Bertha Yolanda Jordan looks at human models Monday at the Paul L. Foster Texas Tech Medical School, where she'll donate her body to be studied by medical students. (Photos by MARK LAMBIE EL PASO TIMES)

Dr. Thomas Gest has devoted his life to teaching medical students.

And in his death, he will continue to teach them.

Gest, a professor of anatomy in the Department of Medical Education at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, has willed his body to the Willed Body Program at the school.

That means Gest is donating his body to science and his students.

"My intention is to continue teaching even after I have passed," Gest said Monday morning. "Teaching is what I do and that's what I would like to do one last time."

The medical school is now enrolling new donors to be used for high-level anatomical instruction to future physicians.

"The donors are really their teachers," Gest said. "We can teach them how; but we can't teach them as well as the donors. They are their textbook and their teacher. This is a human scale where you can see the actual size of a kidney. We want physicians to know the real size of the organs in their patient's bodies and the best way to do that is working with real human beings. (Cadavers) are a great learning tool."

The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is using about 30 cadavers from Texas Tech in Lubbock in its residency programs, emergency medicine, surgery and orthopedic surgery classes.

"We are giving it a five-year window (to be self sufficient)," said Heather Balsiger, anatomy lab and Willed Body Program manager. "We are still going to have to depend on cadavers from Lubbock for now."

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Paul L. Foster School of Medicine needs cadavers for high-level classes