Turn a Loss to a Gift: The Final Wishes of Silent Mentors

Background: Birth, aging, illness and eventually death are the natural events in the life. As our body is not permanent, we can do something meaningful even after death, such as donating body as a Silent Mentor. This concept was initiated by Dharma Master Cheng Yen from Taiwan at Tzu Chi University in 2002. University of Malaya started this program in 2012 with intention to provide surgical skill training and cultivate humanistic values. In each workshop, 4 to 6 Silent Mentors are initiated and ten medical students are assigned to one mentor. The program includes receiving the Silent Mentor within six hours of death and placing into deep freezer, performing home visits to the relatives to know the life story, medical illness, verbal or written final wish of the donors and their expectation on medical students, preparing their own mentors before, during, and after each workshop, presentation about their mentors before workshop and at gratitude ceremony and sending off their beloved mentors by medical students and relatives after gratitude ceremony. The students have the opportunity to learn anatomy and basic surgical skill on their mentors over three evenings, and also opportunity to take care of their mentors with utmost respect during the program. Until to date, we conducted 21 workshop sessions. Over 800 medical students from local and oversea universities have been trained by volunteer trainers. Within six years, many pledgers with great love have signed up to donate their bodies for medical education and research in this holistic approach. Aim: (1) To study the characteristics of donors for Silent Mentor program. (2) To describe their final wishes and expectation on medical education, training and research. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the demographics, social characteristics and final wishes of donors who had contributed to the Silent Mentors Program of University Malaya, based on information derived from their registration data and home visits. Results: From March 23, 2012 until March 28, 2018, 1174 individuals have signed up for this program, and 84 had already served as Silent Mentors. Most died due to cancer. Among them, 42 were men and 42 were women. Sixty were Buddhists, 13 Christian, 4 Catholic, 2 Hindu, 3 Taoism and 2 from other religion. Their final wishes expressed that medical students and doctors are able to learn procedures from their donated body to become skillful doctors to help suffering patients in future. They also wished that students may become caring doctors and will contribute to the medical field regardless of monetary benefits. They hoped that medical students develop the heart and soul of a holistic doctor. Conclusion: Silent Mentor program offers a different approach in medical education and research. There was no gender difference among the donors. Most of selfless Silent Mentors wished that they can help to train students to become not only competent, but also empathic and compassionate doctors.