Grey’s Anatomy season 21 episode 7 recap: Did Yasuda survive her car crash?

Heading into season 21 of Grey’s Anatomy, we knew that Yasuda’s time at Grey Sloan would be coming to an end. Ahead of the season’s premiere, news broke that Midori Francis would be stepping away from the series with the plan being for her to return for an undisclosed number of episodes to wrap her storyline on the series. Beyond that, nothing was revealed about how exactly the show might write the character off. 

Then came the sixth episode of the season which seemed to hint that Yasuda could be getting a tragic exit storyline. 

At the end of episode 6, Yasuda and her sister, Chloe, were heading home after Chloe was discharged from the hospital when they got into an accident as Yasuda began to fall asleep at the wheel. So needless to say we went into episode 7 expecting the worst – this is Grey’s Anatomy after all, where surgeons drop like flies. 

As the episode kicked off, we see the immediate fallout of the accident and it’s not good. Yasuda and her sister are both transported to Grey Sloan and her arrival quickly sends shock waves through the ED as Lucas and the rest of the doctors realize one of their own is now in a fight for their life.

When Lucas sees his friend brought in through the ER, he immediately wants to jump in and help his friend but she manages to muster up the strength to ask him to instead go take care of her sister. As Lucas races off to help with Chloe’s treatment, Teddy, Baliey, Owen, and Ndugu race into action to begin treatment. After she codes and they almost lose her, they race to her into surgery but they quickly realize while operating that they’re going to need to regroup on the best course of treatment due to the extensive liver damage she’s suffered.

As the doctors work to the best of their abilities to save Yasuda, her fellow interns and friends all struggle to sit on the sidelines as their friend’s life hangs in the balance. Millin is feeling guilty about Yasuda taking her place in surgery, blaming herself for what has happened; Griffith is feeling helpless without the ability to scrub in; and Blue is realizing just how much he values her friendship and shows off his vulnerable side as he pleads with her to not give up. 

After taking some time to think about the best course of action, Bailey suggests they resect the right lobe of her liver and the damaged areas in the left and then remove her spleen and use its vessels to rebuild her liver.

Together, Teddy, Owen, Bailey, and Ndugu begin the surgery on Yasuda, Lucas comes racing into the ER requesting help from either Teddy or Ndugu as Chloe, who is also undergoing surgery, has a bad vascular bleed and is at risk of losing her leg. Teddy steps out to scrub into Chloe’s surgery and Lucas quite literally gets sick after seeing his friend on the operating table. 

The two sisters’ operations unfold simultaneously as we cut back and forth between the two teams of surgeons working to do everything they can to save Yasuda and Chloe, as the interns – sans Lucas – wait together in the waiting room for updates. Both operations seem to go well and now it’s a matter of praying and hoping for the best.

As the interns sit around Yasuda’s bedside sharing stories, a code blue comes across and they realize it’s Chloe and quickly race to her side. After 40 minutes of compressions, Lincoln arrives and calls time of death pronouncing Chole dead. It seems the injuries sustained were too much for her already weakened state following her chemo treatment, leaving the interns understandably shaken. 

After Chloe’s death, the rest of the interns return to Yasuda’s bedside before Bailey sends them home to get some rest as she sits by her side. An unspecified number of days pass by, but Yasuda eventually awakens from her coma where Bailey must break the heartbreaking news that Chole did not survive as the episode draws to an end. 

While Yasuda survived, it’s clear the death of her sister might prove too much to overcome and we imagine it’ll eventually lead to her exit.