
A number of students and a professor are in trouble after being caught taking a selfie with two severed heads during dental training, according to a report.
Dental school grad students and a professor at the University of Connecticut took a selfie with two severed heads used for medical research, according to an Associated Press report. The heads were intended for use during a training workshop at Yale University in 2017, and the students were able to get the selfies during the DePuy Synthes Future Leaders Workshop.
In a photo described by the AP, UConn Health orthodontics direcotr and visiting Yale professor Dr. Flavio Uribe is looking at the camera along with several grad students while others are working. They are all wearing surgical masks, and two severed heads can be seen on the tables.
While Uribe told the AP that he didn’t realize the severed heads were in the background, Yale said through a spokesperson that the laboratory has signs banning photography. Medical students train with dead bodies all the time, and occasionally people have been caught taking inappropriate selfies.
“Somebody unfortunately took a photo,” Uribe said. “It was so quick. I wasn’t sure of the surroundings or scenery at that point.”
Uribe noted he had never been disciplined before by the university, according to the report.
Training with dead bodies is almost a rite of passage in the medical community, although there is a movement toward synthetic cadavers, like for exampled the $95,000 SynDaver Patient. This cadaver can actually be remote controlled to simulate various emergencies, like heart attacks. Still, they are unlikely to replace real dead bodies anytime soon.
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