Seattle Grace Hospital an altruistic act in Alzheimer’s study could wreak havoc
The premise
Neurosurgeons at Seattle Grace Hospital are conducting a clinical trial of a new treatment for patients with “rapidly progressive Alzheimer’s disease.” Some of the patients in the trial are randomly assigned to receive the experimental drug and others are given a placebo. The patients don’t know which group they are in, but the doctors find out when they unseal an envelope in the operating room just before inserting the syringe into the patient’s brain. Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the surgical resident who is coordinating the trial, is anxious to enroll Adele Webber (Loretta Devine), the wife of Seattle Grace’s chief of surgery, Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.). Adele has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and she is becoming more confused. Among other problems, she mistakes Meredith for her dead mother and accuses her of having an affair with Richard. To avoid the risk that Adele will get the placebo, Meredith suggests to Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), the neurosurgeon running the trial, that they give her the experimental drug outside the study protocol. But Derek objects on the grounds that it would ruin the trial and “our careers along with it.” Despite this warning, Meredith sneaks into the hospital’s pharmacy and unseals the envelope for the next patient in the trial. After discovering that Adele is slated to get the placebo, she switches the papers with those in another envelope that instructs doctors to give the drug.
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