[to Mr. Torres] Most people think that I was named for the state, but it's not true, I was named for a battle ship. The USS Arizona. My grandfather was serving on the Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he saved nineteen men before he drowned. Pretty much everything my father did his whole life was about honoring that sacrifice. I was raised to be a good man in a storm, raised to love my country, love my family, protect the things I love. When my father, Colonel Daniel Robbins of the United States Marine Corps, heard that I was a lesbian he said he only had one question. I was prepared for "How fast can you get the hell out of my house?" But instead, it was "Are you still who I raised you to be?" My father believes in country the way that you believe in God. And my father is not a man who bends, but he bent for me because I am his daughter. I'm a good man in a storm. I love your daughter. And I protect the things I love. Not that I need to; she doesn't need it. She's strong, and caring, and honorable. And she's who you raised her to be.
S6 E5Invasion
[voiceover] What do you do when the infection hits you, when it takes over? Do you do what you're supposed to and take your medicine? Or do you learn to live with the thing and hope someday it goes away? Or do you just give up entirely and let it kill you?
S6 E6I Saw What I Saw
[voiceover] In order to get a good diagnosis, doctors have to constantly change their perspective. We start by getting the patient's point of view, though they often don't have a clue what's going on. So we look at the patient from every possible angle. We rule things out. We uncover new information, trying to get to what's actually wrong. We're asked for second opinions, hoping we'll see something others might have missed. For the patient, a fresh perspective can mean the difference between living and dying. For the doctor, it can mean you're picking a fight with everyone who got there before you.
Are the Mercy West people that bad?
They're everywhere and there are more of them than us, and they're kicking our asses. God, I miss Izzie. We need more 'uses', so get back here.
I have to be discharged first. You want to forge Bailey's signature?
No, that'll get me fired. Ooh, ask one of the new ones to do it. Get them fired.
They hate us, April. It doesn't matter how good we are, we're gonna fail. Because they were here first and they rule the school, and they hate us.
I'm not gonna let them turn me into someone they hate, I'm easy to like.
Actually, it takes a while. I hated you at first.
You left him alone? When were you planning...?
I'm.. I'm sorry, I.. I feel like...
No, you don't get to feel anything! Because he's feeling everything, his every nerve is exposed and raw and we have to make him feel worse before he's gonna feel better. So, if you're having feelings, then you need to shut them down. You need to shut them down and talk to him about his future and remind him that he has one, past all of this pain. And if you can't do that, if you can't do your job, then you find someone who can and you send them to me.
Maybe it's not one doctor. Maybe it's too many doctors who don't know each other and who don't trust each other. When I got to that room, it was chaos, because that's the system now: chaos. That has been the system that's been in place since this merger. Your system. I'm saying you should look again at who is responsible."
[voiceover] When we're headed toward an outcome that's too horrible to face, that's when we go looking for a second opinion. And sometimes, the answer we get just confirms our worst fears. But sometimes, it can shed new light on the problem, make you see it in a whole new way. After all the opinions have been heard and every point of view has been considered, you finally find what you were after - the truth. But the truth isn't where it ends, that's just where you begin again with a whole new set of questions.
S6 E7Give Peace A Chance
[voiceover] Ask most surgeons why they became surgeons and they usually tell you the same thing. It was for the high, the rush, the thrill that comes from cutting someone open and saving their life. For me it was different, maybe it was because I grew up in a house with four sisters. No, definitely because I grew up in a house with four sisters because it was the quiet that drew me to surgery. The operating room is a quiet place. Peaceful. It has to be in order for us to stay alert, anticipate complications. When you stand in the OR, your patient open on the table, all the world's noise, all the worry that it brings disappears. A calm settles over you, time passing without thought. For that moment, you feel completely at peace.
No, don't close me up. If you get in and it's too complicated, cut the cord. Paralyze me if you must. I survived a war did you know that? I survived a war where they put bodies in to mass graves where there was once a playground. I survived the death of my family, my parents, my brothers and sisters. Then I survived the death of my wife and child when they starved to death in a refugee camp. I survived the loss of my country, of hearing my mother tongue spoken, of knowing what it feels like to have a place to call home. I survived. And I will survive the loss of my legs. If I have to, I'll survive it. OK? But Derek...
Yes.
There is always a way when things look like there's no way. There's a way to do the impossible, to survive the in survivable. There's always a way. And you, you and I have this in common. We're inspired. In the face of the impossible, we're inspired. So if I can offer one piece of advice to the world's foremost neurosurgeon. Today if you become frightened instead become inspired. OK, I'm ready now. Put me to sleep.
Hey, I wore a diaper yesterday, yes - and I will wear one today. If it helps get Dr. Shepherd through this surgery, I will wear a diaper. My diaper is awesome. My diaper is hard-core. You wish you had the balls to wear my diaper. I'm gonna wear it, and I'm gonna wear it with pride. And if I have to pee in it? Oh, I'll pee. Because I am a surgeon. This is America. And I will do what needs to be done. So you can kiss my hard-core, diaper wearing ass.
No, no, whoa whoa whoa whoa!
Move!
No!
Dr. Robbins!
I said no! Dr. Shepherd is operating on the inside of a man's spinal chord right now. Even the most minor disturbance could cause him to make a mistake on that patient - a patient who happens to work here, and whose life I personally would like to see Dr. Shepherd save. So no... you don't get to go in there and be a bully. Not today chief, not on my watch.
[voiceover] Ask most surgeons why they became surgeons and they usually tell you the same thing. The high, the rush, the thrill of the cut. For me it was the quiet. Peace isn't a permanent state. It exists in moments. Fleeting. Gone before we even knew it was there. We can experience it at any time, in a stranger's act of kindness, a task that requires complete focus or simply the comfort of an old routine. Everyday we all experience these moments of peace. The trick is to know when they're happening so that we can embrace them, live in them. And finally let them go.
S6 E8Invest in Love
[voiceover] It's impossible to describe the panic that comes over you when you're a surgeon and your pager goes off in the middle of the night. Your heart starts to race. Your mind freezes. Your fingers go numb. You're invested. There's someone's mom, someone's dad, someone's kid. And now it's on you because that someone's life is now in your hands. Surgeons, we're always investing in our patients. But when your patient's a child, you're not just invested, you're responsible. Responsible for whether or not that child survives, has a future. And that's enough to terrify anyone.
This is not general surgery in miniature. These are the tiny humans. These are children. They believe in magic. They play pretend. There is fairy dust in their IV bags. They hope, and they cross their fingers, and they make wishes, and that makes them more resilient than adults. They recover faster, survive worse. They believe.
Maybe I can help.
No, no you can't. Because as long as you're standing there breathing over my shoulder, I feel like I'm operating on a stack of dollar bills, 25 million dollar bills, and what I need to be invested in right now is this kid, so please, get the hell out of my O.R..
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Grey's Anatomy pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.