James Seishiro “Jim” Burns’ final act of gratitude for his beloved state was to be a “silent teacher” to dozens of medical school students and doctors learning about the human body.
The late Intermediate Court of Appeals chief judge and son of John A. Burns, Hawaii’s first Democratic governor, donated his body earlier this year to the University of Hawaii medical school named after his father.
“What I am very happy about is that he wanted his body to be used for education and science at the medical school. I was really happy to fulfill that wish,” his wife and former TV journalist Emme Tomimbang said in her first interview since his death in March. “In a very interesting way, he got to go home to his father’s medical school and be part of the whole purpose of it.”
About 150 cadavers, or “silent teachers,” are donated annually to the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine’s Willed Body Program, which aims to advance science in Hawaii and the Pacific region.
UH WILLED BODY PROGRAM
>> Anyone over the age of 18 can donate her or his body.
>> The program will pay for transportation of the body to the medical school and for cremation after students study the body.
>> The medical school usually keeps the body for less than a year before cremation.
>> For more information, call 692-1445 or click here.
In Burns’ case, his body was used to teach orthopedic surgeons new techniques, Tomimbang said. He died in March at age 79 after a long battle with throat cancer.
Burns was a strong supporter of the university, laboring on behalf of the athletics program, as well as helping to ensure funding and programs for the UH law and medical schools.
“A couple weeks after my husband died, he was teaching at the medical school. His cadaver was being used to help the orthopedic surgery classes,” Tomimbang said. “As I went through the process to deliver the body, I just realized how much he was so proud of what his father had done that he would even extend his wishes to be doing what he hopes a lot of people would be doing — supporting the medical school in their own way.”
Former TV newsman Kirk Matthews, who died in July 2016 after a bout with lung cancer, also donated his body to advance medical education.
“It was a load off our minds to be able to know that even after death Kirk would be able to continue to give,” said his wife, Linda Coble, also a former TV news anchor and reporter. “He had lung cancer, psoriasis, a salivary gland removed — a lot of things that were kind of interesting for students to explore. He knew that and he was proud.”
About an hour and a half after Matthews passed away, a mortuary transportation service that contracts with the school took his body to JABSOM, where it remained from July until November 2016, when his cremated remains were sent back to his wife.
“One of the most meaningful moments I had was at the annual memorial that JABSOM holds for those families who lost loved ones or who donated loved ones,” Coble said. “There were pictures all around the room of those who had donated their bodies, and there were students all dressed in white. They danced, they talked about the value of who they called ‘teachers.’ That just gave me chicken skin up one side and down the other to know my honey left and on the way out he was called a teacher.”
