‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Recap: Did April Die?

Courtesy of ABC

A major ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ character had a near-death experience during the May 10 episode. Did she survive after suffering a serious injury? Read our recap!

April was left seriously injured during the May 10 episode of Grey’s Anatomy — something that had been heavily promoted in a shocking teaser that dropped late last week. But did she die? Fortunately, she did not. Long-time Grey’s Anatomy viewers were not forced to endure another heartbreaking death, and for that, we’ll forever be grateful. But let us start from the beginning and tell you what happened.

At the start of the penultimate episode, April was seen sending out invites for Alex and Jo’s wedding. All seemed fine until Matthew came to the hospital in an ambulance after he rolled his car. And as soon as he asked if April was okay, everyone suspected the worst. Owen and an ambulance raced back to the scene of Matthew’s accident, where Owen found April unconscious with the lower half of her body freezing in an ice-cold lake. By the time April arrived at the hospital, she was hypothermic with no pulse nor vitals. The goal was to raise April’s temperature before trying to restart her heart. Fortunately, the doctors were able to do so after doing chest compressions for over 3 hours. Meanwhile, Richard worked on Matthew.

When Jackson finally made it out of a surgery he was performing, he overheard Casey say they need more blood to save Kepner’s life. He then burst into the O.R., demanding to know why everyone waited so long to tell him the news. But Owen said that all that was left for them to do was pray. April was then put on bypass and everyone waited to see any sign of a heartbeat. Once Maggie was convinced that she had, she started using the EKG paddles on April over and over again. They assumed she was seeing things, but alas, Maggie finally got a rhythm.

When Matthew, too, survived his surgery, he began asking about April. Unbeknownst to the group, April and Matthew had been seeing each other for months and fell back in love, but they kept it a secret due to fears of what others may think. Arizona was actually the one to drop this bombshell, as Jackson held April’s hand and prayed for her to wake up. April actually appeared to be brain dead, so Jackson started praying. “I’ll do whatever you want,” he then told God, as a song by Snow Patrol played in the background. “Don’t take her away, OK?” With tears streaming down his face, April squeezed his hand and slowly opened her eyes. Hallelujah! “You prayed for me, and it worked,” she later said. April later thanked Maggie for saving her life before reuniting with Matthew.

Meanwhile, Geena Davis’ Dr. Herman returned to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for a consult. It was then that Arizona told her she was going back into peds and out of fetal surgery due to her move to NYC. Apparently, the hospital she applied to already has 3 fetal surgeons. But Herman balked at Arizona’s admission and begged her not to quit. Herman told Arizona that she just got a grant and with the money, she wanted to open the Robbins Herman Center for Women’s Health, where they’d launch Arizona’s cart program. “Could we do it in New York?” Arizona asked. “We could do it wherever you want,” Dr. Herman replied.

In the final moments of the episode, Alex and Jo looked forward to their wedding, while Meredith took an extra long look at Derek’s Post-It wedding vows.