Tess Anderson is a patient who masqueraded as a doctor for the day.
History[]
Tess was in the hospital to have surgery for her cancer. She'd previously survived three other types of cancer, starting when she was a child. During her third battle, she was in her third year of medical school. It took a year to recover and it drained her college fund, forcing her to work as a barista. While she was in the hospital, she noticed that there weren't a lot of people there due to the blizzard, so she decided to spend some time in the skills lab, borrowing scrubs and a lab coat to blend in with the residents. While in the skills lab, she struck up a conversation with Richard Webber, who allowed her to practice her skills under his supervision. She then accompanied him and the residents on rounds, where she impressed Ava Gutierrez by telling her the shelters were open 24 hours a day and were accepting any animals people brought in to protect them from the cold. Richard decided to let Tess scrub in on Ava's surgery, thinking she was a resident. Just as she prepared to cut, Levi came in and recognized her as his patient. She was then returned to her hospital room, where they got a psych consult for her. She explained how the cancer had deferred her dreams and she just wanted to spend some time in the skills lab pretending her dreams had come true, then Richard invited her to do more and she couldn't resist. Once she was determined not to be a flight risk, they rescheduled her surgery for the following day. Richard then encouraged her to pursue her dreams after she was finished fighting her cancer. He showed her a new tremor in his hand and said his dream was to be a surgeon and now he can't anymore. He then gave her his stethoscope and said he didn't need it anymore and hoped she would.
Career[]
She works as a barista since her cancer forced her to drop out of medical school.
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