Erector Forensics

When I feel thick cables between the shoulder blades of an uptight client, I am reminded of Bodyworlds, the forensic anatomy exhibition in which real folks were presented, in living color, plasticized and preserved for inspection.

When the show was in Los Angeles, I figured it would be a bit gruesome, but I was eager to go. I am an admitted anatomy hag, and the nice thing about plasticized cadavers is that they do not smell.

Bodyworlds opened the eyes in my fingertips, so to speak. For the first time I saw what I was touching in my overtaxed, under-rested clients,

With two therapist friends as eager to as I, we spent about four hours going over the arthritic hip implants, craggy knees, studying the kyphotic chess-player. Far too fascinated to be creeped out, I found one thing lacking: How many whiplashes had these people had? Any gymnasts? What about their pertinent body histories?

Deductions as to their history were confined to who would possibly donate their body for exhibition. The exhibits were probably people of Asian race, as the laboratory and study center was in China. The donors could easily be medical or university instructors or perhaps those who spent more than a few hours in front of books and computers, at least from what I could see of their erectors.

What I saw, interestingly, were peaks and ridges of mountainous fascia poking upright. The upper traps shortened, twisted and plumped in effort, the lower traps expansive and worn flat. In the bodies where the traps had been removed, the erectors popped up like mountain peaks – not at the exact attachments as I expected, but a bit over in the lamina groove. Just like many of my computer-bound clients, I noted. Ah, I thought, these were the look of those pesky bundles of stuck bits.

Fun as the grown-ups were, I skipped the fetus-baby stuff as too gross. By the time I arrived at the last room the man on the plasticized horse holding his brain got me to chuckle. I signed up to be a potential donor. Before we left I wrote a long note in the comment book about how I wanted a body history to go with the exhibits. Nothing to upset the family, of course, just to know how much of these cadaver’s road mileage was inflicted by work, sports or calamities.

Bodyworlds will come back on tour now and then, and they have a book and DVD. I look forward to some more new plasticized bodies, and the DVD and book are especially helpful. The LA show was so popular the museum stayed open 24 hours on its last night. Lots of people, including me, had gone back for second and third visits.

In all, nothing beats seeing a real longissimus bearing down on C-7 looking like a Swedish fjord on fire. Perhaps the next round will include a little body biography – something like “Our donor was a computer-user, avid golfer and carried a heavy briefcase….”