Ryan

History
Ryan was a patient of Catherine Avery. He was diagnosed with penile cancer, which turned out to be advanced to the point where he was required to undergo a full penectomy for a cure to be possible. The operation was a success and Ryan was cured of cancer. Instead of offering Ryan a penile reconstruction, which according to Mark Sloan was the standard course of action following a full penectomy, Catherine Avery planned to provide Ryan with a new penis via a transplant. A match was found at SG/MW and Ryan agreed to accompany Catherine there to make the transplant a teaching opportunity. According to Catherine, this would be the first penis transplant conducted in the USA. Overwhelmed by the majority of residents wanting to scrub into her transplant surgery, Catherine Avery held a competition to find 2 winners. The competition involved the residents extracting micro blood vessels from a piece of raw chicken. Meredith and Jackson were the winners after Alex had to forfeit to attend an urgent pediatrics case. Ryan was taken into surgery later that day. Besides Meredith and Jackson who were scrubbing in, Catherine invited Mark who had initially challenged her on her approach to assist. The surgery started off well, however Meredith had to leave after Cristina came into the OR to inform her that the case Alex had to attend was Zola who had been hospitalized with a serious bowel obstruction. Catherine let April take Meredith's place. This proved a bad idea in that a nervous April became careless with the suction and destroyed Catherine’s newly created dorsal vein. Mark saved the day by suggesting a technique where tissue be harvested from the naval and used to craft a new dorsal vein. Mark allowed Jackson to carry out the procedure, making the transplant a success.

Personality
Ryan came across as a pleasant and easy going patient. He stated that he was a coward for not going seeking help earlier and allowing the cancer to get to a point where he had to lose his penis. He is hopeful also that his experience will help others in a similar situation. Most of all he hopes that if the surgery is a sucess, his brother will drop the subject of his penis.