Izzie Stevens

"Fine! Let's look at that tattoo up close and personal, shall we? What are these? Oh, my God! Breasts! How does anybody practice medicine hauling these things around? And what have we got back here? Let’s see if I remember my anatomy. Glutes, right? Let’s study them, shall we? Gather around and check out the booty that put Izzie Stevens through med school! Have you had enough, or should I continue, because I have a few more very interesting tattoos. You want to call me Dr. Model? That's fine. Just remember that while you're still sitting on two hundred grand of student loans... I'm out of debt."

- Izzie Stevens

Izzie Stevens was a surgical resident at Seattle Grace Hospital until she was fired shortly after the merger with Mercy West Medical Center. She was engaged to Denny Duquette until his death and later married Alex Karev, but divorced him when she left after he told her he deserved someone who would stay.

Early Life
Izzie grew up in Forest Park, on Route 6, behind a church in Chehalis, Washington. She lived in a trailer park with her mother who nicknamed her "Cricket."

As a teenager, Izzie worked as a waitress and had savings for college but her mother spent most of the money on psychics. This forced Izzie to pay most of the bills with her own money. At only 16, Izzie gave birth to a daughter who she subsequently gave up for adoption. Izzie privately named her daughter Sarah but her adoptive parents named her Hannah Klein (Izzie would later have to donate bone marrow to Hannah, who was suffering from leukemia). Because of her pregnancy, mothers made their children stay away from Izzie so she had no friends.

At her high school prom, the football quarterback was her date. Since her school didn't have a lot of money, they just converted the gym.

When she turned 18, she left home. She paid for medical school by modeling designer "Bethany Whisper," which led to her receiving the nickname, Dr. Model.

She attended University of Washington School of Medicine

Denny Duquette and Probation
Izzie met Denny Duquette, a heart patient, who immediately took a liking to Izzie. As time went on, the two got closer to the point that they fell in love with each other. Still, Denny needed a new heart, only alive due to his LVAD.

A heart became available, but when the heart donor flat-lined, Burke and Alex attempted to take Dr. Hahn's heart in order for Denny to receive a heart that day. However, Hahn's transplant patient had been put on the donor list 17 seconds before Denny. Knowing the only way that Denny would get the heart would be if his condition worsened immediately, Izzie cut Denny's LVAD wire so that this would happen. Upon arrival at Seattle Grace, Burke was shot and Hahn was needed to do the surgery. While the surgery was completed successfully, Denny soon after died from an unexpected stroke.

Upon confessing to compromising the LVAD wire, Izzie then quit her job. She was soon after given the job back, although she was on probation. She was eventually taken off of probation after helping a victim of the ferry boat crash.

Cancer
Following Denny's appearance and discovering she is ill, Izzie decided to try and diagnose herself secretly. She used the interns and teaching to diagnose herself, by first conducting various medical tests on herself to diagnose herself, and then creating "Patient X". Izzie was diagnosed with cancer: Stage IV metastatic melanoma with metastases to the liver, brain, and skin, giving her a 5% survival chance. When Izzie wondered whether to ignore it or face it, Lexie encouraged Patient X to fight the odds. She reasoned that her mother died of the hiccups and that probably has a 100% survival rate. Izzie chose to tell Cristina about her cancer, and Cristina set her up with the best surgical oncologist in the state as well as producing masses of research, but Izzie chose to blow off the appointment, making Cristina wonder why she ever confided in her to begin with. Eventually, Cristina couldn't handle the pressure and told an OR full of staff, including Alex and Bailey, of Izzie's diagnosis, which gave Izzie the final push to fight for her life, and she finally admitted herself into Seattle Grace as a patient.

Izzie's first part of her treatment was to have the temporal lobe metastases removed by Derek, who returned to surgery to operate on Izzie following his breakdown. Meredith also suggested to Izzie that she has obstetrics remove healthy eggs from her, for her future. The first stage of her treatment was successful, as Derek removed the tumor fully from Izzie's temporal lobe, no thanks to Rebecca Swender, Izzie's oncologist who constantly second-guessed Derek during surgery until Derek found his rhythm and quiets Dr. Swender.

Following the news of her cancer and Meredith and Derek's wedding, she began to plan the wedding and even created Meredith and Derek's Wedding Website. However, after discovering another tumor in her brain due to the appearance of Denny, Meredith and Derek gave away their wedding to Izzie and Alex and they got married. She then did the risky surgery, and the tumor was successfully removed. While Alex embraced Izzie after realizing that some of her memory returned, Izzie went limp and her pressure started dropping. Alex called for Cristina, who arrived shortly before Richard Webber and Miranda Bailey arrived and he demanded that they resuscitate her, but Cristina told the others that Izzie signed a DNR. Initially, the other doctors wanted to abide by the DNR, but Richard soon gave in, stating, "Screw the DNR," and started to resuscitate her.

Hospital Merger and Departure
During the budget cuts at Seattle Grace, Izzie accidentally administered an incorrect dosage of medicine to a patient, causing her not to get a much-needed kidney transplant. This caused Chief Webber to fire her. Thinking Alex was partly to blame, Izzie wrote him a letter and left.



Izzie later returned to Seattle for a final PET scan and to ask Derek to put in a good word for her, so she could get a job in Tacoma and repair things with Alex. Derek learned that Tacoma didn't want to hire her because of her history, but he planned on hiring Izzie back once he was given the job of Chief of Surgery. At the same time, Izzie went to show Alex that her scan was clean, meaning she was officially not dying of cancer. He was genuinely happy for her, but being with her had taught him that he was a good guy, good enough not to deserve feeling like this. He deserved someone who would stay. He wanted Izzie to go and never come back and be happy too.



Realizing that there was nothing left to repair, Izzie went to Meredith's house to pack her stuff. Meredith begged her not to throw the people that loved her aside and not to leave, as it was her home. Izzie replied that Seattle isn't her home anymore. It's just a place she used to work and she can do that anywhere. Thereby, she left to start all over again somewhere else.

Her current whereabouts and status are unknown, but she did later send Alex divorce papers, which he signed and sent back to her.

Personality
Izzie always thinks there's some good in people, no matter how bad they are. She is protective, kind, and pretty stubborn. She seems to get too emotionally involved in most cases, which she sees as a good thing, although others feel it's distracting and gets in the way of the medicine. Izzie is very loyal to all her friends, and in most cases, can be trusted.

Hank
When she started her internship, Izzie was dating the professional hockey player Hank. They soon broke up due to her long working hours and distance.

Alex Karev
When Alex Karev discovered her history as a model, he didn't waste any time in putting up her lingerie advertisements all over Seattle Grace Hospital. Despite the incident, she saw through Alex's shallow, callous exterior and befriended him, to the shock of her friends.

When he eventually asked her out, she was disappointed that he didn't have the courage to kiss her. For a while she refused to speak to him until spontaneously at Joe's bar, he kissed her.

Despite dating Alex, a heart patient named Denny Duquette continually flirted with her. It led nowhere and he left the hospital shortly after they met after failing to receive a new heart.



Due to some difficulties on Alex's part, their sexual relationship didn't take off. And after Izzie caught Alex sleeping with Nurse Olivia, she ended their relationship and was furious with him. When Izzie discovered her friends were helping Alex study for his failed boards she blew up at them although she eventually forgave him and helped him study as well. Even though she forgave him she ruled out the possibility of another relationship with him.

When there was a bomb scare in the hospital, Izzie felt she needed to do what she wanted before it was too late. She proceeded to have sex with Alex in a linen closet again several times throughout the day. Alex assumed that they were dating again but Meredith told him that they were only sleeping together and Izzie wouldn't ever think of him the same after his incident with Olivia.



Later, Izzie gave Alex an ultimatum. She told him either to be the nice guy or the jerk but he couldn't be both. He kissed her and they later decided to go steady. Things went well but Denny began to appear to Izzie and she even had sex with him. Shockingly, it turned out that the appearances of Denny were because of an illness she had.

Meredith and Derek gave their wedding to Izzie after discovering her tumor and she got married to Alex.

Denny Duquette, Jr.
When Denny was readmitted to the hospital after suffering cardiac dysrhythmia, Izzie brushed Alex off so she could tend to Denny. Alex felt threatened by Denny so he told Denny he should back off because he would probably die from heart failure and if he did it would hurt Izzie. When Izzie finds out that Alex said this to Denny she confronted him and he replied that she can't get involved with patients. She later realizes that she doesn't have to settle for Alex. However, Denny survived and they grew closer. He had an LVAD inserted to keep him alive for longer so he could wait for a heart, but after finding out that Denny had become a DNR (do not resuscitate) patient, Izzie jumped at the chance to get him a new heart. After discovering that he lost a donor heart to someone on the donor list who was ahead of him by 17 seconds, she implored him to let her cut his LVAD wire so his condition would worsen and he would move up on the donor list. At first, Denny refused because it would end her medical career and he didn't want to steal a heart out of another man's chest but after Izzie broke down crying and begged him, he agreed. Izzie cut Denny's LVAD wire and sought the help of her fellow interns to keep him alive. As the interns struggled to keep Denny alive, Cristina informed them that Denny's surgeon, Preston Burke, was shot and struggling to survive. After hearing the news, Izzie panicked, completely at a loss. In the midst of the chaos, Denny proposed to a shocked Izzie. Dr. Miranda Bailey walked in on the interns and banned them all from any surgeries until the person who cut the LVAD wire confessed. Meanwhile, Alex invited Dr. Erica Hahn to replace Dr. Burke on Denny's heart transplant surgery. Dr. Hahn successfully completed Denny's transplant surgery and when Izzie visited Denny after his transplant she accepted his marriage proposal. Denny died from a stroke shortly thereafter leaving Izzie devastated and lying next to Denny's body. Alex carried her off the bed and told her that the body wasn't Denny and that Denny loved her and he wouldn't want Izzie to do this to herself. After a long period of mourning, Izzie moved on but refused Alex's offer of a relationship.

George O'Malley
When Izzie discovered that George liked Meredith, she encouraged him to tell her. Eventually, he did but after his disastrous sexual encounter with her, he moved out of the house, much to Izzie's disappointment. Despite several attempts, George refuses to tell Izzie where he is currently living. Eventually, he moved back in and frequently had his new girlfriend Dr. Callie Torres over, much to Izzie's dismay. Izzie made it very clear to George that she disapproved of her presence in his life because she considered Callie a freak. After taking multiple jibes, Callie told George it was because Izzie was in love with him.

After Callie disclosed the fact that she was somewhat wealthy and was paying most of their bills herself and didn't mind doing so, a hurt George told Meredith, who told Izzie. Izzie used this information when making a snide remark about Callie, knowing it would hit a nerve. Infuriated at his indiscretion, Callie kicked George out of their hotel room after voicing her opinion that Izzie "had feelings" for George. Upset and confused, George went to Izzie and Meredith's house with a bottle of bourbon and after getting drunk, Izzie and George slept together. The next day, George had no recollection of their intimacy the previous night and didn't remember until he was having lunch with Callie and her father. George confronted Izzie about it in a linen closet at the hospital and after they almost kissed, George left in a surge of guilt. Later, Izzie wanted to tell Callie but George insisted that it be kept a secret.

While dealing with the aftermath of her sexual encounter with George, Izzie was visited by the adoptive parents of the child she had given up years before. Hannah, now 11, is sick with leukemia and her donor for a bone marrow transplant had died the previous night. Izzie asked if she could meet Hannah, her parents agreed if Hannah wanted to. Izzie agreed to donate bone marrow to save her daughter's life, causing her emotional grief, Dr. Bailey helped Izzie keep her daughter a secret from the other interns and helped her during the beginning of the bone marrow harvest. Hannah's parents informed Izzie that Hannah was tired and maybe Izzie could meet Hannah when she was more well, despite this, Izzie still agreed to donate bone marrow. George noticed Izzie crying earlier and went to find her. He stayed with her for the rest of the harvest, setting aside other emotions. In the recovery room, Izzie confides in George that she has a daughter and says she needs their friendship to survive even though the sex wasn't tragic like the encounter with him and Meredith. George was still conflicted with his feelings for Izzie and his guilt in betraying Callie, he left Izzie crying in the room, only to return once he realized Izzie needed help as a friend. George came with Izzie when she saw her daughter for the first time, noting that Hannah had Izzie's eyes and mouth.



Following which, Izzie and George pretended that everything was fine, and continued to spend time together as friends. As Callie became more suspicious, she confronted Izzie and begged her to relinquish George which prompted Izzie to guiltily withdraw from him. She and George both realized they couldn't pretend their sexual encounter never happened, especially because their feelings for each other keep getting in the way. The combination of all these factors leads George to decide to transfer to Mercy West.

After George received a letter telling him he'd been accepted to Mercy West Medical Center, pending the results of the intern exam, Izzie tried to convince him not to leave by saying she had no romantic feelings towards him. Izzie later admitted to George that she was in love with him, leaving him speechless.

George later admitted he loved Izzie too, despite his strange reaction to her when she confessed her love to him. Their relationship was soon discovered by George's wife, Callie and the two got a divorce. After some time, George and Izzie realized that their relationship was not working as they had very little chemistry. They broke up but continued to have a close friendship.

Robbie Stevens
When Izzie was diagnosed with cancer, Robbie visited the hospital, unaware of how bad the cancer was. Before she left, she said to Izzie that she always knew she was too good for the trailer park.

Grammy
Her grandmother had a tumor on her thyroid and eventually died of thyroid cancer.

Friendships
Izzie quickly befriended her fellow interns, Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, and George O'Malley. She bonded fastest with George and they became friends and after a rough start with Alex, she became friends with him too.

After her marriage, Izzie decided to introduce him to her patient friends Austin, Star, Miguel, Meg, and Allison. Izzie bonded well with Allison, who was similar to Izzie, similar cancer age, and treatment plans. On discovering Allison denied surgery for her brain metastases and discovering the IL2 therapy was working, Izzie was torn between having surgery and tries to get the opinion of Alex, Cristina, Meredith, and George. However, Meredith does not agree with the surgery. Izzie eventually opted for surgery, but after Allison was rushed into surgery for a perforated bowel, which ended up in her crashing on the table and being put on a ventilator, Izzie signed a DNR order. Shepherd successfully performed the surgery, removing her hippocampus. Unfortunately, Izzie's memory, as could have been expected, was problematic and her short-term memory was gone. Alex tried aggressively to exercise Izzie's memory abilities, but to no use, until he shouted at her, implying this was the worst decision of his life and promptly leaves, but Izzie remembered the shouting for a good while longer and when Alex returned, he was overjoyed that she remembered, until she began to crash. Webber, Bailey, and Cristina ignored the DNR order and attempted to resuscitate her.

Izzie survived and resumed her residency. After Seattle Grace merged with Mercy West she was fired as a result of necessary cutbacks.

Career
She attended University of Washington School of Medicine.

At the beginning of her internship, Izzie struggled with other's assumptions of her as an incompetent doctor, due to the fact that she used to be a lingerie model.

Izzie was a reasonably good doctor but when she cut Denny Duquette's LVAD wire, she was going to be suspended but instead quit. Alex Karev later convinced Bailey to talk to Izzie and make her come back which Bailey succeeded in doing. Bailey convinced the Chief to let her return but with a strict probation which doesn't allow her to have contact with patients and an inferiority to her fellow interns. Izzie became dissatisfied with the limited amount of medical work she could do and frequently tried to push the boundaries of her probation. She even donated most of her money from Denny Duquette's check to a free clinic where she and Bailey often worked.

During an emergency involving a ferry accident, Izzie saved a man's life by drilling burr holes into his skull with an ordinary drill in the field. This prompted an impressed chief to take her off probation and allow her to finish the rest of the procedure by drilling more burr holes but this time with a real high-speed surgical drill.

Addison Forbes Montgomery told Richard Webber that Izzie had the potential to be an extremely gifted OB/GYN, one of the best she had seen in years but she was worried because she seemed to get too close to her patients. After using a tactic of assigning Izzie to a patient that would inevitably die, Izzie left obstetrics.



Izzie decided to try going into cardiothoracic surgery but was met by a determined Cristina, who was also trying to make a career in the same department. She eventually decided that she was not suited for the specialty and stopped pursuing it.

After Bailey realized she had too many things to look after, she handed over the keys of the clinic to Izzie, giving it to her.

When her interns (and the others) started to dislike being doctors since they were banned from surgery, Izzie set up a competition, won by Lexie. When she realized that Denny appearing was because she was sick, the set up a competition to diagnose patient X. When she discovered that she had cancer and other people started to learn, she finally admitted herself as a patient, she just designed Meredith and Derek's wedding and was quizzed on medical trivia by Bailey.

She quickly got back on her feet and continued working as a surgeon, although some thought it was too soon and after concerns from Owen Hunt, Derek Shepherd and Alex, Izzie was fired during the merger with Mercy West, although the chief used the standard speech and claimed it was due to budget cutbacks. After this Izzie left a note in Alex's cubby and left him.

Notes and Trivia

 * She is an excellent baker and obsessive cleaner.
 * She can't cook, as revealed when she plans a Thanksgiving dinner for her roommates, relying on internet recipes.
 * She is Catholic.
 * Her glove size is 6.
 * Izzie says she always chooses the dog piece when she plays monopoly.
 * She enjoys baking her mother's chocolate cupcakes and finds out the secret ingredient is coconut extract.
 * Izzie only ever sees Denny when she hallucinates, as he is the person she associates most with death.
 * From the original interns, Izzie is the only female one who did not sleep with an attending. On top of that, she is to date also the only main character who, as a resident, never slept with someone higher in rank during their on-screen education.
 * She has a tattoo of a butterfly and claims to have others in interesting places.
 * Izzie was born either on January 5, 1980, as seen in Season 6 episode "How Insensitive", or on June 23, 1981, as seen on the surgical board in the Season 5 episode "Elevator Love Letter". The latter date is proven wrong by the timeline, as Wish You Were Here, in which she celebrates her birthday, takes place in between October and March.
 * She was interviewed by Barclay Faust prior to her employment at Seattle Grace Hospital.
 * Izzie shows her negative emotions by baking a lot, which can be seen often.
 * When Denny died, she baked so many muffins that she gave baskets filled with them to Joe.
 * It took Izzie 6 years to graduate from college as she was going to college at night.
 * She had 10 letters of recommendation for her internship at Seattle Grace Hospital, all written by the patients at a hospital where she worked as a candy striper.
 * Izzie did not reveal her intended specialty prior to her departure.
 * Izzie is the only original character whose whereabouts and job are currently unknown.
 * Her HLA Type is B-3.
 * Izzie had a baby girl when she was 16, but she gave the baby up for adoption because she knew she couldn't give her baby the life she deserved.
 * She thought about dying her hair red.
 * She laughs at funerals.
 * She is claustrophobic.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Izzie-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.
 * No Man's Land
 * Much too Much
 * Owner of a Lonely Heart
 * Break on Through
 * 17 Seconds
 * Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response
 * Losing My Religion
 * Let the Angels Commit
 * Six Days, Part 1 and Part 2
 * Great Expectations
 * Walk on Water
 * Drowning on Dry Land
 * Some Kind of Miracle
 * Time After Time
 * Stand By Me
 * Elevator Love Letter
 * No Good at Saying Sorry (One More Chance)
 * What a Difference a Day Makes
 * Here's to Future Days
 * Now or Never
 * I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me
 * Invasion
 * I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked

Memorable Quotes

 * Izzie: People die in front of us everyday. But I believe Meredith will survive this. I believe, I believe, I... I believe in the good. I believe that it's been a hell of a year and I believe that, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that we will be okay. I believe a lot of things. I believe that... I believe that Denny is always with me... and I believe that if I eat a tub of butter and no one sees, that the calories don't count. And I believe that surgeons who prefer staples over stitches are just lazy. And I believe that you are a man that made a terrible mistake marrying Callie and I believe that because I'm your best friend I can tell you this and we can be okay. I believe that even though you made this mistake you will be okay. I believe we survive, George. I believe that believing we survive... is what makes us survive.


 * Alex: Why would you want to help me after what I did?


 * Izzie: Because it's what Jesus would freakin' do!


 * Izzie: Everyone needs help from time to time. Someone to look out for them. Make sure they're okay.


 * Izzie: You can bitch and complain about it, or you can adjust your expectations.


 * Izzie: Just because people do horrible things, it doesn't always mean they're horrible people


 * Izzie: I feel like I'm moving in slow motion. Like I'm moving in slow motion and everything around me is moving so fast and I just wanna go back to when things were normal. When I wasn't "Poor Izzie" laying on the bathroom floor in her prom dress with her- her dead fiance. But I am. So I can't. And I'm- I'm just stuck. And there is all this pressure cause everyone is hovering around me waiting for me to do something. Or say something, or flip out, or yell and cry some more and I'm happy to play my part. I'm happy to say the lines and do whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing if it will make everyone feel more comfortable. But I don't- I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be this person. I don't- I don't know who this person is.


 * Izzie: This isn't real, is it? I'm just gonna keep my eyes close because this is like that moment in the morning when you first wake up and you're still half asleep and everything seems... things are possible, dreams feel true and for that one moment between waking and sleeping anything can be real, and then you open your eyes and the sun hits you and then you realize that... I'm just gonna keep my eyes closed.


 * Izzie: Time flies. Time waits for no man. Time heals all wounds. All any of us wants is more time. Time to stand up. Time to grow up. Time to let go. Time.


 * Izzie: You never know the biggest day of your life is the biggest day.. not until it's happening. You don't recognize the biggest day of your life, not until you're right in the middle of it. The day you commit to something or someone. The day you get your heart broken. The day you meet your soulmate. The day you realize there's not enough time, because you want to live forever.

Appearances
Izzie Stevens Izzie Stevens Izzie Stevens