The Editor at Large for Entertainment Weekly, Lynette Rice has
authored a book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy. She
recounts the 16 year long history of the longest running medical drama.

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The 320-pages oral history has been compiled after more than
80 interviews with current and former cast as well as crewmembers. It was
published on September 21.

The book uncovers everything from the controversial departure
of Isaiah Washington, Katherine Heigi’s fall from grace and Patrick Dempsey’s
shocking exit from the show.

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Despite axing a number of big names from the world of Grey’s
Anatomy the show’s rating never dipped. It has continued to be a fan favourite
and averages over eight million viewers each week.

Several shocking revelations have been made in the book, about the biggest  stars of the series. One such discovery is that the show’s lead Ellen Pompeo
was not interested in doing a medical show.

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However, due to the circumstances Shonda Rhimes was able to
convince Pompeo to sign for Grey’s Anatomy and the rest is history.

The director James D. Parriot revealed that there was a time
when some of the actors had a grudge against Rhimes because of not getting enough
screen time. Siding with Shonda, he said it can become difficult to give
everyone a big story line with a cast as big as that of Grey’s Anatomy.

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An entire chapter of the book is devoted to addressing the
departure of Patrick Dempsey. He portrayed Meredith’s love interest Derek
Shepherd and was a part of the show for its first eleven seasons.

Allegedly, Dempsey used to terrorize the set and had some
issues with the HR. He was often involved in heated exchanges with Shonda.
Eventually his exit from the show was sealed by the death of his character.

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The book is a must read for all the fans of Grey’s Anatomy
and will give them an insight into the workings of the show. It seems like the
medical drama is involved in just as much drama on the set as it is on screen.