10 Worst Decisions Meredith Made On Grey’s Anatomy
Although Meredith Grey is considered to be one of Grey's Anatomy's best surgeons, even she makes terrible decisions. These are the worst.
Although Meredith Grey is now considered to be one of Grey’s Anatomy’s best surgeons, it did take her a while to earn this legacy since her career was full of grave mistakes and terrible decisions. Between season 1 and season 19, Meredith Grey has achieved and accomplished many great things. She became one of the few surgeons to win a Catherine Fox award (formerly known to Grey’s Anatomy fans as a Harper Avery), she created many groundbreaking medical procedures, and she cemented a legacy for herself that was just as great as her mother, Ellis Grey’s.
However, it did take her a while to get to this point. While Meredith has certainly become wise over the years, this hasn’t always been the case as she did make a lot of impulsive and reckless decisions when it came to her career and professional life. What more, her impulsive decisions could sometimes deeply hurt the ones she loved most. She would definitely approach things from a different angle if she knew the detrimental consequences that followed.
10Keeping Her Relationship With Riggs A Secret From Maggie
In season 10, Meredith’s family tree on Grey’s Anatomy continued to expand as she discovered that she had another half-sister, Maggie Pierce. Although their relationship got off to a rocky start, the two sisters eventually became close as they began to bond over their love for medicine and helped support one another through dark times. However, their bond almost suffered a major setback when Maggie confessed to Meredith that she had feelings for Riggs just as the General surgeon had become romantically involved with him.
While Meredith was going to tell her, she decided against it after Maggie’s mother died as she didn’t want to hurt her sister any further. However, this ended up being one of her worst decisions as she faced a huge backlash from Maggie when she found out (season 13, episode 21, “Don’t Stop Me Now”). Although Meredith had the best intentions in mind, prolonging the truth upset Maggie even more as she felt betrayed that she confided in Meredith about her feelings for Riggs and Meredith let her do it. What more, it fueled Maggie’s trust issues. Meredith would have definitely approached this situation differently if she knew how it would turn out.
9Confessing A Medical Error In Front Of A Patient’s Family Member Before An Investigation Takes Place
When Meredith arrived at Seattle Grace Hospital in season 1, her first couple of weeks got off to an awkward start as she made numerous mistakes (she got lost with a patient, she almost betrayed Cristina by reneging on a promise, and she often went over people’s heads with her concerns). However, the biggest mistake she made confessed in front of a patient’s family member that she was responsible for their loved one health declining (as seen in season 1, episode 5’s “Shake Your Groove Thing” when she popped a glove in surgery and made a small mark on the heart).
Of course, she did the right thing in reporting what happened to Burke. However, it was a terrible decision to do so in front of the patient’s family member – especially when they weren’t exactly certain she was responsible. In hindsight, Meredith would have been better confessing as soon as it happened or in private to one of her superiors so they could have conducted an investigation straight away.
8Causing A Medical Malpractice Suit By Going Off Plan Without Derek’s Observation
Although season 8 did prove that Meredith was an up-and-coming surgeon, that didn’t mean she didn’t have a lot to learn still. As seen in season 8’s “One Step Too Far,” Meredith and Lexie were responsible for a medical malpractice suit when they removed a patient’s tumor without talking to Derek. Unfortunately, this had major consequences as they later discovered that the patient had post-op complications and was now unable to speak properly.
While it was easy to see how devastated the two Grey sisters were about what they did (and they were completely ready to take accountability for their actions), there’s no doubt that this was one of Meredith’s worst and reckless decisions since she was told by Derek to just supervise and help Lexie reduce the patient’s cyst. If she followed Derek’s initially instructions, there was a huge possibility that the patient would have been fine.
7Intimidating DeLuca In The Elevator After He Was Attacked By Alex
Although Grey’s Anatomy fans love Meredith and Alex’s friendship, they did make a couple of decisions that they struggled to get behind. A prime example of this was how they behaved towards DeLuca after he was attacked by Alex due to a big misunderstanding. As seen in season 13’s “Catastrophe and the Cure,” Meredith was trying her best to stop Alex from going to prison, so she decided to speak to DeLuca to see if she could mend any bridges.
However, she ended up making the situation a lot worse. Not only did she overstep her boundaries by pressuring him to accept Alex apology, but she also inadvertently threatened DeLuca’s career. She didn’t even apologize for the misunderstanding until Bailey had a talk with her about how inappropriate it was for her to even approach DeLuca about the case. Fans love how she fights for her loved ones, but she was completely in the wrong for this one.
6Kidnapping Zola After Social Services Come To Retrieve Her
Meredith and Derek’s relationship suffered some major setbacks in season 7 and 8 as their family was almost torn apart before it even began. In the aftermath of Meredith tampering with the clinical trial, the couple’s plans to adopt Zola were put in jeopardy as Zola’s adoption counselor discovered that Meredith and Derek were temporarily separated.
While the adoption counselor comes to retrieve Zola, Meredith ends up panicking and decides to take Zola, hiding the two of them in one of the abandoned tunnels. Luckily, Cristina and Alex helped cover up this mistake, but this impulsive decision could have had major consequences on Derek and Meredith’s relationship – especially if the counselor discovered the truth.
5Putting Her Hands On The Bomb
Meredith Grey has faced death on Grey’s Anatomy more times than any other character on the show. While some couldn’t have been avoided, there were a few that occurred because she made an impulsive decision. This was particularly the case in season 2 when she decided to put her hand on bomb that was residing in a patient’s chest in order to prevent it from exploding (“It’s the End of the World”). There’s no doubt that it was a selfless and altruistic deed. However, it was certainly one of the worst decisions she ever made considering that she could have died or even caused the device to go off.
4Not Getting Help When Izzie Cut Denny’s LVAD Wire
While one of Meredith’s best traits on Grey’s Anatomy is her unwavering loyalty to her friends, she had to learn the hard way to implement boundaries with them. This was a lesson she first learned in the penultimate season 2 episodes as she decided to help Izzie after the surgeon broke a series of laws by cutting Denny’s LVAD wire. While Izzie had no right to put Meredith (and her friends) in such an awkward position, Meredith should have known that they were in over their head with the situation and called her superiors for help. Instead, taking the burden on meant she put her career on the line.
3Not Reporting Richard To The Board In Order To Further Her Career
While Meredith and Richard’s friendship was one of the most memorable on the show, that didn’t mean they didn’t do a lot of terrible things to each other (especially in season 6). After Meredith discovered that Richard had relapsed and was drinking again, viewers saw her become conflicted as she wanted to do the right thing and report him to the Board. She just didn’t want him to lose his livelihood.
It was certainly a difficult situation that many people sympathized with. However, a lot of respect for her dwindled a little bit when she decided not to report him in order to further her career (not only did Richard begin to give her private lessons, but he almost let her perform a procedure she just wasn’t ready for just yet). It was certainly one of Meredith’s worst and reckless decisions since allowing Webber to operate could have resulted in several medical malpractice suits and possibly led to someone dying. It just wasn’t worth the risk.
2Committing Insurance Fraud
Although Meredith has done a lot of good at Grey Sloan Memorial, she does make a lot of reckless decisions when it comes to her career. While she is an extraordinary surgeon, she is extremely lucky to still have a medical career since Meredith has been fired twice for breaking the law and medical protocol (one of these instances occurred in season 15). As fans will remember, Meredith committed insurance fraud to help one of her patient’s with the surgery costs (season 15, episode 23, “What I Did For Love”).
However, her crime was later discovered by Bailey and Catherine, who ultimately fired and then reported her (episode 25, “Jump Into The Fog”). Not only that, but Meredith also ended up in jail for a brief period of time after she failed to complete her community service. As noble as this gesture was, there were certainly other ways that she and the other surgeons could have made this surgery happen.
1Tampering With The Alzheimer’s Trial
While it’s no secret that Meredith had made a lot of mistakes during her 19-year tenure of Grey’s Anatomy, most of them she was able to bounce back from. However, there was one huge mistake that she made that nearly ruined her career as well as her colleagues – and that was her tampering with Derek’s medical trial (a project that both she and the neurosurgeon had been working on to help individuals who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s).
Although everyone knew that she didn’t do it with malicious intent (after all, she was trying to help Webber’s wife, Adele, qualify for the drug), her actions got her fired, almost cost her her license, and nearly destroyed the hospital’s chance of running another medical trial again. She also broke medical protocol by allowing her personal bias towards Adele affect her professional opinion (which was kind of disrespectful to the patients participating on the trial as it seemed like she was suggesting they weren’t as important).
