A Look Inside the Lives of SGH Interns… From a Real-Life MGH Intern

When it comes to covering America’s best TV drama, Grey’s Anatomy Insider never stops looking for vantage points. Recently we set out to determine how realistic the show is, and how it is perceived among actual surgical interns. Since we don’t know any such people, we settled for the next best thing.

A pediatrics intern.

Dr. Heather Diskin a first-year intern at Massachusetts General Hospital after graduating from UMass Medical School. As a longtime friend of the Insider and a devoted fan of Grey’s Anatomy, she was generous enough to endure an interview with our annoying staff. Below are her thoughts on Seattle Grace Hospital’s medical realism, interns and attendings fraternizing in the real world, Dr. Shepherd’s McDreaminess, and so much more.

THE INSIDER: How realistically does the show portray the medical conditions and sequences? Please explain.

DR. D.: The first two times I watched the show, I found it painfully unrealistic. But then I became totally hooked because of how great the characters are. The various personalities definitely exist in every hospital — especially among surgeons. But the patients, their conditions (i.e. the woman with spontaneous orgasms), and the interactions between interns and attendings do not.

The other unrealistic feature is how much free time the interns have. There is no time for eating lunch everyday, no midday quickie in the call room, no watching surgeries from above the O.R. There is just too much work!

THE INSIDER: What is the most fake surgical scene that you can recall on the show?

DR. D.: The live bomb would probably make the top of most people’s lists, but one other depiction stands out in my mind. Being a pediatrician, the episode in which the quints were born was bothersome. There is no chance all five babies would have an extremely rare and complicated surgical condition, and worst of all, everyone on the show (other than Addison) is an adult surgeon. They would never be let near a newborn baby.

THE INSIDER: Interesting. On to the good stuff. Does more than mere sleeping really take place in the on-call room?

DR. D.: I can’t speak for everyone, but most definitely not at the rate that it does at Seattle Grace. I have never heard of this happening from anyone I know.

THE INSIDER: Weak! So you have never witnessed an intern hooking up with an attending? Would it be permissible in the real world?

DR. D.: This almost positively would never happen. There is generally a larger age difference between most interns and attendings, and you really aren’t able to interact with them on such a personal basis. It is definitely a big no-no, and the attending would very likely get fired. It’s much more common for doctors and nurses to hook up. There are running jokes about older attendings leaving their wives for young nurses.

THE INSIDER: Did you know what a Code Black was?

DR. D.: No, none of us did, but I received multiple phone calls from friends after the Super Bowl episode asking me about it. Interestingly, most hospitals have different color codes for different events, so it’s not universal from place to place.

THE INSIDER: Continuing with the Code Black theme, if you’ve ever removed live ammunition from a man’s chest, as Meredith and Dr. Burke did, please describe that experience. If not, what was the most stressful surgery or task you have performed?

DR. D.: Not surprisingly, I have never removed live ammo from someone. My most stressful experience was probably providing high-pressure breaths with a mask and bag to a dying newborn baby (a practice known as “bagging”) while large catheters were put into its neck to hook it up to a heart-lung bypass machine.

THE INSIDER: Wow. My life feels rather insignificant all of a sudden. Do you get questions about Grey’s Anatomy at work?

DR. D.: I am constantly asked whether or not it is realistic, to which I answer no, then admit that I am hooked nonetheless.

THE INSIDER: As are we. Is anyone at MGH as good looking as Patrick Dempsey or Katherine Heigl? If so, who? Can you get us their phone number?

DR. D.: Our plastic and oral surgeons are among the best, although I can’t reveal specifics. I must say, though, that the blue scrubs seem a lot less sexy when you wear them everyday.

THE INSIDER: See, some of us would not have known that. Who would be a better catch for a young resident, Dr. Shepherd or Dr. Burke?

DR. D.: Dr. Shepherd, I still have a crush on him from Can’t Buy Me Love. Dr. Burke is too serious.

THE INSIDER: Last but not least, should Derek choose Meredith or Addison?

DR. D.: Definitely Meredith. Without a doubt. You can just tell how much he loves her. He doesn’t seem the least bit interested in Addison anymore. Besides, she would be dumb to not go back to Dr. McSteamy. I hope he makes more cameo appearances!