Yale Students, UConn Professor Reportedly Took a Selfie With Severed Heads

Flavio A. Uribe in a photo from the University of Connecticut’s faculty directory. (Image: University of Connecticut)

In this-was-never-going-to-turn-out-well news, Yale Dental School graduate students and a University of Connecticut professor took a selfie with severed heads designated used for medical research according to multiple reports.

The Associated Press first reported the story yesterday, detailing activities that took place during a workshop in 2017 at Yale which was centered on dental-related facial deformities.

The Guardian reported that Dr. Flavio Uribe, an assistant professor and orthodontics program director at the University of Connecticut, was in the photo.

The AP confirmed it had obtained a copy of the photo from a person who received it through a private group chat. It was submitted anonymously over fear that exposure could lead to the person being expelled.

Yale officials are obviously not too happy about the report, calling the action “disturbing” and “inexcusable.”

From the AP’s report:

In the photo, Uribe and several graduate students are looking at the camera, while others continue to work. All are wearing surgical masks. The two severed heads are on tables, face up.

Uribe told the AP that he was teaching students how to place screws in the cadaver heads. At one point, he said, someone took a photo.

“Somebody unfortunately took a photo,” Uribe said. “It was so quick. I wasn’t sure of the surroundings or scenery at that point.”

Uribe told the AP he has never been disciplined by UConn for any reason.

Officials at both schools have said steps have been taken to ensure nothing of this nature will occur again. Gizmodo reports that “synthetic cadavers like the $95,000 SynDaver Patient, which can be remote controlled to rehearse crisis scenarios like heart attacks and boasts fake organs, muscle tissue, and blood” are slowly being adopted as research alternatives to human cadavers.