A former student in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences has filed a complaint with the school’s accrediting body alleging that they violated at least 26 accreditation standards, the worst of which include using a rotting cadaver in an anatomy class.
Brad Honigman, who graduated from GW as an undergraduate in 2006, filed the complaint after learning that the Liaison Committee on Medical Education had placed the school on a two-year probation this October for failing to meet standards. The LCME recently approved a plan submitted by the school to correct the problems cited in the probation.
SMHS has maintained that the probation was the result of problems with curriculum management, administrative paperwork and study and lounge space. They have refused, however, to release the LCME report.
In an 18-page complaint, Honigman cited a variety of issues including fire code violations, an improperly preserved cadaver, curriculum problems and insufficient lounge space, which he said he previously brought to the school’s attention. He also alleges that some professors violate LCME policy by refusing to let students challenge or view exams they have taken and that many classes release grades much later than the LCME’s recommendation.
Honigman said he met with SMHS Dean James Scott and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Rhonda Goldberg while he was still a student to report the problems.
“Nothing in this complaint should be a surprise to them,” Honigman said. “Clearly they knew they were in violation and I think they could have avoided probation.”
Honigman, 24, was accepted to the medical school in his undergraduate sophomore year through an early selection program and completed one year of medical school. Honigman said he withdrew last month after waiting since June for the school to review a pending disciplinary case against him that stemmed from a conflict he had with a professor, which he included in his complaint.
Medical school spokeswoman Deborah Hudson declined to comment on Honigman, the complaint or any of the issues he raised.
“We do not comment on any matters relating to individual students,” Hudson said.
Scott and Goldberg also declined to comment through Hudson.
But the school will likely have to answer questions from the LCME. Dan Hunt, senior director of accreditation standards for the LCME, said that the body had received the complaint and will process it under their standard procedure. Hunt was traveling on business and said he was unable to comment on the complaint directly.
While some of Honigman’s complaints relate to issues that the LCME cited in their probation, many others are regarding issues not previously addressed.
One particular allegation stems from when Honigman said he and three other students were given an improperly preserved cadaver to practice on in gross anatomy. Honigman said the cadaver, a corpse used for dissection, had all the signs of being improperly preserved, including “mold, decaying feet, blood and abnormal color and odor” as early as the second week of class.
“I was afraid to work with it,” Honigman said. “But even after our professor and the curator agreed that it was improperly preserved, the University said it was too expensive to change the body and that we should continue working on the upper body, which had not decayed as badly.”
Honigman said he contracted a bacterial infection that semester which kept him from attending class for two weeks. He said that a doctor told him it was likely he had contracted the illness from working with the decaying cadaver.
“Whether I got the infection from the body or not, it’s still disturbing to me that the school refused to replace it for our group,” Honigman said.
Honigman said that the LCME has contacted him for the release form to notify the University of his complaint, which he mailed on Tuesday.
In the complaint, Honigman wrote he is considering legal action against the school. He also wrote that he has “supporting documentation, including course materials, electronic communications, personal logs and a tape recording” to corroborate his complaint.
Other allegations include that a classroom used in Ross Hall exceeded fire code capacity and that a professor assigned to mentor him made comments about his Jewish religion and ignored him for the remainder of the year.
“My personal experience at GWU SMHS was characterized largely by mistreatment (and often times abuse) by members of the faculty and administration,” Honigman wrote. “I have never before in my life been subjected to the threats, discrimination, and dishonesty that I endured over the past 17 months.”
