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Taryn Helm is a surgical resident at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

History

Childhood

She had panic attacks as a child. ("Shelter from the Storm")

Interview

Taryn came into Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for an interview to be considered for an internship. When asked about her faults, she said that she hates all of her peers. ("Ain't That a Kick in the Head")

New Intern Mixer

Taryn attended the new intern mixer at the hospital, where Richard gave a speech about them starting their work as doctors. During the party, Meredith Grey was celebrated as she learned she had been nominated for a Harper Avery Award. The new interns then walked around the hospital, in awe that they worked there and so did Meredith Grey. ("Come on Down to My Boat, Baby")

Roller Coaster Derailment

When a roller coaster derailed at a fair, Vik and Taryn tended to Dean Parson, who was injured while pushing kids out of the way. They noticed free fluid in his abdomen and he was taken to surgery, despite Amelia ordering a CT. When Taryn informed Amelia of this, Amelia brought the CT into the OR to do the scan. They found a bleed in his brain and Amelia did a craniotomy. ("Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story")

Hospital Hacking

When the hospital was hacked, Taryn and the other doctors had to resort to using old school methods to diagnose and treat patients. ("Out of Nowhere")

Finding Jo

Taryn came to tell Alex their patient had a bleed, but he sent her to find Jo and stay with her. Taryn did so, even going so far as to follow Jo into the bathroom stall. She was later joined by Vikram Roy until they were dismissed when Alex and Meredith came to stay with Jo. ("1-800-799-7233")

Assisting April

Taryn helped April treat Paul Stadler when he was initially in the ER and then later informed April that he had died, though she didn't know the details of the case. She also assisted April in delivering Ruby Taylor. ("Personal Jesus")

Helping Meredith

When Meredith had an idea for a surgical project for the contest while operating, she had Taryn pull out her phone and record Meredith explaining everything she wanted to do for the project. ("Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger")

When Meredith needed to convince another surgeon who held the patent for the polymer she needed to allow her to use it for her research, she had to wait for a phone call from Madrid. She had Taryn wait for the call, but when it came, Meredith was busy with a patient, so Taryn took the call, angering Dr. Cerone. When they called back, Taryn was told to hand the phone over to Andy Herrera, who was able to convince Dr. Cerone to meet with Meredith when she was in the US. ("You Really Got a Hold on Me")

Taryn informed Meredith later that Dr. Cerone was dead, which is why they were stalling. The patent was left under the control of his daughter, Marie Cerone, also a doctor. They later presented the idea to Marie, who was an old friend of Ellis's. When she was reluctant to allow Meredith use without proof that it would work, they showed her the mouse they had secretly treated using her polymer. ("Games People Play")

They continued to try out other polymers to treat various mice. However, the mice kept dying, threatening their success. They kept working despite those setbacks and found that the mouse who had been injected with the cells without a polymer did the best overall, giving them hope for progress. ("Hold Back the River")

Game Night

After overhearing Maggie, Amelia, and Meredith planning a game night, Levi showed up with Taryn. Maggie just shut the door in their faces. ("Games People Play")

Trauma Certification

The time came for the interns to go through their Trauma Certification Drill. Owen set the scenario where a Cessna crashed into a Greyhound bus. April interrupted and said that the evacuation helicopter wasn't coming and people were dying. Their job was to save lives. Owen judged the competition, but April hung around to help and insistently made the scenarios worse. She even had a second plane crash hit Andrew, who was helping monitor. Andrew and Bello were fighting in Spanish and Italian, when Helm joined the arguing in French. April also added rain with a hose. The difficulties ended when April was paged away. Owen helped the interns calm down and continued the drill. When April returned, she learned that Casey had been the one to page her away. He realized that she was endangering the patients the most, so he removed her from the equation. She told him he was trying to cheat and after she "cheated" at her certification, a man came into the hospital and died because she couldn't save him. She then started crying and performing CPR on a dummy while the interns watched. Andrew stopped her and she said the certification was done. ("Caught Somewhere in Time")

Contest

After several of the doctors ingested weed cookies, Meredith told the interns they'd have to step up more and told them to keep track of what they did and whoever did the most would win a contest and get to scrub in with her on a Whipple. ("Judgment Day")

Diego Ramirez

Taryn assisted Jackson and Meredith on Diego Ramirez and his tumor resection. ("Bad Reputation")

Saving April

After April was in a car accident and came to the hospital hypothermic, Taryn and the other interns took shifts with the attendings doing CPR. ("Cold as Ice")

Alex and Jo's Wedding

On the day of Alex and Jo's wedding, Taryn was part of the group that went to the wrong wedding. When they realized what had happened, they all rushed to get on a ferry out to Bainbridge Island. When Taryn got drunk and said she was going to confess her love to Meredith, Carina stopped her, saying love's too precious to waste it on someone who can't love you back. Despite a series of delays, Jo and Alex eventually got married on the ferry, witnessed by their friends. ("All of Me")

Cece Colvin

Taryn spent the night monitoring Cece Colvin. When she crashed, Taryn helped save her. She then continued to monitor Cece as they tested her heart and when Cece noticed that Taryn has a crush on Meredith, she advised Taryn not to waste her time and offered romantic advice. ("Broken Together")

Cece later got an infection that made her dialysis catheter no longer available for use, which forced them to find a new way to get access. Meredith later figured out they could use a translumbar catheter. ("Gut Feeling")

Meredith's Date

When Meredith showed up to work dressed for her lunch date, Taryn was in awe of her appearance. ("Momma Knows Best")

ER Work

When Owen Hunt took a personal day last-minute, Webber told Taryn and Schmitt that they were to report to Andrew and remember to provide patients the best level of care. They helped Andrew treat a man with lacerations and Levi had trouble with a cut on his forehead. Levi struggled, so Andrew gave him a pointer. Later, when Molly Graham stopped breathing, Andrew had to intubate and brushed off the interns' help, which Richard disapproved of. ("Everyday Angel")

Wind Storm

During the windstorm, Taryn was excited about the impaled patients. She helped treat Phoebe Moss and when Phoebe was declared brain dead, she noticed that Phoebe had the same blood type as Cece Colvin. She contacted UNOS who said because the organs couldn't be transported anywhere due to the storm, they would approve a directed donation to Cece. However, the power went out right as Cece was being taken into surgery. ("Blowin' in the Wind")

Taryn quickly began to panic in the elevator, which increased Bailey own panic. They worked to calm each other down, but were soon calling out for help to come. Jackson and Link came to their aid, trying to open the doors even as Jed Lundberg tried to stop them. When he learned the organs were for Cece, Jed instead helped. He helped them get free and Taryn and Bailey rushed the organs to the OR. Taryn then assisted with the transplant, but unfortunately, Cece didn't survive the surgery, which greatly upset Taryn. ("Shelter from the Storm")

Uma Paxton

Taryn worked on the case of Uma Paxton, who was having several internal organs removed to treat a recurrent vaginal tumor. ("Help, I'm Alive")

Catherine's Surgery

When Catherine had surgery to remove her tumor, Taryn was in the crowd watching from the gallery until Richard closed the gallery. ("The Winner Takes It All")

Lucille Reid

Taryn worked on the case of Lucille Reid. She believed Lucille, Julian, and Marvin were a poly couple and seemed pleased to see them. However, it turned out that while she and Marvin were married, she and Julian were just best friends. ("I Walk the Line")

Mass Overdose

During the opioid overdose, Taryn worked meeting the ambulances outside and triaging patients. She triaged Betty and Linus when they came in. ("I Want a New Drug")

Alex's Mother

When Alex's mother came to the hospital to see him, Taryn came to tell Alex she was there, calling her Mrs. Karev. Alex, believing that she was talking about Jo, corrected that it's Doctor and told her to say he would meet her at the party. She relayed the message to Helen, who was confused. ("We Didn't Start the Fire")

Getting Alex

When one of the lambs from Vincenzo's lab died, he argued with his children over why it happened and what it meant for the research. Taryn came to get Alex so he could see what had happened. ("And Dream of Sheep")

Toby Donnelly

Taryn helped Jackson treat Toby Donnelly, who had been in a snowmobile accident. ("Add It Up")

Lining the Hall for Abby

When Abby Redding needed surgery after being raped, Taryn was among the women who lined the hallway to the elevator to ensure that Abby wouldn't see any men's faces. ("Silent All These Years")

Gus Carter

Taryn worked on the case of Gus Carter, a child who had a cough a recurrent sinus infection for over two weeks. Due to autism, he wasn't comfortable with a physical exam, so Alex used his love of building and some legos to get him to tell them he was in a lot of pain in his chest. They found a thymoma, but couldn't operate because he was anemic and needed a transfusion first. Then they found out he has an extremely rare blood type with RH null, meaning he needed an exact match to his type. They had only been able to locate four potential donors in the world, but Alex promised they'd keep looking until they found enough to operate. ("The Whole Package")

Nico's Patients

Taryn stepped into Scott Carter's surgery to update Nico on his other patients and also asked if she could scrub in on the broken butt. Nico criticized her for making light of a patient's condition and sent her away. ("Drawn to the Blood")

Skills Lab

Wanting to find her joy again, Bailey set up a skills lab based around the case of Wade Foltz. She challenged the residents to determine his diagnosis and then practice their surgical skills for the chance to do a portion of the surgery. Taryn participated in the skills lab and won over the other residents. In surgery, she finished her part of the surgery, but when she removed the second clamp, he started bleeding profusely. Taryn immediately panicked and looked to Bailey, who took a step back and Andrew eventually stepped in to finish the surgery. ("Back in the Saddle")

Meredith's Article and Alicia Chen

When an article came out that condemned the healthcare industry, stemming from a list of possible article topics Meredith floated to a publisher, the residents discussed it in the locker room while getting ready for their days. Taryn liked the article and said Meredith was a badass for writing it, but Blake warned them that while he had Hopkins and Koracick on his resumé, they might have difficulty finding other jobs.

Later, Taryn worked with Teddy on Alicia Chen, who had been hit by a person who fell out of a plane. ("It's Raining Men")

Zola's Surgery

When Zola had to have her shunt revised, Taryn was in on the surgery. To her delight, Meredith gave Taryn her number to get updates. Taryn sent updates throughout the surgery and when they were finished, she came out with Tom to tell Meredith how things went. ("Breathe Again")

Halloween

On Halloween, Taryn went to the peds department costume parade to watch the children. When Nico came to see Levi, who was unable to leave due to having to plan the event, she commented on their relationship and costumes. ("Whistlin' Past the Graveyard")

Meredith's Hearing

On the day of Meredith's hearing, Taryn and the other residents were told they'd have to up their game to make up for the missing attendings. At the end of the day, the residents were all exhausted from the extra work they'd done. Blake then announced that Levi had been the one to turn Meredith's fraud in, turning the other residents against him. ("My Shot")

Meredith's Return to Work

On Meredith's first day back at work, Taryn and the other residents greeted her with a cake. Afterward, they went on rounds, where they worked on the case of Elliott Calhoun. Taryn scrubbed in on his surgery and asked if she should close. However, due to a complication, they ended up having to leave him open and wait. ("Let's All Go to the Bar")

Bar Crash

While Taryn was at the bar with some other residents, a car crashed through a window and into the bar. ("Let's All Go to the Bar")

Taryn's leg was injured in the accident and she also believed she had a broken pelvis. Jackson determined that her leg was broken and set it after giving her a couple shots of whiskey so she could tolerate the pain. She continued to believe she was dying, despite multiple people assuring her she wasn't dying, that she was just drunk. When they finally got the back entrance unblocked, Taryn was put on a gurney and taken out of the bar. ("I Know This Bar")

After being removed from the bar, Taryn was taken to the hospital, where they placed an IVC filter and repaired her leg. While Meredith was placing the filter, Taryn, a little intoxicated, confessed her love for Meredith. As Link and Nico were finishing on her leg, she started coding, so Bailey and Richard stepped in to stop some internal bleeding. They had to extend the initial incision into a sternotomy to get proper visualization to find the bleed. They were able to stop her bleeding and she was expected to make a full recovery. ("Help Me Through the Night")

Suzanne Britland

Taryn and the other residents were assigned to look into every possible diagnosis for Suzanne Britland. They gathered in her hospital room and went over every possible explanation for Suzanne's symptoms. ("Save the Last Dance for Me")

Bear Attack

After she had recovered from her injuries and returned to work, Taryn worked on Scott Burke, who came in after being attacked by a bear. She was confused when she learned that Scott's wife, Rachel, was in love with another man, but kept it secret from Scott at her request. Scott later died of his injuries. ("A Diagnosis")

Ms. Gutierrez

Taryn rounded on Ms. Gutierrez with Richard and some other residents. She was meant to scrub in on her surgery, but after she made an off-putting comment about freezing to death being peaceful, Richard chose Tess Desmond to scrub in instead, not knowing she was actually a patient, not a resident. Taryn later scrubbed in on the surgery when the truth came out. ("Snowblind")

Pro Bono Surgery Day

Taryn was impressed when Meredith set up a day for 25 people to get pro bono surgeries. She helped coordinate the patients, but got into trouble when she moved patients at Andrew's word, without Meredith's authorization, an act which she told Andrew was unforgivable. ("Give a Little Bit")

Guthrie Hamilton

Taryn worked on Guthrie Hamilton's surgery. When Amelia believed she was in labor during the surgery and had to step back, Taryn congratulated her. Later, when Tom had a moment of panic when Guthrie coded, she asked if she should go page someone to help. Teddy was able to calm Tom down and he was able to finish the surgery. ("Sing It Again")

Richard's Illness

When Richard returned to Seattle after his disastrous presentation, Taryn along with the other residents were challenged to look for things that could explain his symptoms. ("Sing It Again")

She continued to work as part of the team finding a diagnosis for Richard. When he was diagnosed with cobalt poisoning, his hip replacement was replaced and he was cured. ("Put on a Happy Face")

Erin Banks

Taryn helped on the case when Erin Banks, whom the hospital previously knew as Cindy Wright, came back to the hospital. She was a human trafficking victim who had developed a hernia. Taryn was shocked to see Bailey let Andrew work on her case. When they learned the truth about her, including her name, Taryn was the one to call the police and inform them of Erin's location. ("All Tomorrow's Parties")

Covid-19

Early in the pandemic, Taryn had a mild case of COVID-19. She said she learned to make sourdough during that time. She couldn't taste or smell it, but the texture seemed right to her. ("You'll Never Walk Alone")

Taryn was back to work at the hospital as COVID-19 cases started to creep up. When a shipment of PPE arrived, expected to contain masks, Taryn and Mabel were assigned to guard the boxes. They were all disappointed when the shipment contained only booties. ("All Tomorrow's Parties")

Yvonne Boyd

When Yvonne Boyd was mauled by her pet tiger, she was brought to Grey Sloan Memorial. Taryn did an ultrasound of her heart and pronounced her dead on arrival. ("Wild World")

Manoj Joshi

Taryn worked on the case of Manoj Joshi, a sex therapist with a hand injury. She became fascinated when she learned that he advertised as being able to get his clients up to 37 orgasms in an hour. While they operated on him, Taryn talked about people needing sex especially during a pandemic. After surgery, when Manoj offered his secret, Taryn eagerly asked him to share it. He said he simply asked what his clients wanted and he listened to them. ("My Happy Ending")

Delivering Tom's Test and Tom's Hospitalization

When Tom Koracick demanded a second COVID test, believing the first to be a false positive, Taryn delivered it to his house and took it back for testing after he completed his own swab. She was interested in his statistical model, which he wanted to use to stop the pandemic. When she returned to his house a second time, he told her he'd destroyed the world on the model. ("You'll Never Walk Alone")

Two days later, Tom was brought to the hospital with neurological symptoms. Taryn noted that he'd been fine when she last saw him. When they got him into the ER, Taryn was kicked out of the room as she was a resident and he had COVID, even though she'd already had it and recovered from it. ("Fight the Power")

COVID Surge

When Seattle Pres reached capacity and stopped accepting patients, Grey Sloan Memorial activated surge protocol, which meant residents would start seeing COVID patients. Taryn was part of the operation to set up the cafeteria as COVID overflow. When she placed the monitor in the wrong place, Teddy snapped at her and then sent her away when Richard asked for help moving patients. Later, she found Meredith in another patient's room, having tended to them when they coded. As Meredith went back to her own room, she told Taryn to get her a wheelchair and then she collapsed. Taryn sat by her bedside as Richard made the difficult decision to have her put on a ventilator. ("No Time for Despair")

Relationships

Romantic

She has a crush on Meredith Grey. While drunk at Alex and Jo's wedding, she planned to tell Meredith, but Carina DeLuca stopped her, saying love was too precious to be wasted on someone who can't love you back. ("All of Me")

Despite this advice, Taryn continued to pursue Meredith, who was oblivious to her pursuits. When Cece Colvin noticed this, she told Taryn that she spent 35 years falling in love with straight girls and offered to help Taryn not do that. ("Broken Together")

Later, when she was in surgery to place an IVC filter, under the influence of the sedation plus some whiskey, she confessed her to love to Meredith. When she sobered up, she was extremely embarrassed. ("Help Me Through the Night")

Notes and Trivia

  • Her ringtone is a quacking duck.[1]
  • She speaks French.[2]
  • She has a very intimidating mother.[3]
  • She danced as a child.[4]
  • She is allergic to morphine.[5]
  • She believes weddings are an antiquated ritual.[6]
  • Her favorite food is hummus.
  • She plays Zombie Apocalypse.[7]

Gallery

Episodic

Episode Stills

Appearances



References

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