Norman Shales was a surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital.
History[]
Surgical Internship[]
Norman came to Seattle Grace from UCLA to be a surgical intern, starting the year a bit late. Because he was so old, many people believed he was an attending when he was just an intern. Because he had trouble keeping up with the other interns, Alex Karev, his resident, tried to dump him in the clinic, but they ended up working on the case together. Hunter Chapman came in with his mother, who suspected he was doing drugs. Norman sided with the mother, who insisted on a drug test. He later tried to get Alex to stop to explain a procedure to his mother before he did it. Afterward, Alex went to apologize to him, but Bailey told him not to apologize because he was an intern and he got in the way. He needed to learn his place. ("Let the Truth Sting")
Gretchen Bitzer[]
Meredith and Norman were doing labs and discharges. They had a patient who was being discharged to hospice, so Meredith taught him the protocol for telling patients they were dying. They then went to Gretchen Bitzer to tell her that she was dying. She and Norman both cried. When they found out that Gretchen wasn't actually dying, they had to track her down because she left the hospital. Norman found her and brought her back. When Mark Sloan said he was planning to write up both Norman and Meredith, Meredith said that Norman was only an intern and she should be the only one written up. ("The Heart of the Matter")
Stroke[]
Norman came to Alex and said he was feeling under the weather. He wanted to go home, but Alex said he needed to suck it up if he wanted to be a surgeon. When Alex saw that Rebecca was back in town, he dismissed Norman to do his own thing. While Norman was helping with James Miller, he started to feel queasy, but he thought it was because of the blood. Later, while in surgery, he collapsed. He'd had a stroke and was taken into surgery to remove the clot. After the clot was out, Norman woke up, confused. ("Haunt You Every Day")
Transfer to Psych[]
After his surgery, he told Alex that he'd wanted to go into psych, but he had a voice in his head telling him to go into surgery. After his stroke, he figured that his wife wanted him to be surrounded by surgeons when he had his stroke. He decided to transfer to psych because he believed the surgeons could all use a good shrink. ("Haunt You Every Day")
Relationships[]
Romantic[]
Norman married Mary-Beth Shales and they had four children. According to him, when one of their children was straying from a good path, she knew right away. When Mary-Beth appeared to him in a dream, he made the decision to go into surgery instead of psych.
Career[]
Dr. Shales was a pharmacist for thirty years. He was transferred from UCLA as an intern, and assigned to Dr. Alex Karev at Seattle Grace Hospital in the surgical program. Because of his age, he was often mistaken by patients as the senior doctor. He collapsed in surgery because of a stroke (causing Dr. Shepherd to operate and remove the clot). He believes that it was his wife watching over him that allowed him to be treated by some of the best surgeons in the world at the time of his stroke. He transferred and became an intern in psych.
Gallery[]
Episodic[]
Episode Stills[]
Appearances[]
| Grey's Anatomy, Season 4 | |||||
| #01 | "A Change is Gonna Come" | #07 | "Physical Attraction... Chemical Reaction" | #13 | "Piece of My Heart" |
| #02 | "Love/Addiction" | #08 | "Forever Young" | #14 | "The Becoming" |
| #03 | "Let the Truth Sting" | #09 | "Crash Into Me, Part 1" | #15 | "Losing My Mind" |
| #04 | "The Heart of the Matter" | #10 | "Crash Into Me, Part 2" | #16 | "Freedom, Part 1" |
| #05 | "Haunt You Every Day" | #11 | "Lay Your Hands on Me" | #17 | "Freedom, Part 2" |
| #06 | "Kung Fu Fighting" | #12 | "Where the Wild Things Are" | ||