We didn't completely remove her head; the viscera of her neck (fascia, larynx, esophagus, etc) were still intact. In essence, we created a Nearly Headless Nick (or Nicolette, if you will, since our cadaver is a female).

It was pretty disturbing. You have to cut out large chunks of the skull, chisel through the articulations of the first two cervical vertebrae, and use a scalpel to cut through a lot of muscle and fascia. And I couldn't help but thinking, "When this woman donated her body, did she know how many gruesome things we'd be doing to it?"

We've removed an entire leg. We've cracked her rib cage, pulled out all her internal organs and cut them open. We've hemisected her pelvis. We'll be hemisecting her jaw and face next. And yet, without being able to do all those things, we'd lack much of the knowledge that becomes important as a physician. Virtual dissections only do so much. Knowledge of anatomy is essential in basically all fields of medicine.

After every anatomy lab, I come away with even more gratitude to the 84 year old woman who was selfless enough to make the decision to donate her body to medical students.