Grey’s Anatomy is known for killing off major characters out of the blue — and it almost happened again. It happened to George O’Malley (T. R. Knight), Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and this time it was almost the fierce leader Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson).
After Bailey and Ben Warren (Jason Winston George) drop off Tucker at school, Bailey has Warren drop her off at Seattle Presbyterian Hospital. She says it is because of a meeting, but really she’s having a medical emergency.
“My name is Dr. Miranda Bailey. I am Chief of Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and I believe that I am having a heart attack,” she said.
The entire time Bailey is at the hospital, the male doctors do not believe her that she is having a heart attack. They refuse to give her the level of care and tests she demanded and even send a psychiatrist to evaluate her mental health. Sure enough, they realize her heart attack is real when she performs CPR on the woman next to her.
“Women’s heart attacks don’t manifest the way a man’s does,” she said.
The doctors unclog the artery, and Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) and Richard Weber (James Pickens Jr.) show up in time to stand by their friend’s side. The fix was only temporary, though. Pierce has to get permission from the other doctors to perform a minimally invasive surgery on Bailey that the male doctors don’t know how to do.
In the end, Bailey survives, and she even makes up with Warren, who decided to join a fire department.
The whole episode really highlighted the struggles women go through when diagnosed. Women are more likely to be misdiagnosed, and black women are even more likely. Overall, it was a very powerful episode with strong acting from Wilson. It’s a good thing she didn’t die because Grey’s fans probably couldn’t take another unexpected exit. The show did manage to ruin another song for viewers. People will never listen to “Praying” by Kesha the same way ever again.
The fans reacted to the episode on Twitter:
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
