Nurturing Quality Local Medical Practitioners

Have you ever visited a doctor and received a wrong diagnosis? If not, then have you ever heard of someone who had a medical operation that went wrong in the sense that the doctor accidentally cut or damaged a particular structure of the body?

All these manifestations are partly attributable to the poor solid knowledge of the anatomy of a human body which was supposed to be taught well in the beginning years of medical school.

In my opinion, the best way Namibia could nurture local top class medical practitioners-to-be is through giving medical students the opportunity to dissect human cadavers – as is the status quo at the University of Namibia – but the future doesn’t look promising in terms of supply. I must say we are privileged to work real human tissue as not many medical schools have the chance to do so. This year, the University of Namibia really struggled to obtain cadavers with many of them only arriving a few days prior to the start of dissecting classes for the first -year medical students.

The biggest problem lies in the procurement of cadavers. Currently we only have two procurement options – either we get bodies from other South African universities like Stellenbosch and Wits or we source them locally from our mortuaries. It is quite saddening that the latter option has been less explored. Ever since the establishment of our very own local medical school, there has never been a cadaver of Namibian origin. Isn’t it quite ironic that we are reliant on another country for dead bodies when our mortuaries overflow with large numbers of unclaimed ones?

Even though the Namibian government has now adopted a law to allow the use of human tissue for academic purpose, more has to be done to avoid the problems that come along with importing cadavers. Problems such as the financial costs incurred and required paperwork needed to obtain bodies from abroad greatly affect Namibia. Well, if South Africa is able to meet the supplies of their own universities and those abroad, why can’t we follow suit?

The only opportunity we have as source of domestic cadavers is through donations where anyone willing to sacrifice their body after death to the betterment of medical students’ understanding of the human body signs a consent form. Even with such procedures in place, our potent cultural beliefs and myths pertaining to the use human tissue greatly draw us back. In my opinion, the government should allow the unclaimed bodies that populate our mortuaries to be used for academic purposes.

There has become a growing trend of families being quick to claim death certificates of their deceased relatives in an attempt to claim large sums of money from the funeral cover organisations. In doing so, they get carried away by the money, leaving the dead body in the mortuary unclaimed. The university has no chance of obtaining the body because they are not in possession of the death certificate.

In essence, I would like to encourage the nation to donate their bodies because it is through these sacrifices that medical students get the required hands-on expertise to prepare for the day when the fate of their patients lies between life and the grave.

Body donor consent forms can be obtained at the University of Namibia Hage Geingob Health Sciences Campus in Windhoek or alternatively contact mduplessis@unam.na for more information.

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