Brains, Livers And Lungs - Oh My! Students Learn The Harsh Reality Of How Drinking And Smoking Affect The Body

About 200 students received a graphic anatomy lesson, this week at the annual High Five Conference.

Brains, livers and lungs, preserved in formaldehyde and enclosed in plastic, sat on tables, where students could squeeze, heft and poke.

“You can pick them up. Just don’t poke them too hard, please. I’ve had some of these samples for 17 years,” said Greg Luck, supervisor of Deaconess Medical Center’s anatomic pathology department. “I’ve got to take them and put them back in the freezer for next time.”

The conference, held at the Spokane Valley United Methodist Church, also included exercises to show teenagers that it’s easier to make good decisions when their friends will back them up, as well as speakers who told of the consequences of drinking and driving.

Students who attended were invited on the strength or their participation in school High Five activities. Organizers hoped that they weren’t simply preaching to the choir.

“We hope we’re preaching to the leaders,” said Connie Tabo, counselor at Mountain View Middle School.

Luck spoke to seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders about the physical changes he sees in the organs of people who smoke or drink excessive alcohol.

“I’ve got a really dramatic liver series,” he said.

One liver, which Luck described as “my showstopper,” was nearly a sandy color, full of blotches or circles of tissue.

“This came from a man who was drinking five fifths of bourbon a day, at the end,” Luck told the students. “He couldn’t do that very long.

“All those circles are dead nodules of tissue. That’s basically a non-functioning liver.” The healthy liver, on the other hand, was large and heavy. The average liver is 3-1/2 to 4 pounds, Luck said.

The students seemed a bit overwhelmed. It’s hard to say if they were being respectful of their surroundings - a chapel - or if they were affected by the organs. Or both. One girl held her fingers delicately over her mouth as she looked at the lungs. Those who did poke the brains were, indeed, gentle.

One of the lungs, autopsied from a patient who was about 60 years old, was almost completely tumor. Luck said he’d never seen another lung so completely eaten with cancer.

“Whoever he was, he waited a long time before he came in for help.”

Luck admitted that he started smoking at 16. Five years ago, the girl with whom he sneaked those first cigarettes came to Deaconess with an inoperable tumor. That’s when Luck found the strength to stop.

“Nothing like a good scare to help you,” he said.

, DataTimes