Carol Orzel

Carol Orzel (April 20, 1959 – February 2018) was an American woman with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). She advocated for research into FOP and was an activist for disability rights. Before her death, she requested that her skeleton be displayed in the Mütter Museum.

Early life Carol Orzel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1959. She was diagnosed with FOP, a rare disease that causes tissue to ossify. In 1982 at age 23, she moved to Inglis House, a nursing-care facility, at its Belmont Avenue campus. It was this laboratory where the gene that causes FOP was discovered in 2006.

Donation of skeleton to Mütter Museum In 1995, Orzel saw the skeleton of Harry Eastlack, a famous patient of FOP, at an IFOPA conference. The skeleton was on loan from the Mütter Museum, and Orzel decided that after she died, she wanted her skeleton to be displayed with Eastlack's, on the condition that her jewelry was displayed too. When Orzel died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, Kaplan and executives from Inglis House contacted the Mütter Museum. Curator Anna Dhody oversaw the project. Due to the FOP and other illness, Orzel's body was very delicate and difficult to transport and prepare. Her body was transported from Philadelphia to Skulls Unlimited in Oklahoma City for processing. Orzel's skeleton and her jewelry went on display in the Mütter Museum in February 2019.