True to form, Grey’s Anatomy has indeed had a number of gut-wrenching deaths during Season 17, which has also bid farewell to three main cast members. However, while COVID-19 was responsible for at least a few of the season’s heartbreaking moments, it wasn’t as many as you might think. Here are all the significant deaths and departures from Grey’s Anatomy Season 17.
Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Deaths and Departures
Val Ashton
The first big loss of the season, Val Ashton (Mackenzie Marsh) was introduced in the third episode of Season 17, “My Happy Ending.” After Val arrived in the ER with persistent abdominal pain and vomiting, Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Carina (Stefania Spampinato) soon determined that she was pregnant, but that the baby was growing outside of her uterus, near her liver. Due to the baby’s placement, it would need to be delivered right away if Val was to have any chance of surviving, despite her only being 26 weeks along. Val was shocked to learn of her pregnancy, and had strongly mixed emotions, revealing that her inability to conceive with her ex-husband was a strong contributor to their eventual divorce. They’d tried to have a baby for eight years, and went through six cycles of IVF, to no avail. But while her ex-husband had blamed their inability to conceive entirely on her, this pregnancy helped her realize that it was never her fault. She realized she must have become pregnant from a one-night stand she had with a man who rented a room from her. After confirming with Val that she did indeed want to keep the baby, Carina performed a C-section, and Val named the baby Luna. She contacted the baby’s father and told him of Luna’s existence, but he decided he’d rather not be involved, and signed over all parental rights to Val. However, while Val came through the procedure all right, she began having multiple complications due to the damage the pregnancy did to her liver, and eventually died due to complications of liver failure. Both before and after Val’s death, Jo took a special interest in Luna, and has been visiting her regularly in the NICU. It was partially due to her experience with Val and Luna that led to Jo’s later decision to switch specialties, from general surgery to obstetrics.
Elena Bailey
The mother of Chief of Surgery, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Elena Bailey (Bianca F. Taylor) was brought into Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in the fifth episode of Season 17, “Fight the Power.” Previously, Miranda’s parents had both been staying in a nursing home, but when Miranda realized that several other residents of their facility had been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, she arranged for her husband to take her parents to a hotel instead. However, by that point, Elena was already infected and struggling to breathe. Once Elena was admitted, she was extremely distressed, with her discomfort from COVID exacerbated by her confusion due to Alzheimer’s disease. Although Miranda knew about her mother’s diagnosis, she never told anyone else about it, not wanting to dredge up old wounds for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) or Richard (James Pickens Jr.). Additionally, due to COVID precautions, Miranda’s father couldn’t visit her in the hospital, and was forced to interact with her only through video calls, which was especially upsetting when Miranda realized her mom likely didn’t have much longer to live. Torn between extreme measures, which she didn’t think her mother would want, and palliative care, Miranda ultimately decided to try to make her death as comfortable and comforting for her as possible. Difficult as it was, Miranda sat by her mother’s bedside and held her hand, singing to her until she died.
Hector Martinez
We never officially met Hector Martinez (Pablo Ramos) in the episode “No Time for Despair,” which was kind of the point. After Tom Koracick (Greg Germann) was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, he found himself with a revolving door of roommates, since the hospital didn’t have enough space for every COVID patient to have their own private room. One such roommate was a man Tom knew only as Hector. He said Hector’s wife would call him every day and talk to him over the speakerphone, while Tom could hear children playing in the background. Hector’s wife would cry, but would then force herself to laugh, and Hector would force himself to smile, both trying to care for the other over the phone, despite their pain. Tom awoke one day to find Maggie (Kelly McCreary) calling Hector’s time of death after being unable to revive him following complications from COVID-19. At that point, a visibly distraught Tom finally learned Hector’s last name, which he requests “for my prayers.”
Andrew DeLuca
Initially introduced at the end of Season 11 of Grey’s Anatomy, Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) joined the cast as a series regular during Season 12, and has been a main player ever since. He became the first significant love interest for Meredith following the death of her husband, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and became an impressive surgeon in his own right, finally even working his way up to becoming an attending in Season 17. Andrew also dealt with significant mental health struggles, and was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but was receiving treatment and successfully managing his condition when everything suddenly went wrong. After realizing that he was right about a teenager he’d suspected was being trafficked back in Season 16, Andrew (along with his sister, Carina) took it upon himself in the episode “No Time for Despair” to follow the trafficker when he spotted her outside the hospital. He and Carina spent the Station 19 episode “Train in Vain” pursuing her as they waited for the police to show up, but just as she was finally apprehended, Andrew was stabbed by her accomplice and left to bleed out on the train station floor. Carina brought him to the hospital in the seventh episode of Season 17, “Helplessly Hoping,” where Owen (Kevin McKidd) and Teddy (Kim Raver) did their very best to save his life. Meanwhile, while Andrew was unconscious, he paid Meredith a visit on her magical beach, where he told her he has no regrets about his life and was at peace with the idea of giving his life in service of others. Eventually, despite the heroic efforts of his doctors, Andrew succumbed to his wounds and passed away.
Chad Anderson
Possibly the most infuriating and preventable loss on Grey’s Anatomy during Season 17, Chad Anderson (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) was taken to the hospital in the twelfth episode, “Sign O’ the Times.” Despite presenting shortness of breath and other COVID-19 symptoms, he told Miranda Bailey that there was no possibility he had been exposed to COVID-19, and frequently attempted to remove his mask while speaking and needed to be repeatedly reminded to keep it on. Miranda had him tested for COVID anyway, and the test came back positive. However, Chad refused to believe it, insisting that he knew COVID was fake and that Miranda was receiving some sort of financial incentive for falsely diagnosing patients. Instead, Chad was convinced he’s merely experiencing asthma symptoms, and that all he needed was a refill on his inhaler prescription. Miranda continued to present Chad with evidence of a COVID-19 infection, including ground-glass opacities in his lungs, a blood clot in his leg and “COVID toe,” but nothing she said could convince him. She told him that he needed to be treated immediately with steroids and blood thinners, but he remained adamant that all he needed was a new inhaler. Eventually, while Miranda was busy tending other patients, Chad checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice, only to pass out in the parking lot. Miranda tried to revive him, but was unable to resuscitate him, and was soon forced to pronounce him dead.
Carolyn Hexton
Viewers never had the pleasure of meeting Carolyn Hexton, a 37-year-old kindergarten teacher who often ran 10K races for charity, but the staff of Grey Sloan Memorial got to know her well during her treatment for COVID-19. After being treated at the hospital, Carolyn was showing significant improvement, no longer needing supplemental oxygen, and her doctors were preparing to send her home. However, in the thirteenth episode of Season 17, “Good as Hell,” Carolyn began experiencing arrhythmias and then went into ventricular fibrillation, and ultimately died of cardiac arrest secondary to COVID-19. Her death hit Owen Hunt particularly hard, who broke down crying while calling her family to inform them of her death. He said later that this was the first time in his career he’d ever done that, showing just how strongly the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting the doctors of Grey Sloan.
Carina DeLuca (sort of)
In some ways, Carina DeLuca has kind of left Grey’s Anatomy twice this season, and in other ways, hasn’t left at all. While Stefania Spampinato has only ever been recurring on Grey’s Anatomy and not a member of the main cast, she was upped to the main cast of Station 19this season, which begged the question of whether we’d be seeing less of her in the halls of Grey Sloan, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while Station 19 has seen her move in with her girlfriend, Maya Bishop (Danielle Savre), and then take time off from her medical duties to mourn the death of her brother, she’s still been around treating patients throughout the season. However, when Grey’s Anatomy caught up to the real-life immigration ban ordered by President Trump, resulting in the closing of all immigration offices, Carina was unable to renew her visa and realized she’d need to move back to Italy indefinitely. In preparation, she quit her job at Grey Sloan, and found a job at a hospital in Italy. But right before she was due to leave, she and Maya decided to get married, which will allow her to remain in the United States. In Episode 15, “Tradition,” Carina was able to beg Miranda Bailey for her job back, but still decided to go to Italy for about a month in order to scatter her brother’s ashes and help out at the hospital there. So while Carina is indeed leaving Grey Sloan for a while, she’s planning on coming back.
Jackson Avery
In a season filled with deaths, probably the most surprising departure was actually a happy one, albeit bittersweet for both characters and fans. After 12 seasons on Grey’s Anatomy, Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) revealed in the episode “Look Up Child” that he’d decided to move on from Grey Sloan, and would head to Boston to run the philanthropic Catherine Fox Foundation. Like the rest of the cast of Grey’s Anatomy, Jackson had been struggling emotionally during the COVID-19 pandemic, feeling helpless and frustrated as he and the hospital lost patient after patient. On top of that, Jackson became increasingly unsettled throughout the season with his own approach to racial inequality in the U.S. Although he was raised by his mother to pursue excellence so that he could use his power and privilege to affect positive change, he realized he was beginning to feel as though his tendency to throw money at the problem was not enough–especially in light of the George Floydprotests. He wanted to do more. Jackson’s solution is to step into his family legacy by running their foundation and using it to revolutionize the medical system from the inside. He recognizes the systemic issues within medicine which disproportionately affect minority populations, and sets out to “reallocate every penny that we have to equity in medicine.” In “Look Up Child,” he told his ex-wife April (Sarah Drew, who departed Grey’s Anatomy at the end of Season 14) of his plans, and asked her to go with him so that he wouldn’t have to live across the country from their daughter. While he was originally under the impression that he was asking her whole family to pack up and move, including her husband, April revealed that they’d actually separated, so she can make the decision to join him all on her own. Jackson promised her a job in the same area she’s currently working in–providing medical care to people experiencing homelessness–and together, they set off to change the world. Jackson’s final episode was “Tradition,” in which he resigned from his job and bid personal farewells to his closest friends.
Tom Koracick
Jackson Avery wasn’t the only Grey Sloan doctor to have a crisis of conscience and decide to uproot his entire life in Season 17 of Grey’s Anatomy. After returning to work after recovering from COVID-19, neurosurgeon Tom Koracick found himself feeling a bit adrift, unable to slide comfortably back into his trademark prickly aloofness, but not sure what he should be doing instead. Adding to his unsettledness was his awkward relationship and rocky history with Teddy, who resisted giving Tom the clean break he thought he needed, trying to keep up some semblance of friendship instead. So after hearing Jackson’s plans in “Tradition,” Tom decided to throw caution to the wind and ask if he could come too. He hadn’t thought much beyond what he would do in Boston, offering that he could work as a doctor, an administrator, or whatever else Jackson could come up with, as long as he could be put to use doing something to help make the world a better place. Jackson agreed, telling Tom to join him in Boston in a couple of days. And just like that, Tom Koracick’s four-season tenure on Grey’s Anatomy was over–although the door is definitely open for him to return as a guest star in the future. Grey’s Anatomy will be back in the fall for Season 18! Check out the full Fall 2021 schedule.
