For almost 20 years, Grey’s Anatomy has given fans season after season packed with drama, romance, and outrageous medical cases.
Some of the show’s most memorable moments were scripted versions of realistic events.
For example, the pandemic we all had to endure in real life also played out on Grey’s Anatomy.
Obviously, wild and unbelievable things happen every day.
But how many times can extreme, once-in-a-lifetime disasters happen to the same group of people?
From bombs to plane crashes and mass shootings to car accidents, the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial have been through it all.
We’re taking a walk down memory lane to marvel at some of Grey’s Anatomy’s most far-fetched disasters.
Burke’s Shaky Hand Won’t Stop Him from Operating
Grey’s Anatomy Season 2 Episode 26 ends with Dr. Burke taking an untimely bullet as he tries to get back to check on Denny Duquette.
The shooting isn’t unbelievable — this is America, after all.
The injury that results in a persistent hand tremor isn’t a surprise, either.
I’m no doctor, but it seems reasonable to think that getting shot could cause long-lasting effects.
What is ridiculous about this disaster is that despite the fact that Dr. Burke is incapable of holding a scalpel without his hand giving an impromptu performance of the Harlem Shake, he continues to operate.
Enter Cristina Yang — you know, Burke’s brilliant but very inexperienced surgical intern and girlfriend.
That’s right. The kindergarten cop of surgeons is here, and she has a plan to cover for Burke by performing the difficult parts of his surgeries while he stands there looking pretty.
If you’re wondering how something like that could go unnoticed by their colleagues, you’ll be pleased to know they were caught.
Well, sort of.
While several doctors had suspicions about Cristina’s presence in every one of Burke’s surgeries, it took a while for the brightest minds in medicine to realize an intern was essentially flying solo in heart surgery.
Their little operation culminated in a bloody confession from Cristina herself, who folded under the pressure of a surgery gone wrong and told Chief Webber everything.
Perhaps the most unbelievable part of this storyline was the fact that it only barely affected the romantic relationship between Burke and Cristina.
When Planes Crash, We Have to Make References to Lost
Jumping forward in time a bit to Grey’s Anatomy Season 8 Episode 24, we find ourselves in the wilderness after a small charter plane has gone belly-up.
Unfortunately, half of the show’s main characters were on that plane.
I’d like to pause here for a moment to say that the aftermath of this plane crash included Cristina’s battle with severe PTSD, and Sandra Oh’s performance in those scenes were heart-wrenching.
Still, this plane crash was pretty much the last thing anyone expected at this point in the series.
We’re ignoring the fact that two of Grey’s Anatomy’s most tragic deaths happened due to this crash.
This storyline gave us several absurd injuries that could only happen on this show.
A prominent neurosurgeon has a hand injury and nerves that are damaged beyond repair? Uh, okay.
A doctor has a leg injury so severe that her orthopedic surgeon wife has to make the call to amputate? Sure, fine.
The most experienced doctors on the plane are all incapacitated, leaving residents to treat them and perform complicated surgical procedures in the woods? Sigh.
Throw in a Lost reference or two, and the whole thing was a clown show.
Not only have we now added to the list of loved ones Meredith has lost in graphic and horrible ways, but we also have to deal with Alex’s crushing guilt for having not been on the flight.
It’s all just too much.
Meredith Should’ve Known Better Than to Write a Birth Plan
On Grey’s Anatomy Season 9 Episode 24, it’s time for Derek and Meredith’s baby boy to be born.
They get to the hospital, Meredith has a quick and painless labor, and they welcome little Bailey into the world.
Just kidding; how boring would that be?
Instead, there’s a massive storm pressing down on Seattle, and it knocks out the electricity while Meredith is facing an unexpected C-section.
Her doctor performs the surgery in the dark, and Meredith nearly dies from complications because it wouldn’t be Grey’s Anatomy if Meredith Grey didn’t face death at least once a season.
Literally nothing about this episode was realistic except for the fact that Derek traded his cool-guy facade to become a stereotypical nervous dad when the contractions started.
There’s a Fire, and We Don’t Even Have a Firehouse Spinoff Yet
Moving right along to Grey’s Anatomy Season 13 Episode 24, an attempted rapist is in the hospital, and he refuses to go quietly.
Poor Stephanie has the misfortune of treating the man she later learns is a violent criminal, but by the time she finds out, it’s too late.
There is evidently no protocol whatsoever in place for when a dangerous patient kidnaps a doctor at scalpel-point. (Why was there even a scalpel in a patient room?)
Stephanie has little leverage against the man who traps her and a lost child in a conveniently abandoned wing of the hospital.
The guy ultimately sets himself on fire, and Stephanie and the little girl escape by the skin of their teeth.
Sadly, this disaster was enough to convince Stephanie to nope on out of the lightning rod that is Grey Sloan, and we had to say goodbye to her character for good.
A Car Drives Into a Bar … Sorry, There’s No Punchline
By Season 16, we have Station 19 in the rotation, and the firefighters and doctors all hang out at the same bar.
Unfortunately for them, a car drives right on into Joe’s, causing injuries and trapping a handful of main characters inside.
This one may be a stretch since most of the action happens during the Station 19 half of the crossover event, but it’s still absurd.
Between the first responders dealing with injuries and drunks and the car’s occupants having unrelated medical crises, the storyline is all over the place.
What’s worse is that while all this is happening, Bailey is experiencing a devastating pregnancy loss while delivering heartbreaking news to Captain Pruitt.
Tragedy stacked on top of tragedy is always hard to take, even when it comes from a source as predictable as Grey’s Anatomy.
There are obviously dozens more outlandish events, but we’d be here all day if we tried to touch on them all.
Let us know in the comments if we missed any that live in your head rent-free, and rate the worst disaster on our list below!
Watch Grey’s Anatomy Online
