Body of Knowledge: One Semester of Gross Anatomy, the Gateway to Becoming a Doctor

(Paperback)

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Medical Gross and Developmental Anatomy is the course every medical student dreads. As one aspiring physician described it to journalist-author Steve Giegerich, "it's the bridge you have to cross if you want to become a doctor." Four lab partners facing that notoriously difficult course at Newark's University of Medicine and Dentistry are Sherry Ikalowych, a former nurse and mother of four; Jennifer Hannum, an ultracompetitive jock; Udele Tagoe, a determined Duke graduate of Ghanian descent; and Ivan Gonzalez, a Nicaraguan refugee and unlikely medical student. This lively chronicle of each of their ambitions, failures, and successes has at its center Tom Lewis, the cadaver lying before them to be dissected. From their first face-to-face encounter with Lewis as an anonymous cadaver on the stainless steel table to a rich reverence for Lewis's generous donation of his body to science, what they each learn about medicine, compassion, life, and death makes for a fascinating insiders' account of the shaping of a medical professional.

Reviews

American Way magazine Appalling, funny, sobering and deeply moving, the story is a vivid reminder that we all are destined to a common fate, but our good works need not end in death. Publishers Weekly Sensitive, provocative...essential reading for anyone considering a career in medicine. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Compelling...packed with details about the process of medical education as well as the ordeals physicians undergo in training. David A. Kornhauser, D.O. family practice physician, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Body of Knowledge reminds us that with all of the technological advances medicine has made, medicine's foundation is based on the philosophical and a deep understanding of the human body.

Author Bio

Steve Giegerich is a journalist and a member of the adjunct faculty at the Columbia University School of Journalism. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1998, he resides in Locust, New Jersey.