Scrubs:

Despite Dr Cox’s factoid that one out of every three patients admitted to Sacred Heart will die there, JD, Turk and Elliot don’t believe they’ll ever see somebody die in front of them, but today is different.

Mrs Tanner is a delightful Grandmother who lives life to the full, but she needs dialysis to live. Her attitude that everybody has to die shocks JD, so taking the liberty of jotting down a few things he thinks everybody should do once in their life, and tries to convince Mrs Tanner to cling onto life.

Whilst JD is coming up with reasons to live, Turk and Elliot are finding the personal touch hard. David, Turk’s hernia patient, is a happy-go-lucky jock who wants to shoot the breeze and talk sport, and Elliot can’t even communicate with the seriously ill Mrs Guerrero, mainly because she can’t speak Spanish.

After spending time with him, Turk sees that behind the bravado, David is lonely and scared and when he dies during surgery he realises it doesn’t hurt to show a little bit of kindness and treat the patients as people. Elliot’s own epiphany comes with a little help from Carla who teaches her Spanish, and rather than running away from responsibility, Elliot finally makes the hard decisions a doctor needs to make.

Which leaves JD on his back in the park thinking on Mrs Tanner’s deathbed advice; rather wasting his time trying to change her decision, how many of the things on the life affirming list has he done? Death comes to us all, and JD’s got plenty to live for before the Reaper comes a-knocking!