𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 - 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙮'𝙨 𝘼𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙮 (ON HOLD)

thirty - seven - "mercy west" - thirty - seven

"The surgical scalpel is made of sterilized, carbonized stainless steel. This is a vast improvement over the first scalpel, which was pretty much a sharp stick. Medicine is constantly reinventing itself, that means surgeons have to keep reinventing themselves too. There's constant pressure to adapt to changes. It can be a painful process. But without it, you'll find yourself moving backwards instead of forwards. We have to keep reinventing ourselves almost every minute because the world can change in an instant, and there's no time for looking back. Sometimes the changes are forced on us, sometimes they happen by accident, and we make the most of them. We have to constantly come up with new ways to fix ourselves. So we change, we adapt, we create new versions of ourselves. We just need to be sure that this one is an improvement over the last."
-Meredith Grey, S6E14, "Valentine's Day Massacre"

"I’ve seen a lot of surgery residents come and go in my time and they’re all addicted to surgery. It comes before food, before sleep. It becomes the most important thing, the only thing. What they don’t know is that living on that high can eat them alive. Some make it through. They come out on the other side. They survive with their sanity intact. They become better doctors and stronger people. I didn’t. I broke. I didn’t kill anybody and I give thanks for that every day. But I hurt people. Scared the hell out of myself. I am 45 days sober today. I am Richard and I am a grateful and recovering alcoholic. I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude that is their due. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. The health of my patients will be my number one consideration. I will respect the secrets that are confided in me, even after my patient has died. I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions of the medical profession. My colleagues will be my sisters and brothers. I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, race, political affiliation, nationality, sexual orientation, social standing or any other fact to intervene between my duty and my patient. I will maintain the utmost respect for human life. I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat. I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honor."
-Richard Webber, S6E15, "The Time Warp"

"Surgeons are detail-oriented. We like statistics and checklists and operating procedures. Our patients live because we enjoy following the steps but as much as we love to always rely on the numbers, the plan we also know that some of the greatest medical discoveries have happened by accident. Mold: Penicilin. Poisonous tree bark: a cure for Malaria, a little blue pill for high blood pressure, impotence be damned. It’s hard for us to accept that it’s not always the hard work or attention to detail that will get us the answers we are looking for. Sometimes we just have to sit back, relax and wait for happy accident. No matter how many plans we make or steps we follow, we never know how our day is going to end up. We’d prefer to know, of course, what curveballs will be thrown our way. It’s the accidents that always turn out to be the most interesting parts of our day, of life. The people we never expected to show up, the turn of events we never would have chose for ourselves. All of a sudden you find yourself somewhere you never expected to be and it's nice, or it takes some getting used to. Still, you know you’ll find yourself appreciating it somewhere down the line. So you go to sleep each night thinking about tomorrow, going over your plans, preparing the lists, and hoping that whatever accidents come your way will be happy ones."
-Meredith Grey, S6E16, "Perfect Little Accident"

It was Valentine's Day. Derek went to the hospital before Meredith and Anna even woke up. Most mornings, he left early. Anna didn't know if he was stressed, but she knew he liked being in charge. Before Meredith headed to the hospital, she dropped Anna off at the high school. Derek insisted Anna took all the extra study sessions she could before her year end exams.