Grey’s Anatomy has been on television for a good 20 years, and everything that’s assumed to never happen in real life happens at Grey Sloan Memorial. The hospital is that “1%” where the country’s most bizarre cases or “one-in-a-million” events happen. As one of the most loved medical dramas of all time, Grey’s Anatomy usually gets a get out of jail free card for bizarre medical cases that transcend logic and medical science.
Patients with trees growing inside their lungs or bombs exploding within them are not something one hears happening in a hospital every day. However, a little suspension of common sense is what Grey Sloan surgeons have to work with, because if it’s not weird, it doesn’t qualify to be in the episode. The drama is a hotpot of medical mysteries, but some cases are just beyond understanding.
1.Two People Impaled Together On The Same Pole
Season 2, Episode 6, “Into You Like A Train”
A man is connected to Bonnie and looks concerned.
One of the earliest and most memorable medical cases to come through Seattle Grace’s doors was two train wreck victims impaled on the same metal pole. Although no surgeon was personally involved in the tragedy, the catastrophe was one of the most devastating in the series. Having said that, when Tom and Bonnie are brought to the hospital, it takes everyone to figure out a way to help the two survive.
While most of the episode is about the freak accident symbolizing Meredith and Derek’s turbulent relationship, it was a medical case that would make the viewers look twice. The victims were impaled, yet they were fully awake and talking, and the interaction even gets Meredith emotionally involved. Despite her and the doctors trying to save both patients, Bonnie’s odds of survival weren’t good, and the surgeons ended up prioritizing Tom.
2.The Woman Who Had Spontaneous Orgasms
Season 2, Episode 18, “Yesterday”
Grey’s Anatomy’s early seasons were a golden period of sorts in terms of the medical bizarreness. Among many weird encounters, the college student with spontaneous orgasms was by far the most outlandish. Pamela Calva initially came to the hospital because of a minor car accident, but it turned out that it was caused by her having unannounced orgasms from which she had been suffering for quite some time. Of course, while the experience made several surgeons uncomfortable, it was a completely explainable condition.
Dr. Montgomery discovered that it was caused by a tumor on her pudendal artery, but fixed it through surgery. Surprisingly, despite sounding quite preposterous, executive producer Clack explained that they had actually read about it in a journal somewhere and were waiting for the right opportunity to incorporate the case into the storyline.
3.The Guy Who Swallowed Doll Heads
Season 2, Episode 2, “Enough is Enough (No More Tears)”
People can do weird things to deal with stress, but one has to be careful what they put inside their bodies because humans aren’t as durable as we think. Therefore, when a man complaining of abdominal pain came to Dr. Bailey, she naturally ordered tests to take a peek inside. It turned out that the thing causing obstruction in his bowels was the ton of Judy doll heads that the patient swallowed. It baffled the Seattle Grace surgeons to see someone putting themselves through so much pain.
Meredith initially thought that the patient had done it to get attention and even pressed him to explain his reasons, which she obviously didn’t get.
The patient was later diagnosed with Pica, a disorder in which people compulsively swallow non-food items. According to executive producer and emergency medicine resident Zoanne Clack, they did tons of research on the kind of things people swallowed but came up with doll heads to make it seem freaky and to have a funny X-ray.
4.The Teenage Girl Could Hear The Inside of Her Body
Season 6, Episode 22, “Shiny Happy People”
Demi Lovato was one of the many celebrity stars who made impactful guest appearances on the show. However, Lovato’s performance stood out because of her incredibly unusual condition, which most people might not have heard of. Lovato’s Hayley May is initially thought to be suffering from Schizophrenia and is brought to the hospital because she tried to claw her eyes out. Although everyone was convinced that it was due to a mental condition, Alex Karev suspected otherwise.
A series of ambitious tests from his side proved that Hayley had a small hole in her inner ear, which caused her to hear everything that was happening inside her body, eventually overwhelming her sensory receptors. The real medical term is dubbed canal dehiscence syndrome and is an extremely rare medical condition. In Grey’s Anatomy, Hayley was treated with minor surgery to prove she wasn’t crazy after all.
5.The Woman Who Could Grow Bones Anywhere
Season 3, Episode 19, “My Favorite Mistake”
How would one feel if bones grew in their body where they shouldn’t? It may have sounded and seemed absurd and almost made up when the case was featured in Grey’s Anatomy, but it is an actual medical condition. Seattle Grace interns were baffled and excited to encounter a case of Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva or Münchmeyer disease when Cathy Rogerson was brought in. It’s a rare genetic disorder that causes connective tissues to turn into bone.
In Cathy’s case, even the slightest bump would cause a bone to grow out of the affected area, making her almost immobile. Her case was a learning opportunity for the interns, especially when mixed with some drama of the patient’s overbearing daughter, as their bond reflected something similar that a few surgeons might have been going through at the time.
6.The Patient Who Was Allergic To Pain Meds
Season 2, Episode 5, “Bring the Pain”
When an unusual case of a guy who kept his pain at bay by watching porn came to Seattle Grace, it made fans have that “they’d do or say anything to make something nonsensical sound like a medical mystery by using fancy words” moment. According to Clack, they wanted to squeeze a pain management plotline and have Derek deal with it.
Therefore, when Henry Lamott arrived at the hospital, it astonished the interns to hear that his doctors had actually prescribed him to watch porn as a form of pain management while he waited for his spinal implant. Understandably, the show wanted to expand on the idea that certain hormones are released while experiencing or watching something stimulating, but it seemed quite eccentric to see the prospect in action.
7.The Man With The Severe Case of Warts
Season 7, Episode 3, “Superfreak”
Grey’s Anatomy’s most “skin-tingling” medical case was a bizarre case of warts. Jerry Adams was brought to the hospital with an extreme case of HPV, which caused bark-like growths to cover his entire body. Because of how his condition made him look, Jerry was reluctant to seek medical care and became reclusive. Surprisingly, this was one of the few cases that was inspired by a real-life story.
The case was based on the footage made of the boy with the same condition that went untreated for years.
The “Tree Man” inspiration came from the case of a little boy living on a remote island who had suffered from a rare genetic disorder that caused uncontrollable outward growths all over his body. Unfortunately, his condition went untreated because of limited access to medical care. Even in Jerry’s case, although the surgeons removed the growths, the warts kept forming on healthy skin, leaving him seemingly untreatable.
8.Lexie’s Mom Dies of Hiccups
Season 3, Episode 23, “The Other Side of This Life, Part 2”
Susan Grey came to Seattle Grace when she couldn’t get rid of her persistent hiccups and severe acid reflux. She was given medicine and sent home, but she returned when her condition didn’t improve. She then underwent an endoscopy but was later diagnosed with a toxic megacolon. The hiccups had somehow caused her colon to become severely inflamed, which later caused a hole in it, leading to sepsis.
Unfortunately, she died on the table with no one having a clue as to why something as simple as hiccups could have caused such a life-threatening outcome. It was so mind-boggling that “people dying of hiccups” became Grey Sloan surgeons’ go-to reference when dealing with the unknown and was sometimes even treated as a running joke.
9.A Fish Got Stuck In A Man’s Urethra
Season 3, Episode 21, “Desire”
“Penis Fish” became a popular nomenclature in the Seattle Grace (Grey Sloan Memorial) Hospital after the case was brought to the surgeons. The entire incident was kept a little hush-hush because the doctors were dealing with the chairman of the hospital’s board of directors. Larry Jennings came to Richard Webber complaining of swollen genitals and not being able to pass urine for a few days. However, the X-ray test revealed what looked like a tiny skeleton lodged in his genitals.
It turned out that Larry had just returned from his trip to the Amazon, and while he was relieving himself somewhere, a parasitic species known as the candiru fish followed the urine stream to the source. Having said that, the metrics of such a case sound completely absurd even by Grey’s Anatomy standards. However, according to Clack, they didn’t make it up.
10.The Man With His Leg In the Center of His Body
Season 12, Episode 13, “All Eyez On Me”
It’s safe to say that this particular case is one of the most controversial and absurd in perhaps all of Grey’s Anatomy’s 20 seasons. The outcome of Callie’s radical approach had fans in an uproar, especially when the show tried to pass it as a “miracle.” While most “medical mysteries” on the show have some groundwork laid out in reality, what the surgeons did to Sergeant Carson in the name of offering sustenance and long-term outcomes was completely outrageous. Carson had an aggressive cancer that spread to his spine, left pelvis bone, and sacrum.
Dr. Torres proposed they amputate his perfectly good leg while removing all the cancer-affected bones and then reattach the leg in the centre of his body to create “stability.” The idea here was that by reattaching the leg to his pelvic area, it would promote the creation of healthy veins. The logistics of the case infuriated the fans because if the leg is reattached to the center of the body, how would his prostate area work, let alone him walking again?
