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 many 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 treatment 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."