heart

Yes people.  That is a human heart.  I know because I saw one today.  Not just saw one.  But saw one taken from someone's chest and then looked at it close up and opened up.

Today the new externs and old residents (us) were taken on a tour of the morgue.  My tour was cut short by a page to a death in the emergency room.  (truly dark humor says Steve) But a couple of us were invited back for an autopsy later in the afternoon.

No way.  Not me.  Not interested.  OK a little curious.  Maybe just for a minute.  I wobbled down there.   Sat across the hall looking through the doorway.  Clammy. Weak knee'd.  It was brutal.  Drippy.  I closed my eyes repeatedly.  But then the intestines were pulled out.  Miles of them!  Then the liver.  And kidneys.  The lungs.  Stomach.  The heart.  It looked just like this one. The big brain.  The tiny pituitary gland.  The optic nerve.  Wow!  Before I knew what was happening, I was standing right in the thick of things, peering in and around.

Horrible.  Amazing.  Gross.  Beautiful.  Sobering.  Awe Inspiring.  Wow.

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Ezekiel 11:19 

ps - Nathan, your inquisitive fortitude will be legendary.