By Julie Erdmann
Seeing dead people in the movie, 'The Sixth Sense,' may have frightened Haley Joel Osment, but for students who use the BYU Anatomy Lab, it''s just another part of class.
Students studying everything from nursing to business find themselves in the Widtsoe Building learning about muscles, nerves, veins and arteries by looking at them firsthand. For some students, seeing cadavers for the first time can be a startling experience.
Garrett Welch, a senior majoring in exercise science, works as a teaching assistant in the anatomy lab. He said some precautions are taken to help ease students into working with cadavers.
'We try to keep it impersonal,' Welch said. 'We try not to give them too much at once. We''ll just uncover a foot or a lower limb for the first day. We''ve seen a few white faces, and a few people faint every year.'
Matt Swan, a sophomore majoring in history, did not faint on his first day, but he admitted to being caught off guard.
'My first reaction was shock, quite honestly,' Swan said. 'It was quite a surprise. But I was also surprised at how quickly I became kind of desensitized to it. Now it''s pretty normal.'
Swan said the grossest part of working in the lab is learning the muscles on the face.
'They become a lot more real,' Swan said. 'It''s not just a body with just body parts. It''s a person.'
Swan is using the class to decide whether to pursue a career in medicine, but said what he is learning in anatomy is useful even if he doesn''t decide to go on to medical school.
Dallas Krommenhoek, a junior majoring in exercise science, also works as a teaching assistant and said it''s exciting to learn what goes on inside the body.
'It''s just a good time,' Krommenhoek said. 'Once you realize how amazingly designed your body is, you''re so grateful for it.'
The lab uses seven cadavers to teach students about the systems in the body. The cadavers are people who donated their entire bodies to science.
The bodies are prepared for study at the University of Utah, and then purchased by BYU. The lab will use a body for about two years, or as long as it lasts. Afterwards, the body is usually cremated and the remains are returned to the family.