BAILEY HEADS A TEAM OF SURGEONS CHALLENGED WITH REMOVING A YOUNG GIRL'S INOPERABLE TUMOR, ON ABC'S "GREY'S ANATOMY"

Guest Starring Kevin McKidd ("Rome")

"Life During Wartime" - To help Bailey become the best general surgeon at Seattle Grace, the Chief gives her new power, new responsibility, and the challenge of removing a young girl's inoperable tumor, as the new head of trauma, Owen Hunt, challenges both the attending doctor's methods and the residents' surgical abilities, on "Grey's Anatomy," THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 (9:00-10:01 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network

"Grey's Anatomy" stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang, Katherine Heigl as Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, T.R. Knight as George O'Malley, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens, Jr. as Richard Webber, Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres, Eric Dane as Mark Sloan, Chyler Leigh as Lexie Grey and Brooke Smith as Erica Hahn.

Guest Starring are Kevin McKidd as Owen, Scott Haven as Randy, Lauri Johnson as Grandma Ruth, Brandon Scott as Intern Ryan.

"Life During Wartime" was written by Mark Wilding and directed by Jim Frawley.

This storyline brings with it some great moments -- the interns naming the pigs, Lexie petting her pig, and Cristina's utter astonishment and burning resentment that she's stuck taking care of the pigs while the others go and deal with six trauma patients who've come in from a car accident. It also brings with it some nice indignation from Izzie, who makes her point about using animals for practice without sounding irrational. And once again I give props to Katherine Heigl for not wandering off into shrill territory; she's been consistently restrained this season while displaying some real guts and standing up for herself when necessary. Obviously there's more on the page for her to work with, but her approach overall is much more interesting than it was last season.

As for some of our other couples…I can never get enough of Izzie and Alex. He’s trying to be a good boyfriend and going about it in a typical Alex way. So that when Owen tells Derek and Mark that he wants to know what he did wrong with the scalp patient, Alex is all ears. As well as he knows Izzie, in many ways she’s still a foreign country to him. She has different customs and ways. You can either dismiss those customs and ways or try to learn to do things differently.

We (Heart) Dr. Izzy Stevens
OK, if you're like me, you cancel all your plans, shut off your cell phone, lock your door, and glue yourself to your couch every Thursday at 9 p.m. for none other than the greatest hour of television all week: Grey's Anatomy.

Well, last night was probably my favorite television night of all time, because the best show ever also brought in an important message about animal rights. (TV + AR = my life, so you can see why I was thrilled.)

If you missed it, let me catch you up. Dr. Hunt, the new head of trauma surgery, wanted to train the residents and interns on how to deal with trauma patients, and he said that dealing with live tissue was the best way to learn. So he tied down six sedated pigs and stabbed them with knives, and then he asked the doctors to perform surgery to keep the pigs alive. (Though I'm quite sure that in real life the pigs were fake, as the show had several notices that no animals were harmed in filming.)

Enter Dr. Izzy Stevens, played by Katherine Heigl. Izzy refused to do the assignment and explained how completely unnecessary it is to test on live animals when we have such advanced alternatives that don't require us to do that. She said that animals are sensitive, emotional creatures that feel pain and don't deserve to be tortured. We are so right there with you, Izzy!

When Dr. Hunt continued to berate Izzy about this issue, she stood up for herself and for animals everywhere and never backed down. She even explained that testing on animals is pointless and can sometimes even work against medical progress. Even though a test might be successful when the subjects are animals, people and animals are different species and therefore will show completely different results.

Even no-nonsense, steely Dr. Yang took a liking to the pigs and called them by name. When the surgeries finished, Hunt ordered Yang to euthanize the pigs and she refused.

What an excellent episode! I was so thrilled to step away from Meredith's whiny, self-obsessed life for a while to focus on the other characters—and such a positive message for animals.

Now, if only Ross University had seen this episode …

Pigs as Teaching Tools on Grey's Anatomy

Last Thursday, Grey's Anatomy depicted the use of live pigs for medical training. I watch Grey's Anatomy, but I have a love-hate relationship with the show, and I was not responding with love last week. You know how I love pigs.

At the same time, I was glad that Kathrine Heigl's character, Izzie, took a strong stand against using animals in training and research. She spoke articulately about the new technology available in lieu of using animals as well as the fact that animal and human physiology are different enough that experiments performed on animals may not generalize to humans.

Today, I received an email alert from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine which discussed the episode and revealed that, due to Heigl's influence, PCRM was invited to comment about the use of animals in medicine and provide much of the research from which Izzie's dialoge was drawn. I appreciate the producers' and writers' open-mindedness and praise Heigl and the PCRM for standing up for animals.



Dear PCRM supporter,

Last Thursday night’s episode of the television hit Grey’s Anatomy featured a subplot in which live pigs were stabbed, and then interns and residents were told to treat the injured animals as part of a trauma training exercise. (Note: No real pigs were used in the filming of the episode.)

Nancy Heigl, PCRM supporter and the mother of actress Katherine Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on the show, contacted us when the story line was being developed because the actress was disturbed by the subplot. PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., and PCRM senior medical and research adviser John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., both had extensive conversations with the producers of the show about the overwhelming trend in medical education to use simulators instead of animals in medical education.

This input from PCRM staff was invaluable in helping the writers modify the program and develop Dr. Stevens’ character. When the episode aired, viewers saw her refuse to participate in the training exercise and take a strong, informed, and vocal stand against the practice. As a result, millions of viewers were exposed to our position against the use of animals in medical education in one of the season’s highest rated television shows.

Our thanks go to Nancy and Katherine Heigl for involving PCRM and to the producers of Grey’s Anatomy for giving PCRM the opportunity to bring a dose of reality to this prime-time drama.

You can view the episode online at: http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/index?pn=index

While most advanced trauma life support courses around the country use human simulators, many continue to use live animals, including courses at Idaho State University (ISU). In fact, ISU uses lost and stray dogs obtained from the local animal shelter for these lethal procedures. Please help these animals by writing to the president of ISU. Click here for more information.

We would also like to hear what you thought of the episode by taking our very brief survey.

Best regards,
Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H.
Director of Research Policy