It’s very likely that Trauma Center: Under The Knife patient names are inspired by the characters and actors of US medical TV shows. Last year I tracked down as many names as I could. Most of them turned out to be from House, ER and Scrubs.
For a while, I thought it was just coincidence – Greg, Robert, Neil – They’re not terribly uncommon names. Then I looked into the cast and characters of Nip/Tuck and Grey’s Anatomy – one match between them and that was “Linda”. I don’t think that’s enough to include as a source. You can see the full list in the original post – Trauma Center Names from US Hospital Dramas
I still have a few gaps:
- Kevin Turk – Turk is from Scrubs. Kevin?
- Neil Spence – Neil Flynn of Scrubs. Is Spence a short form of House’s Jesse Spencer or something less tenuous?
- Mario Kovac – Dr. Luka Kovac from ER. Who’s Mario?
- Greg Kasal – Probably Dr. Greg House, but is Kasal from the original Japanese?
- Linda Reid – Scrubs’ Elliot Reid. Maaaaybe Nurse Linda from Nip/Tuck.
- Elisa Chalke – Sarah Chalke from Scrubs. Lisa Edelstein from House?
- Jack Reyes – Judy Reyes from Scrubs. Jack – maybe derived from John McGinley
- Amy Chase – Dr. Chase from House. I have no idea about Amy
- Chi McGinley – Obviously John C. McGinley of Scrubs. Chi McBride had a 5-episode stint on House in 2005. What do you think? It’s definitely not a common name.
- Thomas Epps – Omar Epps from House. Thomas is pretty common but it might match up to a surname elsewhere.
- R. Anderson – Maybe Sam Anderson of ER who played Jack Kayson – could match up to Jack Reyes above. Bit tenuous.
Either the translators got very slightly creative or I’m missing another medical drama. Any ideas?


You missed another match on one of the names:
-Neil Spence: apart from Neil Flynn from Scrubs, the name also refers to House M.D. actor Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase.
Anyway, good work out there. I´m a Scrubs fan but I never figured this out, though.
Kevin Turk is actually Chris Turk’s brother, who was played by D.L Hughley in one episode.
One of the patients I encountered on the DS version was Elliot Cox, which could be Elliot Reid and Dr. Cox.
I'd say Linda has to be Linda Cardellini – she played a nurse, Sam Taggart on ER. She's one of the main characters and she's been in it for years…