Why does izzie stevens leave grey anatomy

She later realized that she did not have to settle for Alex. However, Denny survived and they grew closer. He had an LVAD inserted to keep him alive for longer so he could wait for a heart, but after finding out that Denny had become a DNR do not resuscitate patient, Izzie jumped at the chance to get him a new heart. After discovering that he lost a donor heart to someone on the donor list who was ahead of him by 17 seconds, she implored him to let her cut his LVAD wire so his condition would worsen and he would move up on the donor list.

At first, Denny refused because it would end her medical career and he didn't want to steal a heart out of another man's chest but after Izzie broke down crying and begged him, he agreed. As the interns struggled to keep Denny alive, Cristina informed them that Denny's surgeon, Preston Burke , was shot and struggling to survive.

After hearing the news, Izzie panicked, completely at a loss. In the midst of the chaos, Denny proposed to a shocked Izzie. Miranda Bailey walked in on the interns and banned them all from any surgeries until the person who cut the LVAD wire confessed.

Meanwhile, Alex invited Dr. Erica Hahn to replace Dr. Burke on Denny's heart transplant surgery. Hahn successfully completed Denny's transplant surgery and when Izzie visited Denny after his transplant she accepted his marriage proposal.

Denny died from a stroke shortly thereafter leaving Izzie devastated and lying next to Denny's body. Alex carried her off the bed and told her that the body wasn't Denny and that Denny loved her and he wouldn't want Izzie to do this to herself. After a long period of mourning, Izzie moved on but refused Alex's offer of a relationship. When Izzie discovered that George liked Meredith, she encouraged him to tell her. Eventually, he did but after his disastrous sexual encounter with her, he moved out of the house, much to Izzie's disappointment.

Despite several attempts, George refuses to tell Izzie where he is currently living. Eventually, he moved back in and frequently had his new girlfriend, Dr. Callie Torres , over, much to Izzie's dismay.

Izzie made it very clear to George that she disapproved of her presence in his life because she considered Callie a freak. After taking multiple jibes, Callie told George it was because Izzie was in love with him. After Callie disclosed the fact that she was somewhat wealthy and was paying most of their bills herself and didn't mind doing so, a hurt George told Meredith, who told Izzie.

Izzie used this information when making a snide remark about Callie, knowing it would hit a nerve. Infuriated at his indiscretion, Callie kicked George out of their hotel room after voicing her opinion that Izzie "had feelings" for George. Upset and confused, George went to Izzie and Meredith's house with a bottle of bourbon and after getting drunk, Izzie and George slept together. The next day, George had no recollection of their intimacy the previous night and didn't remember until he was having lunch with Callie and her father.

George confronted Izzie about it in a linen closet at the hospital and after they almost kissed, George left in a surge of guilt. Later, Izzie wanted to tell Callie but George insisted that it be kept a secret. While dealing with the aftermath of her sexual encounter with George, Izzie was visited by the adoptive parents of the child she had given up years before.

Hannah, now 11, is sick with leukemia and her donor for a bone marrow transplant had died the previous night. Izzie asked if she could meet Hannah, her parents agreed if Hannah wanted to.

Izzie agreed to donate bone marrow to save her daughter's life, causing her emotional grief, Dr. Bailey helped Izzie keep her daughter a secret from the other interns and helped her during the beginning of the bone marrow harvest. Hannah's parents informed Izzie that Hannah was tired and maybe Izzie could meet Hannah when she was better. Despite this, Izzie still agreed to donate bone marrow. George noticed Izzie crying earlier and went to find her. He stayed with her for the rest of the harvest, setting aside other emotions.

In the recovery room, Izzie confides in George that she has a daughter and says she needs their friendship to survive even though the sex wasn't tragic like the encounter with him and Meredith.

George was still conflicted with his feelings for Izzie and his guilt in betraying Callie, he left Izzie crying in the room, only to return once he realized Izzie needed help as a friend.

George came with Izzie when she saw her daughter for the first time, noting that Hannah had Izzie's eyes and mouth. Following this, Izzie and George pretended that everything was fine, and continued to spend time together as friends.

As Callie became more suspicious, she confronted Izzie and begged her to relinquish George which prompted Izzie to guiltily withdraw from him. She and George both realized they couldn't pretend their sexual encounter never happened, especially because their feelings for each other keep getting in the way. The combination of all these factors leads George to decide to transfer to Mercy West.

After George received a letter telling him he'd been accepted to Mercy West Medical Center , pending the results of the intern exam, Izzie tried to convince him not to leave by saying she had no romantic feelings towards him. Izzie later admitted to George that she was in love with him, leaving him speechless. George later admitted he loved Izzie too, despite his strange reaction to her when she confessed her love to him.

Their relationship was soon discovered by George's wife, Callie and the two got a divorce. After some time, George and Izzie realized that their relationship was not working as they had very little chemistry. They broke up but continued to have a close friendship. When Izzie was diagnosed with cancer, her mother Robbie visited the hospital, unaware of how bad the cancer was.

Before she left, she said to Izzie that she always knew she was too good for the trailer park. Izzie said she loved her mother, but they work better at a distance. Her grandmother had a tumor on her thyroid and eventually died of thyroid cancer. She bonded fastest with George.

After a rough start with Alex, she became friends with him too. Izzie bonded well with Alison , who was similar to Izzie. They had similar cancer, age, and treatment plans. On discovering Alison decided against surgery for her brain metastases and discovering the IL-2 therapy was working, Izzie was torn between having surgery or not. She tried to get the opinion of Alex, Cristina, Meredith, and George. Cristina and Meredith did not agree with the surgery.

With IL-2 therapy, after three months, the mets were gone. Alex said their life together was at stake and eventually urged for the surgery, however. She attended University of Washington School of Medicine. At the beginning of her internship, Izzie struggled with others' assumptions of her as an incompetent doctor, due to the fact that she used to be a lingerie model. Izzie was a reasonably good doctor but when she cut Denny Duquette's LVAD wire, she was going to be suspended but instead quit.

Alex Karev later convinced Bailey to talk to Izzie and make her come back which Bailey succeeded in doing. Bailey convinced the Chief to let her return but with a strict probation which doesn't allow her to have contact with patients and an inferiority to her fellow interns. Izzie became dissatisfied with the limited amount of medical work she could do and frequently tried to push the boundaries of her probation. She even donated most of her money from Denny Duquette's check to a free clinic where she and Bailey often worked.

During an emergency involving a ferry accident, Izzie saved a man's life by drilling burr holes into his skull with an ordinary drill in the field. This prompted an impressed chief to take her off probation and allow her to finish the rest of the procedure by drilling more burr holes but this time with a real high-speed surgical drill.

After using a tactic of assigning Izzie to a patient that would inevitably die, Izzie left obstetrics. Izzie decided to try going into cardiothoracic surgery but was met by a determined Cristina , who was also trying to make a career in the same department. She eventually decided that she was not suited for the specialty and stopped pursuing it.

After Bailey realized she had too many things to look after, she handed over the keys of the clinic to Izzie, giving it to her.

When her interns and the others started to dislike being doctors since they were banned from surgery, Izzie set up a competition, won by Lexie. When she realized that Denny appearing was because she was sick, the set up a competition to diagnose patient X. When she discovered that she had cancer and other people started to learn, she finally admitted herself as a patient, she just designed Meredith and Derek's wedding and was quizzed on medical trivia by Bailey.

She quickly got back on her feet and continued working as a surgeon, although some thought it was too soon and after concerns from Owen Hunt, Derek Shepherd and Alex, Izzie was fired during the merger with Mercy West, although the chief used the standard speech and claimed it was due to budget cutbacks.

After this Izzie left a note in Alex's cubby and left him. She relocated to Baldwin City, Kansas and became a surgical oncologist.

A more complete gallery with pictures of Izzie Stevens can be found here. Grey's Anatomy Universe Wiki Explore. Community and Help. One infamous example came during an appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" in , when she complained about Grey's Anatomy's filming hours, saying, "Our first day back was Wednesday, and it was—I'm going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them—a hour day, which I think is cruel and mean" transcribed via Vulture.

Lettermen responded by asking how long she expects to stay on the show under those conditions, to which she replied, "Yeah, that's what I keep wondering. This could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, considering she left the show the next year, despite having two left on her contract.

When Heigl started working on the set of "Grey's Anatomy," no one knew how big her role would become. The same could be said about her ego, which inflated in direct proportion with her star power. She would use this fame to leverage herself toward other significant roles.

Eventually, she landed leading parts in two notable blockbusters — 's " Knocked Up " and 's "27 Dresses" — turning her into a well-known celebrity. Unfortunately for Heigl, she also starred in a handful of flops following her departure from "Grey's Anatomy," including "Killers," "New Year's Eve," and "One for the Money.

Heigl floated the idea of rejoining the cast of "Grey's Anatomy," but the show's producer, Shonda Rhimes, made it clear that the interest was not mutual. Heigl would star in a handful of new movies and TV shows since all of this, including "Firefly Lane" and "Woodhull," both of which she also executive produced.

Addison Montgomery Kate Walsh , a world-class surgeon leading the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Seattle Grace Hospital.

However, Izzie's incredible interpersonal skills and remarkable ability to bond with patients didn't always pay off. Season 1 and Season 2 chronicled her struggles to maintain a sense of distance, and she ended up getting herself into fishy situations on several occasions. In "17 Seconds," we watched the ambitious intern cut a heart transplant patient, Denny Duquette's Jeffrey Dean Morgan LVAD cord in a bid to save his life, only for the plan to backfire miserably.

A Season 4 episode titled "A Change Is Gonna Come" captured her attempts to defibrillate a deer — which cast new doubt on her abilities to maintain integrity and handle patients correctly. Izzie and Alex began dating as early as Season 1 of the show, but they parted ways after just a few episodes.

In Season 2, Izzie started pursuing a relationship with Denny, and they even got engaged. After his death, she became romantically involved with another co-worker, George T. Season 6 focused on Izzie's battle with stage VI skin cancer, which she managed to recover from despite the worst of odds.