Cadavers 'give' heartfelt lessons

In their shoes: Minah says the workshop has made them more empathetic towards patients and their caretakers.

MEDICAL students taking part in the fifth Silent Mentor workshop are now a few steps closer towards becoming empathetic doctors.

Twenty students from Universiti Malaya (UM) and eight students from Taylor’s University attended the workshop at the Medical Faculty in UM.

Besides the students, 40 specialists joined them for two other workshops with Silent Mentor Debbie Lim Mong Hoay, 44, and a male Silent Mentor, whose family requested anonymity.

Silent Mentor is the term given to the bodies of terminally ill patients who donated their bodies for medical training after their deaths.

The Silent Mentor programme, announced by UM in March 2012, is based on the Taiwanese Tzu Chi University’s programme of the same name. The first Silent Mentor workshop in the country was held in May 2012.

Both Lim and the other donor were diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the smooth muscle.

Lim passed away in April last year and is survived by a husband and two children.

Learning from the heart

Minah Faiz, 22, a fourth year medical student at Taylor’s University, said the most important thing he learnt was caring for the patient’s family members.

“Healing is not treating the disease but helping the family to cope,” said Minah of the three-day workshop.

The student from Maldives described the process of interviewing the Silent Mentors’ families and the presentation they had to give as “overwhelming”.

“We went through the grieving process with the family and cried with them when we made our presentation. This will make us more caring and empathetic towards patients and their caretakers as it puts us in their shoes,” he said.

Kuantan-born Denise Leom, 21, said the workshop also gave lessons on empathy through home visits to interview the families of the Silent Mentors.

Denise and her teammates visited Lim’s family about a month before the workshop and was taken in by the family’s warmth as they shared stories of Lim’s life.

“Tony (Lim’s husband) was especially nice because he even told us his love story and read us the will that his wife left. It made us cry,” she said.

She added that she was touched by a video message left by Lim for the doctors. In the video recorded before her death, Lim gave a heartfelt message reminding the doctors to make full use of the opportunity accorded to them and said she was glad to help them in their journey.

“I wondered how this person, whom we never met, was willing to ‘contribute’ her body to us. We will never forget her and we will definitely be better doctors with what we have learnt,” said Denise.

UM medical student Tan Jiun Yan, 22, regretted that he was unable to join the home visit to interview the Silent Mentor’s family.

“Reading about him from testimonials is not enough. Most people think that medical students are too busy to have fun but our lives are spiritually fulfilling. We appreciate life more, as we see the life cycle daily,” said Jiun Yan.

Practice makes perfect

Students were not the only ones benefiting from the workshop.

Anesthesiologist Dr Muralitharan Perumal was thankful as it was very hard to acquire cadavers for training in pain medicine.

Dr Muralitharan, who is also Malaysia Society for Interventional Pain Practitioners (MSIPP) president, said the field of pain medicine was new in the country and training was often done overseas.

“Sending a dozen doctors for training can be expensive.

“Through the Silent Mentor workshops, we can train specialists locally and they in turn can train other doctors,” he said.

When asked whether it was possible for doctors to practice on patients, Dr Muralitharan said it was possible but a doctor could only do so a few times before it got uncomfortable for the patient.

“With Silent Mentors, doctors can practice inserting needles until they are proficient.

“They can learn from mistakes on cadavers so they do not harm the patients when they practice,” he said.

The workshop ended with a gratitude ceremony where student representatives gave a presentation remembering the lives of the Silent Mentors through interviews with their families.

Their bodies were later taken to the Xiao En Memorial Park in Nilai for cremation.

UM and Taylor’s University recently signed a memorandum of understanding whereby the Silent Mentor programme will be incorporated into the medical school curriculum at Taylor’s University.

UM’s Minimally Invasive Laparo-Endoscopic Surgery training centre manager Sia Thiam Eng said there have been 400 pledges from members of the public to donate their bodies to the programme.

For more information, visit www.silentmentor.org.