Dead Man Is Too Fat For Science: Fair or Foul?

by mrosen814 Posted 2012/08/02 20:00:00

Related Topics: Health, Science, George Cardel, Weird News

797 votes
Read all 433 opinions
Lightning Report View Results and Demographics + View Demographics

Loading Demographics... Click an icon to see demographic results Display unknown and private
	Fair	306 votes	38%
	Foul	491 votes	62%

59-year-old George Cardel from Queens wanted to donate his body to science after he died. But a medical school crushed his final wish by not accepting his corpse, due to its... er... large size.

Even worse, "the 59-year-old man’s body wasn’t returned for 13 days — so badly decomposed it required cremation." Former New York City chief medical examiner Michael Baden said it’s not surprising that a medical school would turn down an obese corpse. Baden goes onto say, “an obese person would be harder to dissect because of the amount of fat tissue under the skin."

NYDAILYNEWS.COM reports:
George Cardel’s final wish died with him — doomed by his hefty 300-pound frame. The Queens mechanical engineer had hoped to donate his body to science, but that dream was dashed when a medical school rejected his corpse because of its girth, a $2 million lawsuit claims.

+23

Add a comment above

KeeganTheAwesome 2012/08/03 00:09:31 (edited)

Foul

+23

Shame on the school for keeping the body for so long without even trying to preserve it... and after rejecting it too! Most coroners don't keep bodies in their offices for that long without chilling them and replacing the blood with preservatives to keep the bacteria at bay. Heck, I even bet the U.S. prison system sends dead prisoners back to their families sooner than that, and with their bodies preserved too.

Shame on them, also, for (more than likely) disadvantaging students by not teaching them how to deal with fat bodies. Let's just hope every body that lands on these students' surgery/autopsy tables is thin as a twig, if the school isn't going to do anything about their curriculum's flaws.
>> See Replies

More polls by mrosen814

haaaaaa to elvira 2012/08/06 16:42:49

I don't think anyone is at that level. Wikipedia said their first class started last year, so presumably they wanted the body for gross anatomy, not for training surgeons,

reply
Riku Xander 2012/08/04 19:37:01

Foul

Why are we not studying obese people? These students are gonna come across obese people who are still alive.

reply
MOMMA THOMAS 2012/08/04 18:45:14 (edited)

Foul

+1
SHOULDN'T HIS "SITUATION" BE STUDIED AS WELL? (SINCE OBESITY HAS BECOME A NATIONAL PROBLEM...)

reply
D S 2012/08/04 18:01:45

Fair

+1
They make a living doing this. If doesn't suit them, I guess they would bee the one to make that call.

The fact that they didn't take care of his body is a shame.

reply
CatX3 2012/08/04 16:26:00

Foul

;-; And sad , in a way....

reply
mr echo 2012/08/04 16:17:06

Foul

+1
Stupid school
If you don't know how to dissect a fat man then learn
To f...ing lazy shieeeeet
Spoiled school

reply
OneLastWord 2012/08/04 16:05:39

Fair

He must’ve had a fat ego too, thinking anyone would want to cut on his fat-ass.

reply
TasselLady 2012/08/04 13:41:37

Foul

If anything it should be a deterrant for these people who eat constantly like Pac Man day in and day out. Maybe SEEING what major fat looks like might make them think twice about chowing on everything in sight.

reply
Jessi S 2012/08/04 13:01:24

Fair

+1
They should have preserved the body though.

reply
DDogbreath 2012/08/04 10:49:37

Fair

+3
They left out the most important factor in the story. How tall was he? If he was 6' 8" he wouldn't necessarily be very fat weighing 300. On the other hand if he was 4' 8" it would have been like handling a "blubber ball".

The USA is a free country isn't it?

Apparently not any more.

reply
FPSRules 2012/08/04 09:35:28

Foul

Well, if science won't take him the Democrats will take him as just another dead voter.
That way all is not lost.

reply
Forgina to FPSRules 2012/08/04 16:40:58

+3
This has nothing to do with politics. Stop trying to start a commotion. -.-

reply
Marianne 2012/08/04 08:07:02

Foul

+1
It is a shame to wait 13 days before returning a body. If a medical school cannot deal with a donated body, such a decision should be told at once, before any transportation, to the family of the donator, allowing appropriate conservation and decent burial.

Anyway, it is surprising that they do not deal more intensely with obesity, a too frequent problem nowadays.

reply
mirandafernandeztaylor 2012/08/04 07:30:35

Fair

+5
As messed up as it seems, medical students need healthy specimens to work with. As you may know, students use the same body for months, and it will be very hard to get into internal organs with so much body fat. Butchering the corpse would probably be likely, which would have unpleasant results for both the students and the soul of George Cardel. The man deserved a proper burial in my opinion, I feel like the delay was unprofessional. Maybe some viable organs could have been cut out to carry out his final wish.

reply
OneLast... to miranda... 2012/08/04 16:09:46

Yea, who wants a beached whale in their lab? Nasty to the Max.

reply
miranda... to OneLast... 2012/08/04 19:01:49

Okay that wasn't what I was getting at

reply
Sophia0... to OneLast... 2012/08/05 03:51:05

You're an idiot, do y'know that?

reply
OneLast... to Sophia0... 2012/08/05 14:15:08

You are to young and maybe to stupid calling people names here to recognize any idiots.

This is Sods Head and all comments are accepted, even the jokes which you don't seem to have enough intellect to recognize.

reply
Sodaz56 2012/08/04 07:19:42 (edited)

Foul

+1
You are GOING to have to figure out how different body shapes do things differently some time soon. If you are overweight or obese it's not like you can loose that weight overnight. It takes TIME. And surgery can fall anywhere between that TIME. And besides, if can't use the body send it BACK!!! Don't let it decay, people actually want to see their dead family member before they are locked in a wooden box forever. Pictures do not always help.

reply
dzzshadz 2012/08/04 06:41:10

Foul

+2
They should be doing research on fat people so as to learn more about obesity.

reply
OneLast... to dzzshadz 2012/08/04 16:11:47 (edited)

+1
Ha! funny, they already know about obesity, it's call "pigging down" food and "sitting on your ass" all the time !

reply
Sophia0... to OneLast... 2012/08/05 03:52:50

To be able to take care of the obese is what they meant, smartass. Besides, All I do is eat and sit on my days off and I'm only 110 lbs. It could be a metabolism problem, or a genetic one, you prick.

reply
miranda... to Sophia0... 2012/08/05 19:17:39

I think Airborne has a point! I mean, how can we take care of the obese if all that can essentially be done is lifestyle change. Clean diet and healthy amounts of physical activity. People who are significantly overweight can actually lose more weight A LOT quicker. They just need the drive, and they can't get that beyond the grave unfortunately.

reply
whimsycrat 2012/08/04 06:29:21

Foul

+1
I'm not a scientist or terribly knowledgeable in this area but it seems wrong, just from a scientific perspective. Obesity is a complex pathology that I don't think we fully understand yet, and it seems to me, at least, that studying this man might have contributed at least some small bit to our knowledge of the causes and effects of obesity.

And the fact that they had so little respect for the man's remains, not to mention his family is just plain wrong.

reply
Dan der Mensch 2012/08/04 05:01:22

Foul

There was just more of him to go around - what's the problem. I'm hoping Michael Moore can supply medical schools nationwide some day.

reply
Nilam 2012/08/04 04:32:06

Fair

thats pretty bad, lol

reply
nofrills 2012/08/04 03:53:41

Fair

+2
the scientists need healthy bodies to act as good specimen...humans are too unhealthy,fat,overweight,overfed and reeking of carsogens...too toxic for healthy display or to touch...

reply
Emily Keck to nofrills 2012/08/04 06:30:25

You know, some people can't help it. You act like fatties are nukes.

reply
whimsycrat to nofrills 2012/08/04 06:36:44 (edited)

+1
Think about it. You are not going to learn what happens in and to the brains of people who have Parkinson's Disease or MS if you only look at the brains of healthy people, people who don't have Parkinson's Disease or MS, e.g. And you're not going to learn much about lung cancer if you only examine the lungs of healthy people who don't have lung cancer.

reply
miranda... to whimsycrat 2012/08/04 07:32:23 (edited)

Good point, that's why I think certain organs could have been cut out for observation etc.

reply
nofrills to whimsycrat 2012/08/04 14:06:09

greed in leading us into demise econ.and morally...No one shove down food into windpipe! but YOU!

reply
Sophia0... to nofrills 2012/08/05 03:54:23

+1
Everyone, ignore this moron please. They obviously can't function mentally.

reply
nofrills to Sophia0... 2012/08/05 16:07:58

u ever so kind with your compli....ty...and pls shut the door when you leave BIG JACKASS!! not everyday one is expose to such stupidity!

reply
Sodaz56 to nofrills 2012/08/04 07:14:09

+2
Some people have diseases where they gain weight for no reason, and they cannot control it. Besides, you are acting like being overweight is worse that selling your children to pedophiles.

reply
miranda... to Sodaz56 2012/08/04 07:34:41

+1
No she isn't. She's pointing out that healthy bodies are needed for medical school observation. It isn't supposed to be a diss toward fat people. But certain organs of the man probably could have been used for study.

reply
nofrills to Sodaz56 2012/08/04 14:05:00

+1
Americans are the fattest ppl on the planet....that comes to blatant GREED and out of control!!!...NOW LETS US ACCEPT THE RESPON. AND DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM...or we wouldnt able to go nowhere in DENIAL!

reply
TheGnomeWhisperer 2012/08/04 03:40:09

Foul

+2
Fat people need to be studied, if the growing obesity statistics are correct.

reply
Rebecca 2012/08/04 02:26:38

Foul

+1
thats stupid. what ignorant ass holes. that man wanted to help others even after he passed and they threw it back in his face. -.-'

reply
nofrills to Rebecca 2012/08/04 03:54:43

better specimen...not toxic waste...

reply
Sophia0... to nofrills 2012/08/05 03:55:18

Most of us are toxic waste, so the better to study him.

reply