Warning! SPOILERS about Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episode 20 ahead.
Grey’s Anatomy season 19’s finale left Teddy’s fate hanging after a toothache bothered her in both episodes, but the medical drama already had someone collapsing after an inconspicuous toothache in the past. Teddy’s collapse in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episode 20, was as unexpected as it was impactful, especially as her illness also affected the interns’ decision to operate on Sam and the patient’s already dangerous predicament that eventually turned fatal. While Grey’s Anatomy is famous for turning ordinary conditions into life-threatening dangers, Teddy being the affected party seemed unusual as she already faced many challenges in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, with none having something to do with her health.
Kim Raver’s confirmed return as Teddy for Grey’s Anatomy season 20 dispels worries about Teddy’s condition potentially being fatal. Still, the circumstances surrounding Teddy’s sudden illness are odd, given that she was Grey Sloan Memorial’s powerhouse in Grey’s Anatomy season 19. Between Bailey’s heart and anxiety problems and Richard’s troubles with his wife Catherine’s cancer, Teddy was someone audiences never had to worry about, and Grey’s Anatomy season 19 proved Teddy’s ability to step up and become one of Grey Sloan’s best chiefs of surgery. The speed and unexpectedness of Teddy’s condition shrouded her collapse with mystery, making her illness more unpredictable than worrying in Grey’s Anatomy season 19.
Patient Ignored Toothache In Grey’s Anatomy Season 17
Grey’s Anatomy season 17 already had a patient collapsing from a toothache, although the connection between his collapse and the toothache wasn’t as direct as it was for Teddy in season 19. Byron Gibbis was found unconscious on his porch in Grey’s Anatomy season 17, episode 8, “It’s All Too Much.” Subsequently, he quickly became the epitome of how mental health affected people during the pandemic, even in cases where patients didn’t catch Covid-19.
While Byron’s fear of the virus almost had him refuse treatment, he actually ended up at Grey Sloan Memorial because of endocarditis. This inflammation worsened after he didn’t go to a dentist for his toothache because of the pandemic. As such, the circumstances around the two toothache collapses are somewhat different.
Grey’s Anatomy Doctors Helped Patient, So There’s Hope For Teddy
The focus of Byron’s story in Grey’s Anatomy season 17 had more to do with his fear of catching Covid-19 and how it impacted Byron’s daily life than with the condition that brought him to Grey Sloan, but Maggie and Winston’s abilities still led to the correct diagnosis and treatment. His case was Maggie and Winston’s first together after he moved to Seattle to be with her and the first to showcase Winston’s abilities as a doctor. Given Winston’s recent promotion to chief of cardio in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episode 19, he could be the one helping Teddy with a diagnosis and treatment in Grey’s Anatomy season 20.
Teddy’s collapse might be related to her toothache or depend on something else entirely. Indeed, the only sign of something being wrong with Teddy’s health was her toothache in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episodes 19 and 20, but that could also prove a detail to mislead her doctors before the correct diagnosis is reached. Whichever way Teddy’s storyline is resolved, the causes of her collapse must be investigated in Grey’s Anatomy season 20, and the medical drama already showed the condition to be treatable, if it turns out to be endocarditis – hopefully, this will give a more complete explanation of Grey’s Anatomy season 19’s ending’s shocking twist.