(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An employee of the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois – an organization that facilitates families' donations of cadavers to medical schools -- says he was retaliated against in a gruesome way when he shared his concerns about the conditions of the bodies.
For five years, Dale Wheatley's job at the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois has been to transport cadavers to medical schools.
He says last month a medical school in Chicago complained that bodies had a "bug infestation," and he directed the school to contact his bosses at the not-for-profit.
The next day, he said, "There were three heads left on my desk."
The three heads were from cadavers, or “donors," as they're called.
Wheatley says he thinks the heads were placed there in retaliation for what he shared with the medical school, about how the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois mistreated the "donors."
"The cadavers were being under-embalmed. They were rotting. They were molding,” he said.
Wheatley talks about one case where he observed a cadaver body bag with holes in it.
"I didn't open the bag because there were also bugs flying out of the holes that the rats had chewed through," he said.
Wheatley says he has never been disciplined by the association and he simply wants conditions to improve.
He estimates as many as 40 donor-cadavers a year are wasted because of poor conditions at the association.
WBBM Newsradio has asked the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois and the state's Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for comment.
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