When it comes to heartwrenching television deaths and pain so raw that it inspires authentic and genuine ugly cries from audiences everywhere, no one does it better than Grey’s Anatomy.
The series started with a one-night stand that viewers immediately knew would be more than just that: an epic speech from a man we’d quickly fall in love with, the one and only Richard Webber, and a group of bright-eyed surgical residents and quickly developed into a staple of pop culture. We weren’t just watching another medical drama; we had a front-row seat to one of the most epic love stories in television history, and we aren’t just talking about the MerDer saga.
Grey’s is a love story to more than just romance; it’s a love story to medicine, second chances, and knowing when to walk away. It’s a love declaration to friendships, and those bonds that become so strong you begin to see them as family, and it’s a love letter to real, life-changing, and all-encompassing love in all of its forms.
It’s also a love story of sorts to death, loss, and how they fundamentally change us. Grey’s navigates through grief in different ways; sometimes it’s a quiet whisper, other times it’s a freight train; in some cases — it’s deafening silence, but it’s guttural and painful all the time.
Be it a character we only knew for one episode, or someone we loved for seasons before they were painfully ripped away from us, here are the Grey’s deaths that rocked us — still lingering in our brains and prepared to make us cry at a moment’s notice.
Adele Webber
Richard Webber wasn’t a perfect man, and Adele wasn’t an ideal woman — but their love was important, monumental, all-encompassing, and otherworldly.
Seeing all sides of Richard, there were times when Adele stormed into the hospital like a hurricane personified, and there were times when her absence made even more of an impact. We saw Adele begin to slip away and lose pieces of herself, but in Richard, she found them again.
She was powerful, kind, generous, forgiving, and above all — Adele was loved.
Her death was untimely, unfair, and brutal to make sense of. Richard’s wife comes in for emergency surgery on the day of Bailey’s wedding, and as a friend would, she operates on Adele. The surgery is successful, but later in the episode, we learn that Adele had a heart attack and didn’t survive.
Richard’s pain was written all across his face; it was evident in the tears that fell from his eyes, and as Meredith leaned into him as they watched Bailey dance at her wedding reception, we saw Richard go into a flashback of himself and Adele dancing to “My Funny Valentine.”
We still can’t listen to that song without crying.
Derek Shepherd
While Grey’s Anatomy is essentially Meredith Grey’s story, it also belongs to many other characters who know and love her, one of the most fundamental being the other character in the opening scene of the very first episode: Derek Shepherd.
We would have told you no if you’d asked us when we started watching if Grey‘s could survive without him. For some fans, it didn’t. Derek’s death was a dropping point for a faction of the fandom that didn’t see it fit to continue the story without him.
The day of his death was sunny, just warm enough… it was perfect — looking back now, a little too perfect. A car accident occurred, but Derek was safe; everything was okay. He got out of his vehicle to render aid to those involved, heroically saving the day, and in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
The most heartwrenching part of Derek’s journey from here is that we hear it in his own words and voice. He is telling us what’s happening, telling us what’s wrong, and telling us at the very moment when it all goes wrong. Derek knew what was missed; he knew what could have saved him, and he was cognizant enough to realize that it wouldn’t happen.
Watching Meredith say goodbye to Derek? That’s a pain level we’re still not ready to unpack, but when we do our Grey‘s rewatch (several times a year, thank you), we skip that episode. We just can’t stomach it.
Lexie Grey
Another unfathomably painful loss was that of Lexie (little) Grey. The sister Meredith never wanted but grew to love with fierce loyalty and adoration. Lexie came in with the same bright-eyed look that all the interns and residents have, but it never faded — Lexie loved medicine, working at Seattle Grace, and being close to Meredith.
Lexie’s journey on Grey‘s came with a slew of ups and downs, and one of the things that shaped her through it all was the ability she had to love and be loved, to share light with anyone in need, and to make the best of a less-than-stellar situation. We also saw her find love, the kind that changes you in the best ways, and while it wasn’t a seamless journey either, it was beautiful.
Lexie’s final moments were heartbreaking. A plane crash endangered the lives of our most beloved Grey’s characters, and Lexie would unfortunately perish in the aftermath, but the last thing she saw was Mark…the last words she spoke were of love, and the last words Lexie heard were the only ones she’d ever wished to listen to him tell her.
She lived and died in love; if that’s one consolation, we’ll take it.
Mark Sloan
You can’t talk about the loss of Lexie without talking about Mark’s death, and while he didn’t die in her arms, he did pass away knowing that he was leaving one realm of love and entering another.
Mark Sloan came in hot when we first met him in Grey‘s; he was sexy, brilliant, and confident. Mark knew he demanded attention when he entered a room, and he thrived on it; as Meredith was the “other woman,” Mark was the “other man,” and that was a role he was comfortable with until he met the woman who would change it all: Lexie.
Lexie saw through Mark’s rough exterior, and she worked her way into his heart, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Mark had a baby with Callie, and he had an adult daughter who showed up at his door when she was 18 and pregnant herself; he came with baggage, and while the two attempted to live separate lives, something kept bringing them back to one another.
While Mark wanted to live, the plane crash was too much for his body to survive, and despite a “surge” that we all hoped wouldn’t bring a heartbreaking end, we had to say goodbye to Mark. His death was painful to watch, and as he “passed on,” Grey’s played a video clip of him holding his baby, smiling, soaking it all in. He left one love (despite his best attempts to stay) and went to another.
Andrew DeLuca
Grey’s sort of prepares fans for some character deaths; now, let me clarify that it’s not always the case, but we can almost sense when something terrible will happen.
With Andrew DeLuca, we thought the worst of his heartbreaking story was behind us before his passing, and then we were hit with this. You could say you saw it coming and convince yourself that you weren’t sure he would make it out alive, but the truth is — it was a shock to the system.
Andrew had been dealing with the implications of mental illness in the family while trying to help a girl he believed was a victim of sex trafficking. He knew he was right and understood the inkling he felt was leading him to something real, but those around him thought he was spiraling. As he attempted to confirm his suspicions, he was stabbed, and while we initially thought he’d survive the attack, we quickly learned how naive we were to believe that.
His death happened during the COVID-19 storyline, which made it all the more heartbreaking, but the memorial service that Seattle Grace gave him was so beautiful. The overarching story made his death necessary; those who try to stand against trafficking often become targets themselves. However, we still miss his impact on the series, his sweet smile, and his belief in a better tomorrow despite everything he’d been through.
Denny Duquette
We didn’t put this death higher on the list because we had to work ourselves up to talking about it, and even though his passing happened early in the series, we’ve never fully recovered from the loss of Denny Duquette.
The handsome and talented Jeffrey Dean Morgan played the character, and we fell for him immediately as Denny. He was charming, sarcastic, and easy to love. Denny had unfair odds stacked against him, but he still smiled. A heart patient, Denny knew the value of life and understood how quickly it could all be gone, and he quickly became the love interest of Izzie Stevens.
Dr. Burke had a longstanding relationship with Denny, and the two had become friends throughout his developing heart failure; as he fell in love with Izzie, he decided to do everything Denny could to lengthen the span of his life, including getting an LVAD, he was initially against. Things were full of ups and downs for Denny, but when a heart became available for him, it seemed things might be going right for our beloved patient.
Unfortunately, a chaotic turn of events led to Dr. Burke being shot, the heart being in limbo, and Izzie deciding to cut Denny’s LVAD wire to make him “sick enough.” Thanks to the help of residents and doctors at Seattle Grace, Denny was stabilized, and a new heart was given to him, but after the most valiant fight for his life, he threw a clot and died shortly after.
Izzie was heartbroken, as was everyone who grew to know him, and both his death and his life forever changed them. We would have loved to see more of Denny’s story.
Dr. Percy
Sweet Dr. Percy’s death told a significant story, one he ultimately wished he wasn’t a part of, but a meaningful one nonetheless. When a shooter entered the hospital, in pain and looking to make his loss right, he asked some of the staff how to find the chief of surgery and others what their position in the hospital was.
When he got to Dr. Percy, who was attempting to hide but made a noise in the bathroom, he asked him if he was a doctor. Alongside begging Mr. Clark not to shoot him, Dr. Percy answered that he was, and Clark shot him anyway.
This caused Miranda Bailey to make noise under the bed where she was hiding, and she, too, was face to face with Dr. Percy, but she lied and said she was simply a nurse. Clark told her that he was sorry for the mess and left.
Finding tools to save Dr. Percy was a struggle with a hospital on lockdown. Miranda and the patient they’d been working with, Mary, attempted to save him, but his injuries were far too severe. In his final moments, he was scared but brave — joking with Bailey to tell another staff member how good of a catch he was and that she missed out by not being with him.
Bailey gave Dr. Percy kindness in his final moments, holding him and ensuring him that he wasn’t alone. Watching the color drain from his body and understanding the weight of the situation they were all in was something Grey’s fans have certainly not forgotten. We miss Dr. Percy’s charm to this day.
Craig Thomas
We had a hard time with the death of Craig Thomas for several reasons, one being that it wasn’t easy to watch the actor who played the character die (albeit only on screen) because we’ve loved him for so long.
Dr. Thomas was played by the talented and beloved William Daniels, who we first fell in love with as Mr. Feeny on Boy Meet’s World. Seeing him again on Grey’s was a treat, and despite his rougher exterior, we loved him. He was a man set in his ways, and for Cristina, that meant he was a roadblock in her way to achieving everything she set out to do — at least, at first.
She soon realized the value of a mind and technique like that of Dr. Thomas, and the two would grow to become friends. They helped one another in ways they didn’t expect, and as they were working together on a patient mid-surgery, Dr. Thomas became unresponsive.
Cristina didn’t know what to do at first, but she quickly realized that Dr. Thomas was gone, and our hearts broke for her. She couldn’t have stopped the surgery she was doing to save him, which she had to take with her for the rest of her life. She doesn’t deal with grief in a way that’s loud and in your face; she internalizes it instead, holding onto it and showing pain in different ways.
Craig Thomas was a mentor, a friend, a man who grew up in a time when things were different, and his perspective was a refreshing addition to Grey’s. I wish we’d had more time with him, and more so, I wish Cristina did.
Susan Grey
Susan Grey’s death was painful in many ways; one, because of Lexie’s realization in a future episode when she explains how her mom died: “of the hiccups” and how absolutely out of the realm of possibility that seemed. Something as simple as hiccups, a mere annoyance to anyone else, was the catapult to her death.
Susan was a kind woman; she knew of Meredith and Ellis, she saw Meredith as a stepdaughter, and more than that — she wanted her in her life as a daughter, not trying to erase her mom’s impact, but to be there for her in the ways she could.
Meredith wasn’t open to her at first, but she began to see Susan’s kindness as something she could really hold onto, even be changed by, and it broke our hearts that we never got to see more of that. It broke audiences’ hearts everywhere to realize that we’d never see Susan again, and it hurt us immensely for Lexie, for her to lose her mother in a chapter of her life when she needed her the most.
Their reunion in the afterlife must have been quite brilliant, and that’s the silver lining we have there.
Ellis Grey
We can’t talk about mothers in Grey’s without discussing Ellis Grey, Meredith’s mom. In the grand scheme of things, mom might be too kind a word to describe how Meredith saw Ellis; she was her mother, of course, but the nurturing heart of a mom wasn’t something she seemed to be led by.
Instead, Ellis all but told Meredith that she was her greatest life’s regret, and while she did so after she was sick, there were many conversations when Ellis was healthy that proved being a mother wasn’t the thing she was put on this Earth to become.
Ellis wanted to be extraordinary; she wanted to be the best of the best, and as she came in and out of phases of Alzheimer’s and dementia, she told Meredith that it pained her to see her turn out as “just ordinary.”
We’d seen Meredith hurt before, but not so much as we saw her that day. Ellis was in and out of the hospital for many reasons, and we would eventually see her character pass away from a heart attack. Her loss did change Meredith, just as her life did — and despite all of the pieces of her that seemed hard-wired to isolate herself from any love she ever felt, it’s evident that Meredith’s love did touch her mother.
Doc, the dog
We are frequent visitors of the website that alerts you if a dog dies in a film or TV program because it’s something we can’t stand to see. In fact, I remember seeing A Dog’s Purpose in theaters (yes, I knew a dog would pass away) and crying so hard I had to turn my entire head upwards to try to stop the tears from falling into my popcorn.
When Doc was introduced into Grey’s, we were thrilled; he was a sweet dog, and we never miss an opportunity to be captivated by a sweet pup. Dog the dog, does it get any better? The answer is a hard no.
Doc would wiggle his way into our hearts, but when he started feeling ill, we knew where this story was headed, and it was too late to jump ship. Poor Doc was too sick for treatment of any kind to save him, and the impossible decision for him to be put down had to be made; the drama at that moment was rife, but we’re only focusing on Doc here.
Seeing our beloved dog friend pass away was heartwrenching, and we’re still not over it.
George O’Malley
George O’Malley, you didn’t think we’d forget to include 007, now did you? From the first episode of Grey’s to his last, we were all made better by his character’s presence. He was a light; he was someone who never gave up. George was someone who found the good — even in a sea of evil, and he was a man who was able to open up about his mistakes.
George wasn’t perfect, but that’s what made him so likable; he wasn’t trying to be the McDreamy or McSteamy of the world (but, like, it hurt him sometimes that he’d never be that guy); instead, he wanted to be in medicine to change lives.
His impact on his patients was monumental, but the way he changed the lives of his friends was even more spectacular. George had a way about him that drew people in, so it made sense — in the most awful way — that he would pass away after doing what he could to save someone else’s life.
All of the scenes revolving around his passing were heartwrenching to watch, from the moment Meredith realized who their “John Doe” was to the scene when we see him in the elevator, in his military gear, alongside Izzie Stevens; we’re trying not to cry just thinking about it.
We still think his death was unfair, and while it made sense that he’d push someone out of the way of a vehicle to save their life, we wish he didn’t have to. We wanted to see the next chapter for George, several more, and see him enter his happily ever after.
We see George again when Meredith is teetering between life and death; he looks good, happy, healthy… existing in an afterlife where he gets to be with those George loves, but we wish he was still here.
Henry Burton
Henry Burton: the patient who stole our hearts and the heart of one Teddy Altman and changed the course of the series forever. Henry was a patient with Von-Hippel-Lindau syndrome who desperately needed lifesaving surgery; without insurance, he was all but sentenced to death.
Altman couldn’t stand by and watch that happen, so she offered to marry him, and their faux relationship went through phases of awkwardness, friendship, companionship, love, heartache, and devastation. Altman and Burton could have kept things very clean, but someone wrote a story in the stars for them — it was a connection out of their control, and they couldn’t avoid it.
Life never seemed to work out for them, or maybe it was timing, call it what you will — but their bond was true, and when he began coughing up blood and was rushed to the hospital by Altman herself, we knew things weren’t looking good.
Sweet Henry Burton would pass away in surgery, a surgery being performed by Cristina, and Altman was stuck in a cycle of grief about it. While his death was devastating in and of itself, Altman’s reaction tore us up all over again.
Heather Brooks
The death of Heather Brooks was heartbreaking for several reasons, one of which was that she only passed away because she was attempting to find out what had happened to Richard Webber. No one could find him, and Shane asked her to find Webber, something he was initially asked to do.
That particular day was already chaotic for everyone at the hospital, so when she went into the generator room to find him, she wasn’t on her game as she might have been on any other day. She walked into the room and didn’t realize she was stepping into a sudden death.
She saw Webber lying on the ground and ran to help him, but she stepped in a puddle on her way, and she was electrocuted. During her fall, she hit her head really hard, and the two continued lying there for quite some time.
When Heather and Richard were found, it was too late to save her, but the doctors tried. She, however, passed away during an operation from too much pressure on her brain.
Some other interns, doctors, and nurses at the hospital weren’t as fond of her as others, mostly because she had a follow-the-rules attitude and could be seen as “too much,” but her spirit was just right for medicine.
Heather cared, was passionate, didn’t want to let anyone suffer in pain or anguish, and had a heart for others. Her death was indeed a loss to the Grey’s realm as a whole.
James Evans
James was the father of Alex Karev, and that was a hard truth for him to swallow. He wasn’t exactly a stand-up man, not the kind of guy Alex saw as a guiding light, and when we met him in Grey’s, it wasn’t hard to see why Alex treated his father like a delicate subject.
Alex did attempt to get closer to his father, in his own way, for a while after he first saw him at the hospital, but a conversation proved to him that he’d made the right choice by keeping his distance. He was angry and hurt all over again, and a blow-up happened.
James would be readmitted to the hospital shortly after, and Alex saw him as he realized he was declining this time, that there wouldn’t be a moment for him to return from how bad it had all gotten. James wanted to make it right by Alex, and he was disinterested at first; in fact, he remained disinterested, but James didn’t have long left.
In his final moments, Alex was there, perhaps despite his best wishes — but he was there. In his last moments, James was given compassion by Alex, and it was one of the most beautiful moments of their time together.
Mary Portman
Sweet Mary Portman was a patient of Dr. Baileys for quite some time, and her story was both painful and full of hope. Mary was in for a colostomy bag removal, and there was hope that this was the first step in a new way of life for herself and her husband.
Mary wanted “babies, lots and lots of babies,” and a life that felt like it wasn’t tethered to pain, discomfort, and hurt. Bailey took a particular liking to Mary, and it was evident that they cared for one another. As we mentioned Dr. Percy’s death earlier, you might recall that Mary Portman was there for it.
Surviving a hospital shooting was a lot, and before she returned to the hospital to have the procedure, she traveled the world with her husband.
We saw her again before the surgery, which went flawlessly, but Mary wouldn’t wake up; it was described as something that happens (not often, like…hardly ever) where patients simply don’t wake up from anesthesia, and her husband had to make the impossible decision to remove her from life support.
Mary’s death was harsh for many reasons, one of which was how it broke Bailey; another was that there was so much potential there, so many dreams she never got to see come true.
Wallace Anderson
Wallace Anderson’s death is one of the most painful patient deaths in the entire series, in fact — it might be the most heartbreaking of all. Wallace was just a child, and his diagnosis might not have initially seemed like a matter of life and death, but there was a lot to it.
Short gut syndrome caused Wallace to undergo 15 surgeries at the hospital. Arizona Robbins was very familiar with his case and his family and would go on to become friends with them. Wallace was dear to her heart, and she cared about his life and his success deeply, so it broke her heart and the hearts of audiences everywhere when it became obvious that his time was drawing short.
Instead of operating on him, Arizona wanted to give his parents final moments without pain and another surgery, but they fought against her; they wished to have even a few more months with him. Despite her better judgment, she performed the operation; Wallace would turn septic and pass from septic shock soon after.
When Wallace’s mom went to say goodbye to him, she performed the “bad dreams” ceremony but got caught up and was unable to finish; Arizona finished for her, and the moment still brings a tear to our eyes today.
In fact, it brings several.
Diane Pierce
Diane Pierce was a beloved character, a woman who was as kind as she was powerful, soft-spoken as she was opinionated, and compassionate as she was brave. Mother to Maggie, she was always proud of the daughter she adopted and loved her truly as she grew into a powerful woman herself.
Diane found out, via a doctor in her town, that a rash she’d discovered was cancer and that things didn’t look good. She found out about Jackson Avery and tried to reach out to him, but she also decided she wanted to live a life. She traveled and did things she only dreamed of before going to Seattle to be seen by Jackson.
Jackson confirmed a diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer, and despite treatments making her feel better and think survival might be an option after all, her cancer spread. It continued to spread, and it wasn’t until later in her disease that she told Maggie of her diagnosis. Yes, those at the hospital knew what was happening, except for her own daughter.
Diane didn’t want Maggie to only want her around because of her diagnosis; she also didn’t want her to carry the weight of her mom’s illness. She did tell her daughter, finally, and Maggie worked effortlessly to save her, but time was running out.
Her passing was heartbreaking for so many reasons, and it was something Maggie still struggles with to this day; her closest confidant is gone, and Maggie will always feel a pang of guilt about not being able to save her. Diane was a force, and audiences always wish we had more time with her.
Samuel Norbert Avery
Jackson and April lost their first child, Samuel Norbert Avery, in a way that was painfully unfair and hard to fathom. He had a genetic disorder, which was discovered during what should have been a routine ultrasound.
April had difficulty adjusting to what that meant, and she spent her time praying, asking God for a miracle. Jackson took it for what it was and had a more challenging time finding a reason to speak to God at all — it was a step in their relationship that caused them more separation than togetherness, but when it was time for Samuel to be born, they were there for one another, coming together to witness the birth of their child and his life — however long it would be.
His passing was “expected,” but you can’t ever truly prepare for the loss of anyone you love, let alone a child. They shared beautiful moments with their sweet baby before he entered Jesus’s arms, but we still wish it hadn’t happened at all. April and Jackson had been through so much and would go through much more in the future, but they’ll always carry a piece of Samuel. As for fans, we’ll always say this death brutally hit us, leaving us in a puddle of tears for quite some time.
Nick Hanscom
Poor Nick Hanscom, the man who came to Mark Sloan with a neck tumor involving his carotid artery — anyone who has watched Grey’s, or knows anything about the medical community at all knows how serious that is.
His condition wasn’t downplayed in the series, either, as Mark warned anyone who worked with Nick that if, for any reason, the small flap of skin covering the space where the tumor had been (and his carotid) were to burst open and Nick was to start bleeding out, they’d have to stop it immediately and page him.
Lexie checked in on Nick often, and the two became friends. Nick even began flirting with Lexie — and with good reason, she was fun, beautiful, and intelligent, and his jerk of an ex-girlfriend left him because of the whole neck tumor thing!
Unfortunately, Nick’s story was cut short after a fit of laughter ended with Nick beginning to bleed out, and he couldn’t be saved despite the best efforts of everyone involved. Nick was a sweet character, not around for long, but brilliant and hilarious enough to make an impact, and he’s still missed to this day.
Jessica Smithson
We’re warning you now; this name might not lead you to immediately recall the death, but when we talk about the details, it’ll only take a moment to put two and two together.
Jessica was a child with Tay-Sachs, and at only age six, she was already nearing the end of her life; as was to be expected, her dad was having a hard time reconciling with that idea. Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children, and Jessica had barely seen the world; the two would often talk of places they wished to travel to and life experiences they wanted to have, but time wasn’t on her side.
The episode where she dies is heartbreaking. It might be one of the most gut-wrenching deaths in Grey’s history because her dad just can’t make sense of it until it’s almost too late. He’s desperately trying to get her to Mexico for what he hopes would be a lifesaving, or at least time-buying, set of circumstances, but there’s simply no time left.
Bailey can get through to him, telling him the time for him to be with his girl is now, and as she transitions from one plane of existence to the next, he coaches her through it, even though his own heart is breaking. Jessica passes away in her dad’s arms, and we’re still not over it. In fact, I don’t think we ever will be.
Dylan Young
A member of the Seattle Police Department Bomb Squad, Dylan Young was a leader, dedicated to his career, and someone easy to love. We first meet him in moments of chaos, and as he tries to keep things calm, he ends up at odds with Meredith Grey.
Okay, maybe not at odds, in fact — their chemistry was sort of off the charts, but it was more of a bond born out of a life or death situation, one that was impossible for them to navigate without getting under the other’s skin.
Meredith was at work, but so was Dylan, and eventually, they were able to come together to help one another, but the story wouldn’t end on a good note. Of course, with a bomb in a person’s body, how could it? All things considered, they were able to diffuse a situation that likely would have killed several people, with Meredith having to step in and risk her own life to do so, but things still weren’t going to end with everyone making it out alive.
Meredith was able to remove the bomb from the body, but it did end up detonating as Dylan attempted to remove it from the premises; he didn’t survive the explosion, and Meredith was forever changed by it.
Bonnie Crasnoff
Bonnie Crasnoff was brought to the hospital after a train wreck, and she was connected — quite literally — with a man named Tom because of the experience. Their bodies were stuck together as a pole went through both of them, and it was evident pretty quickly that one of them wouldn’t survive the ordeal.
With both Tom and Bonnie still a little bit in shock, with the pole still in the same position it had been, and with treatment beginning to be rendered, both Bonnie and Tom felt like they might be alright until imaging results showed that Bonnie was way worse off than anyone could have imagined. When the pole was removed, her life was most in danger.
Bonnie’s death was heartwrenching, even if we felt it was coming, because of how likable a character she was. Bonnie didn’t want to die; she wanted to live, to see the love of her life again, to keep having day after day to explore with, but her time was cut short because of a freak accident, something unimaginable.
Bonnie would come back to Meredith in a flashback later, and it was then when Meredith realized that she wasn’t living with the same desire to stay alive that Bonnie had during her life and death moments; it was a wakeup call for Meredith, who had all but given up.
Bonnie’s passing was tragic, and we won’t forget the experience she shared with Tom or the light in her eyes when it came to a zest for life.
Harold O’Malley
Harold’s death was incredibly heartbreaking because it happened after what should have been a simple enough hospital visit. After experiencing a fall, it was revealed that Harold broke his clavicle but that everything should heal fine, and he’d go on to be alright.
Unfortunately, he was experiencing pain in his stomach, so imaging was done, and it was soon discovered that he had cancer in the esophagus that had spread to his abdomen. In addition, an EKG revealed a problem with his heart. He had surgery to repair the issue, and he survived that, too, so the next step was surgery for the cancer.
An exploratory cancer surgery, the doctors told Harold they wouldn’t remove all of the cancer if the tumor had begun invading other organs, but he wanted them to anyway; they agreed, as he was an O’Malley with a “fighting spirit” but let everyone know of the risks. Multisystem organ failure was the main fear and other problems that might arise.
Harold would experience multisystem organ failure and, unfortunately, would lose his life after the surgery. He was married to his wife for 40 years, was an incredible father, and loved George very much; his loss was tragic and brutal to watch.
Jeremy West
Jeremy was a patient who was part of Meredith and Derek’s clinical trial, and his diagnosis was heartbreaking from moment one. Being diagnosed with a glioma, the odds didn’t seem to be in his favor, but he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to life yet.
Jeremy was young and in love, and he would do what it took to fight the cancer in his brain, so he did. He was part of the trial with a girl he’d met during a stay at the Mayo Clinic, and he fell for her instantly; they were able to share some sweet and essential moments before Jeremy’s surgery, but unfortunately — he didn’t survive it.
Jeremy died in surgery, leaving Beth (the love of his life) broken in pieces over his loss. She, too, had the same diagnosis and was signed up for the clinical trial at the hospital. Beth was devastated, but she went ahead with the operation and was the only surviving member of their support group. While she had to go through this chapter of her life without Jeremy, she always carried him in her heart.
Watching his death was heartbreaking on its own, but watching young love and all of its possibilities lost, too, was an added level of hurt.
As we said above, Grey’s sure knows how to break your heart with untimely deaths after making you fall in love with the characters, and it’s been a love-hate relationship for fans for years. We know what we’re signing up for, and we keep coming back anyway. Here’s to more tears, an emotional storyline, and the characters that helped shape Grey’s Anatomy for good.