Nov. 9 will be a date that forever changed the lives of many high school students. Bio II teacher Taryn Furmato introduced the idea of watching a live autopsy to many of her students. Some were excited to see a human autopsy, but others were uncomfortable and could not imagine watching a human being dissected.

“Determining the cause of death was very interesting,” senior Morgan Hughes said. “I do not regret watching it but some of the parts were gross.”

Many of the students were wondered–why we were even offered to watch a live autopsy? What is the purpose of this video and why did Hillsborough High School students watch it?

“I wanted my students to see the overall view of the human body,” Furmato said. “We are learning about the human body and I wanted to show my students the real insides of the human body.”

Furmato contacted a company called Cosi (Center of Science and Industry) and they performed the live procedure. Before the autopsy started, the attending students received a packet containing the case history, the autopsy procedure, the external and internal examination, and the organ measurements.

The autopsy subject was a 60-year old, Caucasian male who was an occasional smoker and someone treated for high blood pressure. Other than that he did not have any other previous medical problems.

Before the autopsy began, the narrator of the video told the audience to take a guess on how this man came to his unfortunate fate. Many believed a heart attack due to his age and his smoking habit.

“I believed that the man died from cardiac arrest,” senior Alex Chedid said. “His symptoms at death all pointed toward a heart attack.”

The students of HHS made some very interesting predictions but they would not know the real reason until the autopsy was complete.

Then, the first cut was made. The organs spilled out and the students’ ghost-like faces were ubiquitous. Throughout the dissection, the pathologist took each organ and sliced them up to see the insides for possible infections, enlargements, and reactions.

“I did not know that organs were solid masses,” senior Mike Irwin said. “I always thought that organs were hollow due to the diagrams we received in school.”

During the dissection of the heart, the narrator suddenly stopped to look closely. In the heart, the students observed a small white mass in the heart. He explained that this white mass was a sign of a heart attack. However, the hypothesis is that the heart attack was previous and did not kill him.

So what did kill this man?

The final organ to be removed was the brain. When the pathologist started to slice the brain like bread, a large purple hemorrhage became noticeable. A hemorrhage was a sign of a stroke and the narrator explained that this was large enough to kill the man.

The final cause of death was not conclusive but the students of HHS believe it was a stroke.

Despite the exposure to some uncomfortable visuals, Furmato’s students left that day’s class with an experience no textbook can offer,