Students in the pre-medicine classes at the Livonia Career Technical Center put their skills to work on some unusual patients during their Pumpkin Pathology Project in October.

These poor “patients” were stricken with everything from lung disease and alcoholism to smallpox and even the Bubonic Plague.

This unique and very hands-on project enabled students to go through each phase of disease detection, identification and treatments, said Pre-Medicine Teacher Alli Hinman.

“They picked a disease, researched the signs and symptoms of that disease and brainstormed how they wanted to depict their disease on their pumpkin,” she said.

Their results were both creative and informative, as shown during a special showcase in which students read through each team’s case study and guessed which disease had afflicted each pumpkin patient.

“I really liked it,” said Emily Wilton, a junior in the program. “We learned about glioblastoma and how it can look different on different people. The medical field is very diverse and diseases can vary from mild to severe.”

Wilton and her teammates Nevaeh Price and Alyssa Zaghmout created a pumpkin that had a large, pink tumor made from foam insulation on the top of its head. The “patient,” they named “Gerebald Glenn Griffin,” was a 73-year-old military veteran who was experiencing memory loss, vision deficiency, slurred speech, headaches, fatigue, dizziness and vomiting, according to their case study. An MRI was performed, which showed a tumor on the frontal lobe of the brain.

While their “patients” were in grave shape, the students said they enjoyed doing the research and collaborating on creative ways to show the diseases on the pumpkins.

“It was actually really fun!” Wilton said.