When asked to name her favorite "Grey's Anatomy" episode in an interview with Variety, Krista Vernoff didn't hesitate to say "Six Days." In fact, she had so much content written that there was no choice but to expand it into a two-parter. After all, Harold's fate was largely inspired by the death of her own father, Bob Verne, whose name is memorialized at the end of the second part.
"It was very much my story and it's the thing I'm most proud of," she said.
Verne passed away at 56 due to the same diagnosis — esophageal cancer (via TV Fanatic). At first, he was convinced he had the flu, but that was far from the case. Still, just like Harold, Vernoff reflected on how her dad was upbeat and surrounded by loved ones: "He had a profoundly positive attitude." And just like George, Vernoff became "absolutely obsessed" with her dad's kidney function. She said, "I checked that urine bag like 50 times a day."
Many other aspects of "Six Days" are identical to Vernoff's devastating final days with Verne, from the horrifying kink in his breathing tube to the surgical team proceeding with tumor-removal surgery despite the patient being too far gone. Vernoff was livid that they performed the procedure at Verne's request, but she didn't shout at them like George.
"Writing and shooting that scene was wish fulfillment for me," she said. "What happened in my life is, we went into my dad's ICU and put our hands on his body and sang him Beatles songs while the nurses turned off the machines."
