I rely on the internet quite a bit for my shopping. If I don’t have to physically leave the house to get it, I take full advantage of that opportunity. It can be especially revolutionary for medical purposes too. My husband has a chronic illness he gets at-home infusions for, and a medical courier routinely drops off medicine and supplies, which takes a huge burden off both of us. However, I may never place an order for anything or open one of those boxes again after hearing what one Kentucky woman unexpectedly received.
An unnamed woman went to open a box of what she believed to be medication only to discover it was actually a package of real human remains. Inside were several fingers and arms that were disembodied, on ice and neatly packaged. According to The Independent, she immediately called 911 to report her findings.
People shared a myriad of opinions on an NBC Nightly News report featured on YouTube, but one woman astutely pointed out the importance of such morbid packages.
“Cadaver parts are actually a critical part of the training that goes into teaching medical professionals life saving skills,” she wrote in the comments section of the report. “Surgeons and other medical professionals don’t train on dummies, they need anatomically correct training materials; the ‘body parts’ are such training materials, usually from deceased persons who agreed to donate parts of their body and/or organs prior to their death.”
In the US, roughly 20,000 people or their families in their honor donate their bodies to science for a variety of reasons. Donors can opt to be post-mortem organ donors, while others offer their bodies to be studied for medical training. Some donation programs that offer to return remains to the donors will even pay for cremation, so the act in and of itself could be a good option for a family struggling to cover funeral expenses.
Christian County Corner Scott Daniel traveled to the woman’s home and retrieved the two arms and four fingers and brought them to the local morgue.
Turns out, according to the New York Times, the package was meant to be delivered to someone for “surgical training” and was dropped off at the wrong address. Luckily, the woman was able to get her medications and medical supplies the following day.
From now on I will be proceeding with extreme caution when opening anything from a medical courier.
