I have just completed the fourth week of my autopsy rotation at UPMC Presbyterian and I honestly am not ready for it to end. I have established an appreciation for the autopsy process and have come to enjoy (I suppose that's not the best of words, but you'll understand in a second what I mean) going into work every day and seeing what the day has for us. Autopsy is more of a "big picture" view of the body systems and how a disease process can cause a cascade of events that ultimately lead to death. That is what I personally enjoy most about what I get to see and do in the morgue. Unlike the gross room, most of the time you only receive one organ or even just part of one. You aren't able to see how the specific pathology of the received specimen relates to or affects the rest of the body. Clinically, one will know the signs and symptoms, but you don't have that clear picture of all the organs and their gross picture. I know that may sound wrong or sadistic, but when you just see such a small part in the gross room, it really opens up your eyes to how the whole body is affected by a specific disease process when you see it in autopsy. It really demonstrates how important the autopsy process is and how seeing, knowing, and experiencing what particular things look like can help to prevent similar deaths occurring in the future.
From my four weeks, that is what I have gathered from my time so far, and I still have two more weeks left before I move on to my next rotation. Up to this point, I have been able to observe and/or partake in 15 autopsies. The causes of death have varied to include sepsis, lymphoma, congestive heart failure, drug overdose, and cancer cases. Each week, I have been allowed to do more and more during the process to include the external examination, evisceration (removal of the organs from the body), and prosection (dissection of the individual organs). The only part of the process I haven't done of a lot of myself, but have observed our pathology resident do, is the writing of the report and reading of the slides to determine a final cause of death. It is fulfilling to see the process from the beginning to the final diagnosis and to be able to see the slides and relate them to what was seen grossly. All in all, I have learned so much more than I thought possible with this rotation and I look forward to what my last two weeks has in store for me.
