Grey’s Anatomy: Arizona’s Specialty

Dr. Arizona Robbins has a strong connection with her patients. She explains “these children believe in magic, play pretend and have fairy dust in their IV bags. In peds, we have miracles and magic. Anything is possible.” This week Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital focuses on three young patients. The episode was emotional and well done.

The show primarily revolves around Arizona and Wallace Anderson, a ten-year-old boy, who suffers from “short gut syndrome,” an illness that does not allow him to consume nutrition. His extremely wealthy parents announce they will donate $25 million dollars to the hospital because of the successful treatment by Arizona that extended their son’s life.

After negative test results, Arizona explains to the Andersons that Wallace’s time is limited. However they cannot accept this and fight for another surgery to try to save their son’s life. Arizona opposes the surgery because Wallace’s condition is too unstable. The Chief convinces her to do the surgery because of the huge donation and to please the parents.

Before surgery Wallace tells Arizona how he’s heard death is just like going to sleep. His fear is that he often has nightmares. This was a real tearjerker!

Wallace makes it out of the surgery. After a quick trip home, we see Arizona back in the OR with him. The Chief offers to help but Arizona yells “get the hell out of my O.R.” Her priority is the patient not the money, unlike the Chief.  Two weeks in a row, Arizona stands up to the Chief; good for her!

Sadly, Wallace dies of septic shock. Arizona goes home to find Callie has thrown a surprise birthday party for her but leaves in tears remembering that Wallace shared her birthday. Arizona returns to the hospital as the Chief and Jennings, the obnoxious board member, are sucking up to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. Surprisingly, the Chief stands up to Jennings for Arizona, a glimmer of his old self!

Get your tissues ready now…Arizona brings the Andersons to say goodbye to Wallace. Mrs. Anderson begins her ritual to chase away Wallace’s bad dreams but is unable to finish, so Arizona does it for her. Mr. Anderson explains that they will still donate the money because of Arizona not because of the Chief or his “ass-kissing.”

Meanwhile, another patient, fifteen-year-old Hillary fell off of her roof while high on drugs. She broke fifty bones in her body. During her second surgery, she develops an air embolism in her heart. A determined Cristina performs an unauthorized procedure to remove it. Owen and Cristina have a huge fight over this. Jackson is impressed and tells her “you rocked that in there.”

Meredith convinces Cristina that she acted out of line and that Owen loves her and cares about her career. Cristina then checks on Hillary and finds her on the phone trying to score more drugs. Cristina threatens to call the police, tells her that she almost died in surgery and to grow up!

At Arizona’s surprise party, a drunk Jackson tells Cristina that she’s hot and kisses her. She stops him, tells him “she’s involved” and immediately makes up with Owen. I wonder how long that will last?

The third patient is a baby girl born prematurely because of a car accident. Alex treats the baby and bluntly tells Reed that the baby will likely die. However, once alone he tenderly holds the baby and tells her “I’ve got you, you’re not alone.”

Bailey sees Alex holding the baby in the “kangaroo hold” and notices her vitals have improved. She commands Alex, much to his surprise, to “take off your shirt!” She explains the skin on skin contact would be beneficial and help warm the baby. He complies and other doctors keep popping in to poke fun at the shirtless Alex.

After Alex stays all night holding the baby, Bailey tells him, “he’d be good in peds.” Reed, who we learn likes Alex, tries to be nice to him and offers to hold the baby. He refuses and explains how he cannot control anything in his life right now, “but I can sit here and hold this baby.”

I enjoyed seeing Arizona in the spotlight and witnessing her dedication to her specialty, pediatrics. I also loved the scene when she stood up to the Chief. He has been driving me crazy since the merger! I was really happy to see Bailey have some more time this episode; I missed her!

I am not happy about the possibility of the Reed and Alex relationship. I am a big fan of Alex and Izzie! We had to wait so long for them to be together, please don’t break them up now! On the other hand, Jackson and Cristina might be an interesting couple!

Last episode, McDreamy was “fired.”  It turns out he refuses to acknowledge his termination and continues to go to work, where the Chief ignores him. On a positive note, no one was fired this week!

For another take on this episode, read Invest in Love by Tanya Lane.

Season 6, Episodes 8: Invest in Love (Originally aired November 5, 2009)

For more Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC, Randy Holmes