Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS Exhibitions Welcome Specimens From World's First Living Body Donor for Pl...( LOS ANGELES June 10 /- For 35 yea...),Health

LOS ANGELES, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- For 35 year old Mark Rohner of London, Ohio, the amputation of his right leg due to bone cancer reads like the plot point in a medical drama. During the operation in 2006, the saw the chief surgeon was using to detach Rohner's limb from his knee, broke while cutting into the bone. Like in the best medical dramas, the hospital had to send a persuasive emissary to a neighboring hospital for a replacement saw to complete the job.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080610/AQTU514)

Now fitted with a prosthetic leg, Rohner, a soft-spoken pathology technician has become a celebrity in an iconic world-renowned series of anatomical exhibitions. He is the first living body donor in Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS, the public anatomical exhibitions of donor bodies that have been touring the United States since 2004.

As a medical professional who routinely dissects amputated limbs and excises tumors and other pathologies for analysis, Rohner was familiar with the disposal of surgically removed limbs. "They are either given back to individuals for burial, cremation, or other rituals, or disposed as medical waste," said Rohner. "After I came to terms with the prospect of losing my leg, I decided that I'd rather make it useful for medical scholarship than have it disposed of, as medical waste." Rohner's cancer is a rare disease for a man of his age and ethnicity and he wanted his condition to be an educational resource for future doctors. Familiar with the work of anatomist, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, Rohner contacted the North American Body Donation Program of the Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination, the organizers of Gunther von Hagens BODY WORLDS exhibitions.

After the amputation, Rohner's severed limb was flown to the Institute for Plastination's laboratory in Germany. There, Dr. von Hagens found that the tumor
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