson they are the last ones to in the lab is changed several encounter with the body (MED’10) is taking meas- open their gifts, because times an hour and spritzed she worked on was more urements for his disser- they want to be the ones with deodorizer to minimize moving than she’d expected. tation on dysphagia — the giving, they want to see the likelihood of adverse “We wrapped her hands inability to swallow. On a your reaction. They just feel reactions to the smell of and feet because we’d be surgical tray in front of him better spiritually giving than formaldehyde. examining those later in the lays a head that has been receiving.” Bouchie shaves the heads semester,” she says. “It was removed from a nearby very emotional. We had to body and bisected, a petite put lotion on her hands, so Japanese woman’s face, “W hen I’m dissecting a body, am it was like we were shaking blank eyes, small ears. She hands. It was a life-changing died eleven months ago, at I thinking that twenty-eight experience.” age eighty-one. Her neck souls are hovering around How has Bouchie’s line of has been removed except for work affected his views on the trachea and esophagus, and scrutinizing what we do? spirituality? narrow ropes of twisted Absolutely not. I don’t believe “I consider myself a muscle pierced with colored nondenominational person pins. Pearson is analyzing in ghosts.” —robert bouchie regarding religion,” he how muscles pull and with explains. “But the more what force. To take the exposure I have to different head off is highly unusual, Bouchie knows the of the cadavers so they are religions and the more Bouchie says, but he OK’d public is still hazy on willed uniform and don’t remind people I know in my life, the Pearson’s request, believing body programs. Organ students of any elderly fact is I really don’t know the doctoral candidate’s and tissue donation has a people in their own lives. what I am. I’m not certain research could be important higher profile — the direct But, he says, students are there is an afterlife. I just for stroke victims, Parkin- connection from one human naturally curious about want to do right while on son’s sufferers, and patients being to another helps, as their donors. While Bouchie this earth. with cancer of the head does the possibility that doesn’t reveal their names, “When I’m dissecting and neck. a life may be improved or he does tell students their a body, am I thinking In another part of the saved; plus, the body stays age, the cause of death, and that twenty-eight souls lab, anatomy instructor Ann intact and can be interred their occupation. “Just that are hovering around and Zumwalt, a MED assistant in a timely fashion. The goal little bit of information gives scrutinizing what we do? professor of anatomy and of whole-body donation is these people an identity,” he Absolutely not. When a neurobiology, and a group more abstract. And there’s says, “and relationships can body is dead, it’s dead. It’s a of OB/GYN students are the occasional scandal that build between the students vessel — that’s all it is. I don’t gathered around a table. can tarnish the endeavor. and the donors. believe in ghosts.” On a blue plastic sheet UCLA’s willed body pro- “I had a woman who But Bouchie does believe lies a ninety-three-year- gram was suspended a was an author of children’s in the dignity of human life.