Anatomy of a Donation

Dr. Gail Feinberg doesn’t have to worry about finding skeletons in the closet when visiting her alma mater. They’re in plain view.

Gail and her husband, Dr. Howard L. Feinberg, met as students at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific and graduated in 1984. They decided to give back to COMP with a donation that helped the college purchase anatomy skeletons, which will be used by students while dissecting and studying in the lab.

Gail, who is the director of medical education and residency program director at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland, Ky., recently visited COMP, now part of Western University of Health Sciences, and spent quality time with the skeletons along with current faculty and administrators.

The skeletons look wonderful, Feinberg said. They wanted their donation to go toward an entity you could see, she said.

“Here is a need, let me meet the need as opposed to going to something vague,” she said.

The new skeletons were sorely needed, said Niña McCoy, director of WesternU’s Willed Body Program.

“Thank you so very much,” McCoy told Feinberg. “I’ve been looking at these (old) skeletons with a broken heart. I’m so glad we have new teachers here thanks to you.”

The skeletons will help teach students about how different parts of the body move and function, McCoy said. The older skeletons are showing their age. Many are missing limbs, jaws or heads.

“The skeletons that we had before the donation were in very bad shape,” said Dr. Craig Kuehn, COMP professor of anatomy.

Feinberg said she didn’t appreciate her medical school experience until after she graduated. Once she started working with graduates from other schools, she realized COMP students were better educated than some of their peers.

“We really realize we hadn’t appreciated what we’ve been given until we saw it years later,” she said. “You don’t realize how much you enjoyed it until you’re done, until you look back afterwards.”