Medical Student Fled In Tears After Realising Body In Anatomy Class Was Friend

A medical student fled an anatomy class in tears after realising the body they were about to dissect was his friend.

Enya Egbe and a group of medical students had gathered around three cadavers at Nigeria's University of Calabar; but after discovering that one of the bodies was that of his friend of seven years, Divine, Enya screamed and ran away.

Recounting the horrific experience seven years ago, the 26-year-old told the BBC: "We used to go clubbing together.

"There were two bullet holes on the right side of his chest."

Enya Egbe

Oyifo Ana - who was one of the many students who ran after Enya and found him weeping outside - said: "Most of the cadavers we used in school had bullets in them.

"I felt so bad when I realised that some of the people may not be real criminals."

Enya subsequently contacted Divine's family and learnt that they had contacted three different police stations in search of him after he and three friends were arrested by security agents on the way home from a night out.

The family were eventually able to reclaim his body, but the case highlighted a wider issue in Nigeria of police brutality and a law whereby 'unclaimed bodies' in government mortuaries are handed to medical schools.

Divine's family were able to get some of the officers involved in his killing sacked; and while this may not represent justice, it is more than many other families have managed.

PA

Enya meanwhile was left with lasting psychological damage as a result of the traumatic incident and took weeks off his studies, as he kept imaging Divine standing by the door of the anatomy room.

He ended up graduating a year later than his classmates, but eventually secured a job at a hospital lab.

Nigeria's association of anatomists is now lobbying for a change in the law that will ensure mortuaries obtain family consent and full historical records of bodies donated to schools.

Head of the association, Olugbenga Ayannuga, told the BBC: "There will be a lot of education and a lot of advocacy so people can see that if I donate my body, it will be for the good of the society."

Topics: World News, Medicine

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey