Dr. Singer

Dr. Singer is Izzie's high school science teacher whom she broke out of his nursing home to get him treatment.

History
Dr. Singer had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was living in a nursing home. Izzie said that when she talked to him at Christmas time the past year, he was fine, but had been let go by the school where he taught six months prior. When Izzie was staying with her mother, she visited him and was upset by the way he was being cared for. She took him out of the nursing home and brought him to Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital to have Derek Shepherd examine him.

Derek examined him and ran some tests. The tests came back normal, so Izzie wanted them to run a spinal tap. He became confused and fell, hitting his head on the ground after a struggle with Izzie. Charles Percy did the spinal tap. The results were normal, but Dr. Singer became lucid. He was told he had normal-pressure hydrocephalus. Removing some of the fluid putting pressure on his brain resolved the situation temporarily, but he was told he needed a permanent shunt. He worried about the cost of it because he had no savings as it had all been spent on his late wife's medical care. Izzie asked Derek if he would do the surgery pro bono. He agreed if Izzie could get Webber to sign off on it. Izzie pressured him, reminding him that she'd donated $8 million to the hospital to open the clinic.

After his surgery, he was awake and lucid. He said he wasn't going to go back to teaching. He didn't know what was next, but he wanted to figure it out.

Romantic
He married his high school sweetheart after returning to Chehalis when. The majority of his retirement funds went to his wife's medical care before she died.

Familial
He left his research team when his father died.

Professional
Dr. Singer had Izzie Stevens as a student when she was in high school. He says he knew she was smart and capable of doing so much more. Izzie says he's the reason she became a doctor.

Career
Dr. Singer was an evolutionary biologist, part of a research team in the Galapagos Islands. However, his father died and he had to go back home, where he became a high school biology teacher. He was let go by the school when he started showing signs of dementia. After he was treated for normal-pressure hydrocephalus, he decided not to return to teaching.

Notes and Trivia

 * He was 67 at the time of his brain surgery.