Last week, I got an invitation from the demonstrator of anatomy at our local medical school to attend the annual memorial service planned and delivered by the first-year students for the people who donated their bodies to the anatomy lab. I said sure, as it would be a really nice year-end closer for the story I did in June. I'll spare you the who-shot-John about how I got that story except that it involved a two-year legal fight over the federal medical-privacy act. Which we won.
But when I told the demonstrator (a very nice guy, for the record) that I wanted to bring a photographer to the service, the poopy hit the fan. The school's flak (also a very nice guy) fought for three days to get us in. The HIPAA office, however, said that because photographs of the dead people would be shown, allowing us into the service would be a violation of the law PLUS the families hadn't signed releases.
Mind you, the demonstrator of anatomy has told me repeatedly that he knows he needs to get more people to donate. Don't you think more people would if they understood how much care and honor are lavished upon these "first patients"? I do. So what's the big deal? In my view, it's payback for us beating them in court. Very childish, frankly.
On the other hand, it does mean that I can take Friday off after all. So, not a bad thing for me. A very bad thing, though, for the medical school.
No comments:
Post a Comment