ABC/RON TOMWatching TV can do a lot of things for viewers. TV entertains, breaks our hearts, makes us laugh and for some, even saves lives. One Grey's Anatomy viewer said the Shonda Rhimes series helped save hers.
Roughly two years ago, Sarit Fishbaine said she decided to see a breast specialist in Israel. She told Yahoo she always had lumpy breasts, but the visit was prompted by a friend's mother's recent breast cancer battle. She was told she had lumpy breasts, but nothing to worry about. The lumpiness, she was told, was probably due to milk collecting while she was nursing her child. Fast forward six months later…
"I was watching Grey's Anatomy, one of my favorite television shows. In the episode, a young mom arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital for a mastectomy after her breast cancer had been mistaken for milk collecting in her breast. I couldn't fall asleep that night — it felt like a huge warning sign. I had stopped nursing a few months prior and my breast tissue had softened up, but there was definitely a lump on my left breast," Fishbaine said.
She went to see another specialist for a second opinion and the results: stage III breast cancer that had also spread to her lymph nodes. "I'm scared to imagine what would have happened if I hadn't seen Grey's Anatomy that night — it inspired me to seek a second opinion and may have saved my life."
Fishbaine is now cancer-free. Rhimes shared the story on her Facebook page with a simple caption: "Humbling."
In 2011, a young girl helped save her mother's life after finding her unconscious and performing CPR after calling 911. She said she and her sister learned what to do from watching Grey's with their mother every Thursday night.
TV: Doing more than making you an emotional mess for many years.