Grey’s Anatomy: 15 Times the Grey-Sloan Dream Team Faced Impossible Odds

5. The “moron” who shot himself with a bazooka!

The title of this section says it all! “It’s the End of the World” was part one of a two-part episode that started with a World War II reenactor coming into the ER.

Surprise, an inexperienced paramedic named Hannah (Christina Ricci) had a hand in his chest cavity and the paramedic was touching live, un-exploded ammunition. When Hannah panicked  and rushed  out of the room, Meredith was left with her hand in the body cavity, touching the ammo.

The episode picked up with “As We Know It.” During this nail-biting hour of television, the bomb squad and the doctors, had to fight to save the patient, and keep the hospital from blowing up.

Through teamwork, they saved the patient and the hospital. Burke and Derek even became friends. The same couldn’t be said for the head of the bomb squad who died carrying the ammo out of the room.

6. The man with the exposed carotid artery.

On the Season 4 two-parter “Crash Into Me,” we met Nick (Seth Green), a man who had a tumor removed from his neck leaving his carotid artery exposed except for a delicate flap of skin. The artery was constantly in danger of blowing. The doctors all had one instruction: stop the bleeding then page Sloane.

Despite the very scary risks involved with his exposed artery, Nick was immediately endearing. He joked about how he and Lexie have a tendency to date vapid narcissists. During one of these exchanges, Lexie goes from mildly amused to stunned when the artery blows in one of the most terrifying cliffhangers on Grey’s Anatomy ever. Very Carrie at the prom.

In Part II, we find out that Nick was just as stunned as the audience—who knew that such a thing could actually happen? You know when doctors tell you all the scary side effects, and you think it’s a one in a million shot that it will happen to you. Nick was that guy.

In one of the most spellbinding, and heartbreaking episodes, we watched the entire scene play out as Lexie kept pressure on Nick’s neck and they attempt to stop the bleeding as they waited for an OR to become available.

They got Nick to the OR, but he didn’t make it.

7. The boy encased in cement.

No matter what daredevil stunts your kids may pull, be glad they don’t end up like the boy encased in cement. Andrew jumped into wet cement on a dare to impress a girl. (Don’t they all?) The cement was dehydrating him, and there was a risk that if they couldn’t get into the cement he would lose both his legs and his right arm.

Bailey was also concerned about his liver while Mark was concerned about his burns, and Hahn was concerned about toxins rushing to Andrew’s heart once his circulation was opened back up.

Rescue workers chipped away at the cement while Mark used vinegar to minimize his burns and Callie performed a fasciotomy on his leg to relieve the pressure and restore blood flow. Hahn inserted a balloon to open up his circulation. When they finished chipping away at the cement, Andrew crashed.

They restarted his heart and rushed him to surgery. He was almost out of the woods when he threw a clot and Christina had to do a pulmonary embolectomy. Good news for Andrew, he came through the surgery fine.

8. When Torres built a set of bones for a homeless guy.

In Season 5, “These Ties that Bind” introduced us to a homeless man named Mr. Miller, who came to the hospital as a human pretzel after being crushed by a garbage truck. Mr. Miller needed his legs to walk, and was refused surgery because the doctors couldn’t guarantee that they would save his legs.

In response to this, Callie came up with a solution inspired by Lincoln Logs. She ordered everyone to round up all titanium in the hospital so that she can build this homeless man a new set of legs.

Mr. Miller agrees to the surgery, but the doctors were not able to keep him alive long enough to implement the new set of legs. He is pronounced dead on the table.

Next Page