How General Hospital's Sonny can survive his heart issue

For a few weeks, General Hospital’s Sonny (Maurice Benard) has known that he might have a heart issue because he’d been shot over 20 years ago. Clutching his chest at times, he first passed out at the gym, where Isaiah (Sawandi Wilson) fortunately found him and helped him out. Isaiah determined what Sonny’s issue might be, and now that he’s passed out in his office, things look dire for the don of the Northeastern Sea Front.

His ticker might not tick for much longer

We know from the General Hospital preview that Natalia (Eva LaRue) will find Sonny unconscious, and we also know that he’s not dead yet because the show accidentally leaked the Wednesday, January 23, 2025, teaser that shows him talking to Brick (Stephen A. Smith). But the clock might be ticking for our favorite racketeer — and his ticker might be a ticking time bomb just waiting to end him.

There have been several rumors over the years that Benard has been looking to retire and exit the show, and none of them have come to pass. Although General Hospital is good at keeping casting changes and story points a secret, major players Kelly Monaco (ex-Sam) and Chad Duell (Michael) both announced they were leaving shortly before they were killed off or written out. This implies that Sonny may very well survive this latest health crisis since no word has been given about Benard’s status.

Also, Cyrus (Jeff Kober) has been going around the hospital injecting patients with an overdose of Digitalis, causing them to die from cardiac arrest. It’s very possible that he’s somehow been giving Sonny low doses of the drug, which will give him a heart attack over time. If that’s the case, and Sonny dies, the doctors may just assume it was a bad heart and not look for the drug. But since Isaiah’s aware of the Digitalis incidents in the hospital, he could very well save Sonny’s life by giving him a blood test and learning the cause of his issues.

Alternatively, if Sonny is truly in peril because of a bad heart, he may want to go to an off-books clinic — like the one in Germany they just sent his badly burned son Michael (Chad Duell) to — and he’ll get a miracle cure. Or, although the Crichton-Clarke Clinic is no more, perhaps Dr. Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) could use the Cassadine cryogenic technology to freeze Sonny until they find a cure for what ails him.

Our fingers are crossed that some kind of soapy solution can be found so that Sonny can remain in power and continue to protect the good citizens of Port Charles from evildoers.

You can watch new episodes of General Hospital on ABC and Hulu.