87歲老婦為科研“獻身” 遺體被切成27000塊薄片

很多人都不能接受遺體捐獻，但一名87歲的美國老婦不僅捐出了自己的遺體，還做出了一個大膽的決定。在老婦離世后，她的遺體在冷凍后被切成比頭發(fā)絲還纖細的27000塊薄片，每一片的生物信息都被記錄下來保存在數(shù)據(jù)庫中，成為不朽的“數(shù)字遺體”。

Vic Spitzer, director of the Center for Human Simulation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, examines Potter's frozen cadaver.

Credit: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic

Susan Potter knew before she died that she, or at least her body, would make history: Not only would hers be the first diseased cadaver (and one containing a titanium hip) to be frozen, sliced up and digitized for all to study, but she also came with a detailed backstory.

蘇珊·波特在去世前就知道了，她，更確切的說是她的身體，會創(chuàng)造歷史：她的遺體不僅將成為第一個被冷凍、切片并被數(shù)字化以用于研究的患病遺體(附帶一個鈦合金的髖部)，還會有一個詳細的背景解說。

That's because the Texas woman, when she proposed to doctors that her body be immortalized for medical students, thought she would die in the near future. She lived another 15 years, during which every bit of her life was documented.

這位來自美國德克薩斯州的老婦人，在自認為不久于人世時向醫(yī)生提議，讓她的身體在醫(yī)學(xué)研究中得到永生。在那以后她又活了15年，在這期間她生命中的點點滴滴都被記錄了下來。

Potter is the subject of a profile published as part of the upcoming January 2019 issue of National Geographic. The profile focuses on Potter, her personality and what drove her to become, as the author of the story called her, "an immortal corpse." And, unusually, Potter's personality will also be part of how future medical students encounter her corpse.

波特是《國家地理》雜志2019年1月刊人物特輯的主角，其中介紹了她的性格，及成為“不朽遺體”的歷程。而且，與以往不同的是，波特的性格也將成為今后的醫(yī)學(xué)生們對她遺體的研究的一部分。

The slicing-her-up-into-27,000-pieces bit is a purely practical project. Those pieces, each three times too thin for a human eye to detect its edge, have since been scanned into a computer, forming a kind of scrollable digital record of her body at the time of death.

將遺體切成27000片則是一個純粹出于實用目的的項目。那些即使放大三倍也無法用肉眼辨別邊緣的薄片被掃描到計算機中，構(gòu)成了波特死亡時可滾動的數(shù)字記錄。

A slice of Potter's skull was preserved in ice prior to scanning.

Credit: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic

It's now part of the Visible Human Project, an effort to create digital cadavers that students can dissect on their computer screens, over and over again. But unlike previous cadavers in the project, Potter's will come with video recordings of her in life, talking about her illnesses and the medical decisions that left their marks on her body.

這是“可視化人體項目”的一部分，這項計劃旨在創(chuàng)造“數(shù)字化遺體”，以便于醫(yī)學(xué)生們能夠通過電腦屏幕反復(fù)地進行細致研究。但是不同于項目中以往記錄的遺體，波特的記錄還附有她在世時的錄像，錄像中她談?wù)摿怂牟∏榧案鞣N醫(yī)療方案在她身上留下的“印記”。

cadaver[k?'dæv?]: n. [醫(yī)] 遺體;死尸

Potter wasn't the first person recorded into the Visible Human Project library, asNational Geographic reported. That accolade goes to Joseph Paul Jernigan, a 39-year-old man chosen because he died unnaturally, executed by the state of Texas. So his remains made for a good example of a healthy-seeming body, unusual among people in a position to donate their corpses to medical science. He was chopped into just 2,000 slices, each a millimeter thick, in 1993. A second, 59-year-old female, her name unknown, was chopped into 5,000 0.33-mm slices a year later, after she died of heart disease.

根據(jù)《國家地理》的報道，波特并非“可視化人體項目”中的第一人，這個稱號歸于約瑟夫·保羅·杰尼根，一位在得克薩斯州被處決的39歲男性。不同于那些捐獻給醫(yī)療研究的遺體，他是非自然死亡的，所以他的遺體是健康的人體樣本。該男子在1993年被切割成2000片1毫米厚度的薄片。第二位參加該項目的是一位59歲的不知名女性，在因心臟病去世后的一年，被切割成5000片0.33毫米厚的薄片。

accolade['æk?led]: n. 榮譽

National Geographic's story is about how Potter, who had been through "a double mastectomy, melanoma, spine surgery, diabetes, a hip replacement and ulcers," talked her way into being part of a second phase of the project, one its leaders weren't sure would even happen: the inclusion of a diseased body in the database.

《國家地理》中波特的故事講述了她如何挺過“雙乳切除手術(shù)、黑色素瘤、脊椎手術(shù)、糖尿病、髖關(guān)節(jié)置換手術(shù)及潰瘍病”，還有她如何成為項目第二階段的一員。項目的負責人原本并沒有想過把一具患病的遺體記錄到數(shù)據(jù)庫中。

Potter's body was encased in polyvinyl alcohol prior to freezing.

Credit: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic

Potter first approached the Visible Human Project about inclusion in 2000, National Geographic reported. She didn't think she had long to live.

《國家地理》報道說，波特在2000年第一次接觸到“可視化人體項目”，那時她覺得自己時日不多了。

But then she went on to live another 15 years, dying in 2015 at age 87. Over the course of that period, she became close with researchers on the project and medical students similar to those who will eventually study her digital cadaver. And Potter traded that closeness for an incredible level of access to the people and facility that would eventually dismember her body. She insisted on a "top to bottom" tour of the "meat locker" where the slicing and preserving would be done, according to National Geographic. That tour wouldn't have been for the faint of heart.

但在那之后，她又活了15年，在2015年以87歲高齡去世。在這段時間中，她與這個項目的研究人員和醫(yī)學(xué)生們有了密切的接觸，這種“親密關(guān)系”使她接觸到了那些一般人無法接觸到的、也是最后將她變成薄片的人和設(shè)備。波特還堅持到進行遺體切片和保存的遺體冷藏室進行了一次完整的“深度游”。這可不是心理脆弱的人能做到的。

Two graduating medical students kissed Potter on the cheek in May 2009.

Credit: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic

After her death of pneumonia on February 15, 2015, doctors recovered her body from the hospice where she died and placed it into a freezer that dipped to minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius).

2015年2月15日在波特因肺炎去世后，研究人員從臨終關(guān)懷醫(yī)院獲取她的遺體，將它放入零下26攝氏度的冰柜中。

hospice['hɑsp?s]: n. 臨終關(guān)懷醫(yī)院

They would have had to work fast; Potter carried a card at all times notifying whoever found her body that they had just four hours to get it frozen for the preservation to work. Potter remained in that freezer for two years. Then came the laborious work of cutting and imaging the slices. The first step involved a "two-person crosscut saw" to divide her 5' 1" (155 centimeter) frame into quarters. Then a precision cutter further reduce those quarters to individual slices for imaging.

他們必須要動作迅速，波特一直隨身帶著小卡片，上面清楚告知任何人在拿到遺體的四小時內(nèi)務(wù)必要將它冷凍保存好。波特在冰柜里呆了兩年，接下來就是艱巨的切片及成像工作。第一步要使用一種“雙人橫切鋸”將1米55的她分割成塊，接著再進一步將這些尸塊切割成薄片用于掃描成像。

Spitzer works on cutting Potter's cadaver into quarters.

Credit: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic

You can read the full article on Potter, her life and her cadaver here, as part of National Geographic's January 2019 special single topic issue, The Future of Medicine.

在《國家地理》2019年1月刊特輯《醫(yī)學(xué)的未來》中，你能夠讀到關(guān)于波特的人生和她的遺體的完整文章。