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 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 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

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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

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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. old woman who died last few years ago when the books,” Bouchie recalls. To that end, he conducts year of cardiovascular director was caught selling “The students really wanted an in-lab ceremony at the disease. Her pelvis and parts of donated bodies to to know who this person end of the program, where torso have been opened pharmaceutical companies. was, to read her students and and the thick, yellowed books, to see her faculty move skin peeled back, revealing WEB EXTRA A MOVING EXPERIENCE prose.” He called Watch a video dissected cadavers to an untrained eye a Bouchie’s tenth-floor the family, who of Robert from the lab tables heap of brown and beige anatomy lab is hardly the didn’t want her Bouchie talking into pine boxes innards — rendered that tiled basement room with named. “They about BU’s before the bodies color, Zumwalt explains, dripping pipes and sticky told me they were anatomical are cremated. by lack of blood. The head gift program at floor drains that TV viewers a private family, www.bu.edu/ Notes of thanks has been hemisected, the are likely to expect. It is that she was very bostonia. and personal brain removed by fourth- spacious and impeccably humble. But I reflections are year clinical anatomy

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42-47 Parting Gifts.indd 45 9/17/09 10:36 AM Bouchie packages up the cremains of a donor. Whenever possible, he hand-delivers the ashes to the family. He is one of the few anatomical gift coordinators in the country who goes to these lengths. “I’ve spent months with this person,” he says. “It’s closure for me, too.”

students. The lungs and around the body, paying DOING MORE FOR FAMILIES two weeks. The accident thorax, too, have been taken close attention to Zumwalt’s With a youthful face, an left him without a sense of out. Removed organs are tour of the female pelvis and easy smile, and an outgoing smell — a real advantage, he labeled and kept with the asking questions. Bouchie, manner, Bouchie defies the says, when you’re working body, either at the foot of the in blue scrubs, looks on. stereotype of the anatomist with bodies. body bag or in a container Zumwalt pulls back parts as a pallid, creepy old man “The tone of our program beneath the table. At the end and lifts others with forceps, with an unhealthy fasci- totally changed when Rob of the program, all organs, pointing out the uterus, the nation with dead people. came,” says Todd Hoagland, even the skin and fat, are bladder, the broad ligament, The father of two young a MED assistant professor of anatomically restored to the ovaries, the Sampson children, he stands over anatomy and neurobiology the torso. artery, the uterine artery. six feet two, weighs 260 and the school’s anatomy “We receive the body She explains how to clamp pounds, and was a defensive course director. “He was a whole,” Bouchie says, “we off blood flow during a linesman on BU’s gridiron pretty young guy when he return the body whole.” hysterectomy and how to in the mid and late eighties. started, so a lot of the stu- Wearing white coats and anesthetize. An avid biker growing up, dents thought of him as goggles, fresh-faced stu- “The lab is our lifeblood,” he had a serious motorcycle a big brother. Whenever dents, not the slightest bit Zumwalt later says, with no crash as an undergraduate, they had problems getting fazed by the scene, gather trace of irony. landing in the hospital for used to the lab or with

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42-47 Parting Gifts.indd 46 9/17/09 10:36 AM death and dying or just up notably. In 2001, the The students perform “I would love to get a personal problems, they program received thirty- music, read poetry and billboard on Route 1 that would gravitate towards one whole body donations. personal reflections, and says, ‘You want to donate him. Most people who run Today, that number is hold a candle-lighting cere- your body? Please investi- body donation programs closer to forty-five. Donor mony. In her reading for gate it. Here’s our Web don’t have outstanding families have been known the service, Tanya Donahou site and telephone num- interpersonal skills. Rob to request in their loved (MED’12) compares her ber.’ But it wouldn’t be really is a wildly gregarious ones’ obituaries that team’s donor to a seed that tactful to do so,” Bouchie guy.” contributions be made bears fruit to nourish many. says, “and there’d be a lot Born and raised in to the program in lieu “You are an exponential of fallout.” Gloucester, Massachusetts, of flowers. And this past gift, from one man to eight Bouchie’s interest in pathol- spring, Bouchie’s colleagues future doctors to hundreds FINAL CHAPTER ogy was spurred by his recognized his work with of patients to the multitudes Upon arrival in Rockport, work as a pharmaceutical twenty-one nomination that make up their family Schell meets Bouchie, the and friends,” she says. “You blue package tucked under gave us access to the won- his arm, on the porch. In “You are an exponential gift, der that is human life and the living room, she pours a challenged us to discover round of lemonade. Near a from one man to eight future all the intricate parts work- bookshelf stands an orchid doctors to hundreds of ing together to make one from the memorial service. man.” Bouchie made sure every patients. You gave us access Buddy Ferreira, of Fal- family left with one. to the wonder that is human mouth, Massachusetts, says He tells Schell the stu- attending the service, four dents who worked on her life.”—Tanya Donahou (MED’12) floors above the anatomy mother were thrilled to meet lab, and meeting the stu- Schell. “They were really dents who worked on his magnetized by your mom salesman. To better under- letters for a Perkins Award, mother gave him closure. He and built a relationship stand his product, he ob- given annually to three was so moved that he plans with her. In a way, at the served cardiovascular outstanding nonfaculty to amend his donor card. memorial service, they were . “People were members of the BU com- “I was an organ donor meeting her through you.” passing away in front of me, munity. Not surprisingly, and now I’m going change Bouchie reminds Schell, and it didn’t bother me the he was selected. it,” he says. “I’m going to who has also decided to way it did other people,” he “He doesn’t need this donate my body here, no donate her body to BU, recalls. job,” says Mark Moss, a MED question. Witnessing the that her mother’s arteries A friend offered him an professor and chair of the students today and how had hardened from high apprenticeship at his funeral anatomy and neurobiology important this is to them — cholesterol and that she home, and Bouchie earned a department. “He could have that changed my mind.” should make sure to have degree in . another career, make a lot In fact, several times regular physicals. Then A casual conversation with more money as a funeral during the reception Schell brings Bouchie to the administrative director director. He does this for the after the service, Bouchie the foyer to look at a collage of during a body love of being here.” runs downstairs to fetch of photos of her mother, a pickup at Children’s Hos- Since taking over, Bou- paperwork for family mem- moment that plays out on pital Boston led to a job chie has made memorial bers who have decided to most deliveries. offer, and before he knew services an integral part of donate their bodies to BU. “This is closure for me, it, Bouchie was running the the gross anatomy course, The simple forms constitute too,” Bouchie tells Schell, hospital’s morgue, where inviting family members an agreement, not a binding at last handing over the he directed the . to attend and meet the contract. Ultimately, it is up blue package. “I’ve been At the same time, he began students who worked on to family members to follow with your mom, from the helping embalm anatomical their loved one. through with the wishes of moment she passed until donors at MED. In 2001, he “I always feel like I their loved one. this moment. Even though, was offered the position of want to do more for the Advertising for bodies, like you said, it’s a vessel, it anatomical gift coordinator families,” he says. “We pay of course, is a delicate is important for it to be in and anatomy laboratory for transportation and cre- proposition. It’s not like the right spot at the right manager. mation, but I want to do Bouchie can stake out time. Undamaged. That’s Since he’s signed on, more. I want these people nursing homes or make cold the most important thing donations, both financial to have closure. We need to calls. It’s mostly word of to me — that this box gets and physical, have gone help them out.” mouth. to you undamaged.” p

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