‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 19 Episode 17: Another Doc-Patient Romance? (RECAP)
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A patient shamelessly flirting with his surgeon, and that surgeon welcoming those advances? Seems like classic Grey’s Anatomy to us! Read on to see who’s wooing whom in Season 19, Episode 17, May 4’s “Come Fly With Me.”
[Warning: The below contains major spoilers for the Grey’s Anatomy Season 19, Episode 17, “Come Fly With Me.”]
One of the patients this week is Sam Sutton (Sam Page), an Air Force veteran who broke 93 bones in a base-jumping accident. Kwame (Kwame Patterson), his Air Force wingman, recognizes Link (Chris Carmack) as the guy on whose watch a Seattle Seahawks player died, and Kwame casts doubts about Link’s surgical skills. And Owen (Kevin McKidd) isn’t helping matters. Link wants to fix Sam’s bones in phases, worrying about the anesthesia risks of doing it all in one go, but Owen undercuts Link’s authority in front of Sam, suggesting that it’s better to do it all at once so there’s no risk of sepsis or muscle death.
Later, Owen tells Link that Sam needs his limbs because he needs to base-jump. He needs to base-jump because he needs adrenaline. And he needs adrenaline to survive life as a civilian. “Sam is not a daredevil,” Owen says. “He is a veteran coping with trauma.”
So Link assembles a massive team of surgeons so that this mega-operation can go as quickly as possible. And the mega-operation does indeed go well. Owen and Link tell Kwame about the promising result, and Owen is sure to sing Link’s praises. But once they’re out of Kwame’s earshot, Link tells Owen not to second-guess him in front of a patient again.
By the way, Sam hits on Jo (Camilla Luddington) before his operation. And once he learns that she’s single, he says, “Now I have something to live for.” Jo seems a bit sweet on him, too, so we’re definitely feeling the love tonight.
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The other patient of the week is Maxine (Juliet Mills), Millin’s (Adelaide Kane) elderly roommate, whom we met earlier this season. She’s back at the hospital this week, saying she woke up feeling a bit dizzy. Levi (Jake Borelli) runs tests and determines she has a UTI, and he leaves Max in Kwan’s (Harry Shum Jr.) care. But Kwan strays from her bedside when a trauma comes into the ER, and Bailey later finds Max wandering the hall, confused. Max is so confused, in fact, that she thinks Levi is her grandson. Turns out, Max is septic and delirious from the UTI, and as Millin rightly points out when she finds out her roommate is in the ICU, it’s Kwan’s fault for abandoning his post.
Liliane Lathan/ABC
Speaking of intern mistakes, Adams (Niko Terho) forgets to turn off a patient’s insulin in this episode, and that patient goes into hypoglycemic shock. Nick (Scott Speedman), the residency director, chews Adams out, telling him to get his ADHD meds adjusted. That reprimand comes as a shock to Adams, because Adams didn’t realize he has ADHD.
But Nick says that he just notices these things. “Maybe it just takes one to know one,” he says, telling Adams that he was diagnosed with ADHD in college and that he’s managing it now.
Adams relates this revelation to Yasuda (Midori Francis), but Yasuda is furious that Adams made a life-threatening job and is getting off nearly scot-free, while she’s at risk of getting fired because she was moonlighting at Joe’s Bar.
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Except… the senior staff isn’t considering firing Yasuda. In fact, her moonlighting is a wake-up call for them about intern salaries. In an emergency meeting, Teddy (Kim Raver), Richard (James Pickens Jr.), Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), and Nick reminisce about how hard their own training years were. Bailey, for instance, recalls an attending who refused to give her time off so that she could attend her great-aunt’s funeral. That attending even had the gall to tell Bailey that residents are called residents because they live at the hospital. (“Did I know the attending at the time?” Richard asks. “It was you,” Bailey responds.)
Later, the group brings Yasuda to the conference room. Amelia, who feels guilty about kicking Yasuda off her service last episode, breaks the good news.
“You’re not getting fired,” she says. “You’re getting a grant.”
Liliane Lathan/ABC
Amelia says the group has set up an emergency relief fund, and Yasuda is the first recipient. Plus, Amelia apologizes to Yasuda personally after the meeting, saying that she’s all about accountability, and she knows Yasuda didn’t deserve it.
Amelia also apologizes to Winston (Anthony Hill) for blaming him for Maggie’s departure. “I took out my pain and my sadness on you,” she says. “You are a good man, Winston, and marriage isn’t easy. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
But Winston walks away. Apology not accepted, it seems!
Meanwhile, Richard finds Helm tending bar at Joe’s, and he tells her he didn’t listen when she aired her grievances about the residency program. Now, though, he’s listening. “What would it take to bring you back?” he asks.
So is Helm, ahem, back at the helm of her medical career? We’ll have to tune in next week to find out!
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC
