Just in Time for Halloween

We had our second Gross Anatomy written and practical tests today, and compared with all of the ghosts, goblins, witches, and gremlins that will soon surface on October 31st...I assure you these tests were much scarier!

The scariest part wasn't the tricky question on the written test, or the difficult structures pinned on the cadavers--it was the cadavers themselves!

In a practical gross anatomy exam, several rooms of cadaver tables are arranged and the students rotate at timed intervals signaled by a buzzer. You only get one look at each pinned structure, so it can sometimes feel like a race against time. I personally tend to make silly mistakes when I work too quickly, so I try to spend the entire time looking at the pinned structure and confirming the answer (ahem--or desperately trying to think up a good guess). I also try to get as close as the smell will allow to see the structure, which sometimes requires light yoga moves and headstands.

During one such maneuver, while I was hovering on three toes like a bad ballerina, I heard a faint beeping sound...

coming from the cadaver.

My first thought: Did they leave a digital watch on the cadaver's body? Surely they wouldn't. And the formaldehyde would ruin its electrical activity, right?

(Probably the whole "digital watch theory" wasn't the most intelligent, but hey--I was sleep deprived. Don't judge!)

My second thought: A bomb!?!? We're ALL gonna DIE!!!!!!

(Again I plead sleep deprivation.)

My third thought (and first lucid thought): Maybe the person had a pacemaker to keep his/her heart going during life and it's still beeping.

After searching around for the lead wires in the root of the neck and assuring myself that they were, indeed, lead wires for a pacemaker and not the wires for a bomb, I realized that I had run out of time at that station.

Minus 2 points, but case closed!