Inside the Human Body. It's Complicated!

Did you know that each adult human body is estimated to have more than 46 miles of nerves and over 60,000 miles of blood vessels? Or that the brain alone has approximately 100 billion nerve cells? Or that just one foot is made up of 38 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments which all have to work in unison just to allow us to walk?

There’s no doubt about it, the human body is complex, perhaps the most complex machine on earth. This is why body donation is crucial to the practice of medicine. It is critical for surgeons to educate themselves and to be well practiced on all surgical procedures, both complicated and routine. Body donors help make this happen. They serve as teachers in medical school and serve as teachers for new or complex procedures for practiced surgeons. Every day, all over the world, there are surgeons perfecting their skills and training on new procedures using body donors.

Since 2000, Science Care donors have contributed to thousands of medical training projects impacting just about every area of the human body. Below are just a few of the types of procedures that Science Care donors have assisted with:

• Cochlear implants
• Neurological studies
• Lung Biopsies
• Heart stenting
• Minimally invasive hysterectomy
• Prostate removal surgery
• Rotator cuff repair
• Hand transplant surgery
• Treatment of spinal stenosis
• Hip arthroscopy
• ACL repair
• Training for live transplant recovery teams

Name any complicated surgical procedure and chances are, a body donor served as the first teacher. And it’s a good thing, because making a wrong move in surgery can result in an unsuccessful outcome, and nobody wants that.Join thousands of other people who have made a pledge to help advance medical research and training by registering for body donation. It’s a no cost program and your gift of donation may just help thousands of future patients achieve successful surgical outcomes.