Grey’s Anatomy never shied away from shock value. Fans were close to losing their minds upon learning that Derek (Patrick Dempsey) was not a bachelor at the end of season one. Over the years, this medical drama has pulled all the stops when orchestrating the exits of some cast members. In fact, fans are still reeling from the way that it killed off George (T.R. Knight).
At the same time, Grey’s Anatomy also has a way of teasing fans, making them think that a doctor is in the clutches of death, and in fact, some of them nearly do die, but end up making it in the end. Here are some of those moments.
17 Seconds
This season two episode was more chaotic than most. Around this time, Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) had to fly to another hospital in anticipation of a new heart for Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Everything was looking good until Denny’s donor heart becomes unviable. When this happens, Burke makes a case to get a donor heart intended for Erica Hahn’s (Brooke Smith) patient.
Back at the hospital, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) cuts Denny’s LVAD wire to make him sicker. She thinks everything will go according to plan until Burke gets shot outside the ER. He gets treated in the next episode.
Dream A Little Dream of Me, Part 1
At the end of this episode, Cristina (Sandra Oh) has had it with Meredith. She can’t take any more discussion about Derek, and instead, she is determined to get back to work. However, fate had other plans. Just as she was making her way back inside the hospital, Cristina slips, and before she can get up, an icicle from the roof falls down and pierces her abdomen.
Around this time, no one really knew if Cristina would survive. In Part 2 of the episode, Owen (Kevin McKidd) comes to Cristina’s rescue, carrying her into the hospital so that she could be treated.
Sanctuary
This episode is, undoubtedly, one of the deadliest episodes that Grey’s Anatomy has ever aired. In the beginning, the hospital was running normally, until Gary Clark (Michael O'Neill), the widower of Derek’s former patient, begins to wander around the hospital with a gun.
Trying to locate Derek, he starts shooting any surgeon he encounters. He first shot Reed Adamson (Nora Zehetner) dead, then he sees Alex (Justin Chambers) and shoots him in the chest. Later, Gary eventually finds Derek and after a verbal exchange, he shoots him too.
Song Beneath The Song
From time to time, TV dramas like to reinvent the wheel and try something different. In the case of Grey’s Anatomy, producers thought it would be a good idea for the cast to break into song. Unfortunately, fans didn’t look at this experiment favorably. And it didn’t matter if the episode dealt with the aftermath of a car crash that sent a pregnant Callie (Sara Ramirez) flying through the car’s windshield.
The moment she arrives in the hospital, Callie is rushed to the ER. Her condition was critical, but the team manages to save Callie and her baby.
Now Or Never
Throughout her stay on the show, Izzie went through a lot. For starters, she lost Denny shortly after he proposed to her. And later on, she learns she has cancer.
The disease ultimately takes a toll on her body, so much so that Izzie becomes convinced she may not make it. In fact, she even tells Alex to let her go in case she flatlines and that she already signed a DNR. Izzie’s condition eventually deteriorates, and at one point, it did look like she would die.
Help, I’m Alive
Grey’s longtime fans will especially know that Owen is as tough as they come. He is a military veteran, after all, and he’s been through some seriously traumatizing situations. Clearly, Owen also has great survival instincts, and nothing can bring him down. Well, this isn't exactly true.
In this episode, Owen gets hooked up to an IV after experiencing some flu-like symptoms. Despite this, he looked fine, even deciding to operate on a patient. Once in the OR, however, Owen is accidentally injected with a paralytic drug, which makes him collapse and he ends up requiring intubation.
Drowning On Dry Land
This episode follows the aftermath of a ferry crash that several doctors have responded to. This time, the doctors that went to the scene are back at the hospital and attending to several critical patients. To everyone’s shock, Derek returns to the hospital with an unconscious Meredith.
Even worse, she’s cold as ice, having nearly drowned in freezing water while trying to attend to a victim. Fortunately for Meredith, doctors refused to give up on her, even insisting that she couldn’t be declared dead until they warm her up. It took a long time, but they eventually got Meredith back.
To get the hospital back up and running, Richard sends maintenance guy, Frank (Blue Deckert) to check on the generator in the basement, but he never hears back from him. Richard eventually finds him slumped on the ground.
When he regains consciousness, Frank tells Richard that the transfer switch just needs to be flipped on for the hospital to get its power back. But at the end of the episode, Richard is lying motionless in the basement right beside a sparking circuit box.
(Don’t Fear) The Ripper
Miranda (Chandra Wilson) may be tough and hardworking, but she’s only human and she has her limits too. In this episode, Bailey is busy dealing with her job and the fact that Ben (Jason Winston George) has decided to become a firefighter. Evidently, the idea of Ben potentially running into danger stresses Miranda out, to the point that she thinks she’s suffering from a heart attack.
Initially, the doctors in the hospital dismiss her medical instinct. Later on, though, Miranda collapses. It turns out she was suffering from a blocked artery. Thankfully, Richard and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) arrive, and Maggie saves her.
Cold As Ice
In the history of Grey’s Anatomy, two doctors have nearly died of drowning, so far. Years after Meredith’s accidental near-drowning, April (Sarah Drew) also suffers the same fate. This time, she and Matthew (Justin Bruening) are involved in a car accident. Following their rescue, Matthew was rushed to surgery, while April’s condition remained unclear.
Eventually, fans learn that April is in critical condition. Maggie decides to put her on bypass. April’s odds of survival looked bleak, but then Maggie thought she saw a heart rhythm and decides to defibrillate. In the end, Maggie saves her life.