HOSPITALITY NICHE: Medical professionals examine a cadaver in an event room in November at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts convention center in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. REUTERS/Elizabeth Culliford
The Body Trade by Elizabeth Culliford | Reuters
Big names in hospitality, from Disney to Hilton and Hyatt, have a little-known sideline: They rent space to physicians who train on cadavers and body parts. There is scant regulation, and some public-health specialists warn of biosafety risks.
Inside, as doctors practiced on three cadavers, blood from one of the human specimens seeped through a layer of wrapping.
“They leak,” a lab technician said of the bodies.
The sessions, held last month and attended by a Reuters reporter, weren’t at a hospital or medical school. They were part of a so-called cadaver lab – and the setting was a Florida resort. It was one of scores of such events over the past six years that have been held at a hotel or its convention center.
In this case, doctors practiced nerve root blocks and other procedures on cadavers in one of the Grand Harbor ballroom’s salons at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts convention center. Online, Disney refers to its bal...
