What is "real world" and what is fiction in the hit television series, Grey's Anatomy?  Dr. Mary Boggs, a graduate of Pepperell High School and a third year resident at Mercy Medical Center, in Des Moines, Iowa, was featured recently in an Iowa television station's attempt to better understand the real lives of surgical interns.  

Television station WOI-TV, Channel 5 in Des Moines, presented a two part special, "Grey's Anatomy: A Closer Look" The two part feature story followed surgical interns at Mercy Medical Center to see how their actually experience compare to the characters of the hit television show.  Dr. Mary Boggs segment focuses on the reality of how few women are actually surgeons - even though the majority of the Grey's Anatomy television show's main characters are female.  The news story points out that fewer than 10% of surgeons are women.

The reporter followed Dr. Boggs on her rounds at Mercy Medical as she works her miracles with the patients she sees each day.  The reporter, whose name is not identified in the story on the station website, even takes a moment in the feature to comment on Dr. Boggs' charming southern accent.   The reporter said, "It does not take long to discover she is not from around here."  Dr. Boggs said that her accent is often a great ice breaker with patients.  The close of the story shows the human side of the sometimes sterile world of surgery exhibited in the personality of Dr. Boggs.  The reporter says, "When you follow her in the hospital, you quickly understand that, for Dr. Boggs, a part of healing is treating a patient like a person."  The video closes with a visual of Dr. Boggs hugging and smiling at a patient.

Dr. Mary Boggs, a 1992 graduate of Pepperell High School , was a busy high school student.  She was an honors student, participated in the PHS Chorus, was selected for All-State Chorus, and was first runner-up in Miss PHS.  You can view the WOI-TV story at the following link: video links or you can visit the www.woi-tv.com website and search the topic Grey's Anatomy.