A 30-foot long inflatable colon stood in the UF Health Shands Hospital Atrium on Friday.
UF Health and Shands rented the colon for free instead of paying the $5,000 to buy it, said Felicia Corbin, an advanced endoscopy nurse navigator for Shands. The event was held for National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. The colon is part of the large intestine and helps with digestion.
The event is usually held the first Friday of March, but due to high demand, the giant colon wasn’t available to rent until the end of the month, she said.
It’s in high demand because Bayer Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company who supplies the giant colon, donates and sets it up for free.
Shands has been planning the event since January, Corbin said.
To educate the public about colon cancer, pictures of its different stages were posted inside the colon as people walked through, said Rachel Rivera, the marketing assistant for UF’s Department of Medicine.
Kate Ingerto, an inpatient pediatric physical therapy volunteer at Shands, said she was surprised to see the giant colon when she left the hospital.
“Normally I don’t stop for these events, but this caught my eye and made me want to walk through,” the 21-year-old UF applied physiology and kinesiology junior said.
UF Health Shands Hospital displayed a 30-foot-long inflatable colon in the hospital’s atrium on Friday as part of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
