He's a doctor on television's Grey's Anatomy, but off the screen Patrick Dempsey faces the same questions as anyone else when a loved one needs medical care.

"Well, it's overwhelming because it's like, there's too a number of options sometimes. It's like, well, why should I believe the doctors? Shouldn't I get a second opinion? Shouldn't I find a specialist?" he said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos broadcast Sunday on ABC's This Week.

"You feel very naive and childlike in a lot of ways," said Dempsey, whose mother needed therapy for cancer several years ago. "You have to give over a lot of power to these people who may or may not understand what your needs are, or care, just because of the volume of work that they're going through".

He said his mother has been cancer-free for nine years. Since then, he has teamed up with Breakaway from Cancer, a support initiative founded in 2005, to help others.

"You need a support system in to encourage you, to get you up and out of bed in the morning," he said.


Posted by: Jenn    Source

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