Lab Intro: The early stages of anatomy were not riddled with great research.  Back at the start of researching, we couldn’t perform many safe researching procedures on humans, so we relied on different mediums to study.  Grey’s Anatomy was actually almost fully written and illustrated with the use of dead soldiers.  Many used rats, and other animals.  Without the use of MRI machines, and X-Rays, we relied on our dissection.

Dissection was the primary form of studying anatomy before we had tools that allowed us to study the living human body.  We would perform autopsies on the dead, and other dead animals.  This has been a very controversial form of study, regardless, it has brought us an amazing amount of knowledge of the human body.  The fact that we could not perform test on the living, we had many false understandings.  This lead to many false assumptions like the ‘fact’ that blood was stationary.  Although, through this method brought us almost all of our basic understandings of anatomy.

Orlans, F. (1998). The human use of animals case studies in ethical choice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gray, H. (1918, April 6). Anatomy of the Human Body. Retrieved September 8, 2014, from https://web.archive.org/web/20070316005206/http://www.bartleby.com/107/1.html

Method: To diagnose our patient, Grandma Tilly, we first needed to get a proper understanding of the human body, before we could start diagnosing one.  Since human cadavers are not the easiest thing to get, we used a pig for dissection because of how similar their anatomical structure is very similar to humans.  We first splayed the pig, and then we went into the thoracic cavity.  After exploring this area, we moved to the area of concern- the abdominal cavity.  In the abdominal cavity, we became familiar with the location certain organs in the abdominal cavity.  We found out what organ may have affected Grandma Tilly, and were then able to make a proper diagnosis.

Results: Because we knew where she was feeling the most pain, we went into that area of the body, and looked at what was around, and what could have possibly happened. In conclusion, we came to an understanding that Grandma Tilly had suffered from an organ failure.  We cannot perfectly tell which organ, but can give a general guess.  We have come to consensus that her spleen, or pancreas more than likely failed.

Conclusion: We have come the the idea that Grandma Tilly’s spleen, or pancreas more than likely failed.  Our primary reasoning for this is because of the area of where she had pains.  We also know that these organs fail relatively often, and when not removed, can have fatal consequences.