House — Episode 2 (Season 5): “Not Cancer”
This was not so much an episode of House as it was a parody of an episode of House — and a parody which seemed to be written by someone who’s heard about the show, but never actually seen it.
Apple, a young high school math teacher, is one of six patients who received transplanted organs from the same donor. In the past eight months, four of these patients have died suddenly and one is hovering near death — though all from different causes. Apple is the only one still alive. She is admitted to the hospital so the common cause of these deaths can be found, and in Apple’s case, prevented.
A donor infection that slipped by screening is suggested, but discarded. Autoimmune disease, vasculitis (specifically Henoch-Schönlein Purpura) and cancer are also suggested as possible diagnoses. House focuses on the cancer diagnosis. However, when he goes to talk with Apple, she starts to hallucinate.
This neurological symptom makes him wonder if the common cause of the deaths might be a neurological disease instead of cancer. One of the dead patients was a mixed martial artist, and House suspects that he was showing neurological symptoms (a temporal lobe seizure) right before he died. This would lend credence to his neurological-cause theory. A brain biopsy would give the best information, but brain biopsies are risky, so therefore House decides it would be best to biopsy Frank — the nearly dead patient. In the midst of trying to obtain consent from his wife, Frank suffers a respiratory arrest, then a cardiac arrest, and dies. A brain biopsy performed at autopsy is negative, so House goes back to his cancer diagnosis.
Kutner counters with some nonsensical suggestion that it might be an “intestinal perforation.” He postulates that normal intestinal bacteria got into the bloodstream though an abnormal blood vessel in the intestine. Then, once into the bloodstream, these bacteria would affect other organs, and this is what caused the problems in all the patients. It sounds at first as if he is suggesting a blood borne infection that slipped by screening, but if that’s the case, it wouldn’t explain the Apple since (as Thirteen pointed out earlier in the show), the corneal transplant was bloodless (and corneas have no blood vessels). Then there’s a suggestion this intestinal flaw is hereditary, and the team goes as far as giving the organ donor’s illegitimate four-year old daughter a colonoscopy (which is negative). Even if it is hereditary, how does it affect the transplant patients? Did their transplants somehow affect their intestines? This entire train of thought and how it was handled was — well — ludicrous is far too kind a word.
Apple now develops a rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, but her colonoscopy(!) remains normal. Multiple sclerosis is suggested but then quickly discarded. House is back to thinking it’s cancer, so he starts her on chemotherapy. Apple starts to improve; her heart and lungs return to normal (as do her previously unmentioned amylase and lipase, two pancreatic enzymes). But now House is back to thinking it isn’t cancer because he has discovered that Frank was on methrotrexate, a drug that is used to treat some cancers. Since Frank died anyway, House decides it must not be cancer.
House tries to talk with Wilson so he can have one of his usual last minute epiphanies, but Wilson slams the door in his face. Commiserating afterward with the private eye he hired to spy on Wilson, he finally has his flash of insight. He decides that the organ donor had cancer stem cells. These spread out from the transplanted organs through the transplant patients’ bloodstreams and then differentiated into abnormal cells in various organs. Not cancer cells, per se, but non-functioning cells so that the affected organs became weakened and suddenly failed. He believes that Apple has these cells in her brain and wants to perform brain surgery on her. (House believes the cells are in her brain because even though she had a corneal transplant, she still thinks the world look ugly. House suspects that her eye are seeing correctly, but the brain is interpreting the results wrong.) Cuddy says no, but House is able –with the help of his new private eye assistant — to make it look as though Apple is sicker than she is and brain surgery is her only hope. The surgery is carried out, and sure enough, House is right. The abnormal brain tissue is removed and Apple is once again healthy and able to see well.
Major complaints are in red, minor in blue, nit-picking in green:
Kutner’s whole intestinal perforation theory just makes no sense (not to mention there is no actual intestinal perforation involved in it). Maybe it’s just me and I’m missing something, but the whole concept was an impossible dead end from the very beginning.
There is no “general” chemotherapy for that covers all cancers. There are many different types of cancer, and they require different types of chemotherapy. You need to know which type of cancer to select the right chemo. This is the second week in a row with this same mistake.
Speaking of chemotherapy, it shouldn’t kick in that fast, or wear off that dramatically.
You don’t shock a flatline! (In this case, Frank’s lungs had failed, and this is what led to the cardiac arrest. You won’t be able to correct the heart rhythm until you correct the underlying lung problem.)
Cancer stem cells don’t work quite the way House describes. Cancer stem cells may grow into different types of cells, but one of their hallmarks is that they form tumors, which should show up at autopsy or on a CT scan. And once again we’re back to the cornea, which is bloodless, so hematogenous spread wouldn’t get the cancer stem cells to the cornea (or from the cornea to the brain, for that matter).
Why no anesthesia for the poor kid? The “so we know when it hurts” is pure evil BS. Colonoscopies are scary and uncomfortable and the kid is 4 and her mom’s not with her, so it’s all going to hurt.
Why go straight to the tracheotomy? There was no reason not to attempt an intubation rather than go straight for the knife (and all the inherent risks) so quickly.
Methotrexate is not an “off label” arthritis drug. It is a classic and long-prescribed (and on-label) drug for autoimmune arthritides such as rheumatoid arthritis.
No eye protection during the brain surgery. And they did so well last week.
I know he didn’t get any other screen time, but since when is Chase a neurosurgeon?
And why is Taub — a plastic surgeon — doing the brain biopsy? If any of them has the necessary experience, it would be Foreman, the neurologist.
The medical mystery was very interesting and had great potential so deserves an A. The final solution was weak, and didn’t explain the main character so only gets a measly C-. The medicine, especially the “intestinal perforation”, was abysmal. I give it a D, and that may be generous. The soap opera was average, at best. There wasn’t much, and what there was focused on the new private eye character Lucas, who I alternately liked and disliked. I give the soap opera a C.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Your only complaint about the code scene was that they shocked a flat line and gave him a trach rather than intubated? I think that was the worst House code scene in the series thus far. They didn’t bag the patient initially, they didn’t actually do any CPR, and they gave stacked shocks. Even if it was a witnessed arrest current ACLS dictates single shocks, and not stacked shocks.
They need to mix things up a bit. I still love House, but I’m starting to need more than the standard script to keep me entertained as much as the show did the first season.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
::First post dance:: I don’t think anyone listed Cancer Stem cells on the predictions… :D
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
^ Undoubtedly so because the solution doesn’t fit.
Like, at all.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
What I want to know is why her eyes are two different colors. I was under the impression that the only time a transplant changed the appearance of the eye would be if one were replacing a cloudy cornea with a healthy one, but she had one perfectly normal looking blue eye, and one that was either brown or dark blue (the actress was wearing a colored contact in her right eye).
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I like how Taub shocks the patient 5 times in a row (with 1s between shocks) w/o looking for restoration of rythym
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Official Comment
Marie,
As you and Mike point out, there were many things wrong with the code scene. I just chose to highlight one particular — and recurrent — annoyance as my post was already growing way too long.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I watched the episode twice and couldn’t make sense of what Kutner was talking about with the intestine thing. It’s a relief to come hear and read that that’s because it really didn’t make sense. Postulating the patient had an intestinal perforation programmed into his DNA is one thing, but how did they go from there to proposing that the transplant patient had it? Terrible writing.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I liked the first episode so much, but this episode just made me sad. I was too puzzled by the straight-to-trach intubation and the defibrillation back-to-back-to-back. I could gripe about shocking asystole, but…it’s the norm in TV medicine. Some day writers will learn about shockable rhythms.
The soap opera wasn’t even very strong. The P.I. was funny at times, but others…completely dispensable. I know one thing: House is going to be hurt very, very badly by disgruntled nurses one day.
Great review, Scott.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Yeah, that was surely the worst House ever. On every level.
It’s really not worth an hour of my time per week any more.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Aw, just thought I had first post. Marie beat me too it. :D
I noticed the flub with MTX too. Besides, MTX wouldn’t help for a “typical” arthritis, but only for ones caused by auto-immune (i.e. RA. - for which it has FDA approval as you said.) I also really didn’t understand the logic behind giving the poor 4 year old the colonoscopy. It was like the writer’s just wanted to throw in something that would make everyone go “House, That’s cruel!” but there didn’t seem to be any good or reasonable basis for it.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 pm
In the scene where the old man died there looked to be normal heart readings on one of the displays, it was fast and I am not a doctor but it looked normal.
They did use eye protection for the dead man’s colonoscopy. The explosion was well telegraphed.
Chase wasn’t performing the surgery, he was assisting. What I want to know is why they drilled the skull before they cut the scalp ?!?
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
“a parody which seemed to be written by someone who’s heard about the show, but never actually seen it.”
Particularly ironic because this episode was written by David Shore.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
This episode was better than last weeks in that it didn’t try and force backstory for a character I don’t care about (13). Still, last week had better soap with Wilson and I’m not too sure about this PI. Actually, I thought the scene with house trying to make a new friend with the student doctor seemed strange for him. And cameron got absolutely no screen time-I’m really not liking this season.
Even I noticed bad medicine this week, and that’s really saying something since most of the medicine usually flies over my head(that’s why I come here)
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Yeah, this episode sucked. I didn’t understand any of it. It seems to me Kutner is being made out to be the best doctor on the show and Chase can do anything he wants. Cameron wasn’t even in this episode. House didn’t give a damn about saving the old man. The show needs to back off of the medicine for a minute and look at character development. I’m tired of the cgi effect scenes too.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:02 am
You all have hit all of my critiques (especially the code scene) except for one: the private eye substitutes normal saline for chemo and the patient immediately crashes? Come on.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Well, it looked like Chase was just assisting - which one could reasonably assume could be from House pulling strings to get someone he trusts(or considers someone competent or whatever) into the room.
But yeah - it was most likely just a way to stick Chase into the show yet again. I remain amazed that he and Cameron haven’t walked off the set yet in protest.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:37 am
You give “chemo” to fix “cancer” like you put “liquid” in a “car” to make it “run”. First episode ever where I nearly walked away. I’ll have to watch “Three Stories” and “Kids” to make up for this episode.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Nothing in the review about the (I’m hoping for the sake of humanity totally implausible) dead man’s bowels exploding through his abdomen all over Foreman? That seems rather noteworthy medically.
Just as a layman, it seems like the route of least resistance would be back out through the anus, not through all the muscle and fat of the abdomen. Yeah, he’d been opened up for the autopsy, but still…
September 24th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Presumably the intestines were cut as part of the autopsy so it would no longer hold anything at pressure to begin with. Again since the whole premise of the intestine thing didn’t make any sense to begin with I doubt the resulting “procedure” has any merit either. Unless the good doctor can explain how this might actually be used as part of a real medical investigation postmortem then I’m inclined to believe it’s just some people in the special effects department wanting to do something… um… explosive. Yeah.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:11 am
the whole episode was a big “…..WTF?” BUT! You have to give it extra points for House waving the butcher knife. That was *hilarious*!
“…Here comes a chopper to chop off your head..!” XD
oh, plus, the line about canadian pharmacuticals being cheaper? Bogus. Completely bogus. [I never understood where that idea comes from] Many drugs common in the us simply arent available up here & they usually cost more then their identical us counterparts [its rather irksome.]
September 24th, 2008 at 1:15 am
I’m surprised no body has mentioned that David Shore is making a spin-off show with the P.I. character… any thoughts on that?
September 24th, 2008 at 1:36 am
I’m not even close to knowing anything medical, and even I thought some things seemed wierd in this one.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Lefty-
Where’d you hear that?
I’m really hoping this won’t turn out to be the season where House jumps the shark.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:48 am
So let’s see. Instead of keeping Amber (Anne Dudek) on the show with the rest of the new team, they booted her and then increased the cast needlessly again with the PI. I probably won’t hate him after a while, but I’ll always think the money they’re paying this guy could’ve gone to Dudek instead.
Keep Amber on the show, and have her break up with Wilson for House. Then Wilson can still be heartbroken and temporarily leave the hospital, while we get to watch House try to have an actual relationship with someone. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be better than this, and it still preserves most of the storyline they’re going with.
I do have to say that this episode felt like a filler one, much like the first two after the return from the strike in the fourth season. Unfortunately, this Wilson problem is going to be drawn out for a while. That doesn’t mean there won’t be good episodes again, but it might be a while.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:55 am
There’s been bad episodes before… the chimera one is hard to beat for WTF medicine.
But yeah, this one was definitely weak. I wonder if it’s some hack script thrown together from pieces of last season’s episodes they couldn’t do due to the writer’s strike. I think in some ways they benefited by having to consolidate a bit.
First sign I had of bad episode ahead was when Foreman, the neurologist, has to have House point out that the patient has a neurological problem with her hallucinations. It went downhill from there.
The whole intestine scene I did NOT watch… puerile juvenile humor and completely tasteless.
As for Lucas, the character has some potential, but he feels like a throw-in, his witty responses didn’t quite hit the right notes. One of the show’s greatest strengths is that the characters have depth. If that’s not forthcoming in the next episode or two they’d be best off to ditch the P.I. as a bad idea.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:34 am
well.. it was cancer!!!
September 24th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I’m really confused why the tennis girl (with the exploded heart) looked like she was badly burned and charred…Someone enlighten me please?
September 24th, 2008 at 3:23 am
I was really disappointed by tonight’s episode. First of all, the medicine made absolutely no sense to me. Usually I can follow along well but I was totally lost tonight. The whole thing felt like a disappointing, half-baked attempt to push House back towards the medicine and away from the soap opera… except Wilson leaving is way more interesting than the mystery illness of the week. And I hate this new PI guy. :\
At risk of looking like an ill informed idiot, will someone explain to me when it is and is not appropriate to shock a heart? The idea that you shouldn’t shock a flatline just totally blew my mind. xDD
September 24th, 2008 at 5:17 am
@ Andy Craig
From David Shore:
“We brought in a character, partway through the year, [actor] Michael Weston as this private investigator House goes to. The spinoff would be less of a spinoff, it would be more us using House to launch it. It would be an independent world. A character out of the House mold, but definitely different.”
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/08/06/more-about-that-house-spinoff/
September 24th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I was betting on some environmental cause that was picked up at the scene where the organs were removed.
My theory was that some weakly radioactive powder contaminated the organs. Say from a watch face, for example. And it was both causing a cancer and keeping it at bay until it degraded to the point that it was too weak to check the new cancer cells and that radio-active decay is why the recipients were presenting at about the same time.
Plausible?
Oh and I’m sure Magnum would say “it’s private investigator!”
Great review as always.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I have a question about the “transplaten cancer stem cells” - at the time the organs were transplanted, I think not only “cancer stem cells” would have been transplated, but “ordinary” cancer cells (metastases?) also. In this case, wouldn’t symptoms of cancer show up much more earlier than five years? As far as I know, metastases are not so difficult to find a diagnose (some markers in the blood?)
September 24th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Official Comment
Fabby,
The main reasons you don’t defibrillate a flatline is that it doesn’t work and it can make things worse.
To get a heart that is in asystole (flatline) to start beating again, you need to 1) give CPR, 2) correct what is wrong (in this case the lung problem), 3) Epinephrine and Atropine sometimes work, 4) transcutaenous pacing can work, and 5) pray. Shocking the heart will not only not work, but it will corrupt the remaining electrical activity of the heart even more so that the actions listed above have less of a chance of success.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Official Comment
Req,
I think the “badly burned and charred” skin of the tennis player was supposed to represent decomposition, as she was apparently the first of the five to die.
Andy Craig, Jay,
The bowels are teeming with bacteria and one of the first parts of the body to break down after death, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that they might perforate if you put enough high pressure air into them.
Of course, the “high pressure air in the dead guys bowel” procedure itselfwas unreasonable.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:29 am
This was really not the episode of “House” that my husband needed to see the week before his first colonoscopy.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am
This was the lamest episode of House ever. What happened to the writers??? This was just bad. Most of the things that made the show so good was missing. The writers are turning House into a pathetic whiner. And, agreed, the medecine was just soooo bad.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Agreed that the show felt like a parody. When the PI was introduced, I thought it was a dream sequence, and the PI was a projection of House’s mental thoughts. I was waiting for House to wake up and for us to learn that last week’s episode was a nightmare. Alas, the nightmare was this week.
Give the kid some verced for the endoscopy. It’s a standard med, and at least they won’t remember the hurt the next day. What is it with the torturing of children in House?
September 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I think Scott nailed it. This was a self-parody. The montage of dying patients at the beginning of the episode, the repeated abuse of nurses, over-the-top recklessness with the neurosurgery, ridiculous differentials. This is the first episode I didn’t want to see a second time immediately after. Poor effort.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
This episode was absolutely hilarious. The bad medicine added to the humor this time, although it would obviously have been better with humorous good medicine.
I guess they haven’t been trying too hard lately to make the medicine extremely accurate, which is okay to a point, but they could probably fix many of their big mistakes without adversely affecting the plot at all. Considering how quickly you come up with the serious medical issues present in each episode, it can’t be that hard to get a consultant who knows his stuff enough to rapidly correct all of their mistakes.
Oh well, at least it was funny.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Excellent medical mystery setup. It’s a shame it didn’t live up to its potential. 5/10
September 24th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Definite agreement about the parody thing. The exploding bowels all over Foreman scene was predictable even before it started, and seemed like its only purpose was a cheap laugh. The argyle socks were obviously put there just to make sure you knew it was the PI changing Apple’s IV. House’s typical biting wit must have forgotten its dentures this week. It was still pretty crass, but not nearly so witty. And the “Will you be my Wilson?” scene was pathetic.
And why would cancer stem cells only affect ONE organ in each recipient? For that matter, how could they have affected Apple so quickly, that even her first new sight would be abnormal?
Then simply cutting out the growths (which were supposedly too small to see when the organ transplant happened, and metastasized and therefore would be inoperable) makes her brain function normally again, and she is totally cured? Or maybe they forgot to mention the part where she gets referred to oncology to finish killing off the remaining cancer, and thinks blue tastes good?
Really, I think a D for the medicine WAS too generous.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I was extremely surprised (and not very pleasantly so) to find out this episode was written by two of the most brilliant House writers (creator Shore and the brilliant L. Kaplow)
Their past episodes were so much more than this. Detox, Half-Wit, One Day one Room, and the best-ever Three Stories…
Seems like Shore decided to dumb it down for Season 5, and leave all the soap (/parody) in too, since everything is explained about 3 times. And I really miss the dark/sarcastic/quick/witty House humor.
To end on a somewhat positive note: I did like how the medical mystery was set up (even if it was incredibly ..er.. ludicrous)
September 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
During the opening montage, I was sure that the episode was going to have some sort of anthrax attack going on. The common donor thing started off interesting (2 min), and then nose-dived. Sad.
Regarding the pressurized-bowel explosion - I, too, agree that someone in the props department just wanted to have some fun. Given that (1) the intestines were likely decomposing due to all of the bacteria, and (2) that the abdomen had been opened and sutured during the autopsy, I think a more realistic (and disgusting?) effect would have been a steady mist/stream of “liquid” from the various perforations, especially considering that they were using (I believe) water to pressurize the intestines. Since water doesn’t compress, it would not have exploded all over Foreman (and the blinds in the background!) the way it did.
Did it seem to anyone else that the PI seemed very quick to tell House that Wilson had said nothing at all about him, and then changed the subject, on both occasions when it came up? Perhaps I’m quick to gin up conspiracies, but might Wilson be secretly in cahoots with the PI to mess with House? Of course, that would be more like old cut-House’s-cane-in-half Wilson, not new touchier-feelier-besotted-with-Amber Wilson.
PS - I wish I had TiVo so that I could go back and see what sort of math Apple thought was more beautiful than architecture! Did anyone catch it?
September 24th, 2008 at 11:26 am
This was really one of the first house episodes that did not keep my eyes glued to the tube - Hope tihis is not a sign of what is to become of the show after four great seasons.
Didn’t like the PI - Hope he doesn’t turn into a regular. Although I did like the conversation between House and the new potential friend (Dr. XXX). classic !!
The deal with the intestinal perforation was just an excuse to show the dead man’s bowels exploding on Foreman - I could have done without that type of “Drama”. They probably wrote the potential diagnosis after the producers thought up a way to show exploding bowels.
Hopeing for a better show next week.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:51 am
@EngineeringDr - seemed like highschool math to me.
some basic quadratic functions and I caught a sinus alpha.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:55 am
@EngineeringDr - seemed like highschool math to me.
some basic quadratic functions and I caught a ‘ sinus alpha ‘.
Actresses bio does say she studied math at a Uni in TX though (got a BOS degree).
September 24th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Actually the final solution can explain House’s character, if you think of House (or more specifically, his behavior) as the cancerous cell in House and Wilson’s friendship. Cancer stem cells can and do differentiate, at least partially, given the right stimulus–but the potential for causing cancer still remains.
A tumor may not have been detected in the donor, but yeah, I would’ve expected some sort of cancer in at least one of the organ recipients, especially since they would have probably taken immunosuppressants while they lived. As to cancer cells spreading and surviving in the cornea, there is at least a theoretical basis: Experimental study of the survival of metastatic cancer cells in corneal organ culture. May be a bit of a stretch, but the show plays fast and loose with medicine anyway.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Scott,
I believe the person that House was referring to in the methrotrexate differential is the Tuba player not Frank the old guy.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I agree that the medicine was terrible this time.
I liked the idea of House auditioning for a new best friend to perform the functions of the missing Wilson. But I want Wilson back. He contributes a lot of humor, which is one of the greatest strengths of the series.
Best thing about this episode was the following dialogue (said by House to the detective):
“She’s not your type. Your type is much stupider than her.”
September 24th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I’m not a doctor or a medical student, but I am an avid viewer of House and reader of this blog, and the medicine did seem rather haphazard, even to my laical eyes.
I found the P.I. quite funny, but he also seems a bit of an idiot.
But I’m surprised how no one commented on the great subtle acting by Hugh Laurie - there was genuine emotion in House’s face when he talks to the P.I. about Wilson in the ice cream truck, and when he actually visits Wilson, and when Apple tells him in the end that he looks sad. Lot of sadness and real fear that Wilson might actually REALLY leave him. Brilliant acting, that.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
House needs to either refocus on the medicine or drop the medicine entirely and turn into a soap opera. As I mentioned in my post last week, there are too many characters to follow–the new team had their usual supporting-supporting actor roles, Chase had a grand total of 5 seconds of screen time and one line, Cuddy was a blatant stereotype (”You want to do what unethical and highly dangerous things? I won’t let you! Bye). Cameron wasn’t even in the episode at all. Bizarrely, Foreman seemed to be the most involved in the tasks furthest from his actual field (a neurologist helps perform a colonoscopy on a dead body but doesn’t even look in on the brain surgery?). Wilson’s appearance was one of the better parts of the episode, but all too short. And, as I’d suspected, I didn’t see a compelling reason for the presence of Lucas. Add all of that to the weak-at-best, ludicrous-at-worst medicine, and I’d say that this episode is one of the weakest yet. House used to feature memorable patients whose interactions with the main players shed light on some of their more interesting character aspects, and now all of that is gone.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
(Long-time reader, first-time commenter. I look forward to these posts after every episode - thanks for writing them!)
@ Mad Capellan: Did they actually boot Dudek, or is she on maternity leave? (I mean, I know she’s off the show, but I didn’t know if she went by the door or the window). She’s very pregnant these days, so I wasn’t sure if she’s taking time off to have the kid.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I have to say that I am a little disappointed with House this week as well, as it seems the majority is. What’s sad (besides the medicine apparently, usually I just barely manage to keep up) is the fact that we have an hour long medical-mystery show with enough part-time characters to … fill in your own metaphor, its late over here. I liked the idea of a new doctor for House’s pseudo friend, and I even started to like the character (probably for the same reason House did, he resembled Wilson). What I don’t like is sharing screen time between Taub, Kutner, 13, Foreman, and when there’s time, Chase, Cuddy and ehhh Cameron I guess. Foreman’s a shadow of his former self, he seemed to be a skilled neurologist; but now he’s the guy who sticks a pipe up the dead guy’s … butt. The show used to have four main characters with two for support. I liked that format. Now I have no idea what’s going on and there solution was to, what… add more characters? I’m keeping my fingers crossed that next week a meteor lands on the heads of at least three random characters (save House), and that we can begin to focus more on individual development.
But on a side note, I kind of liked last week’s episode. I didn’t mind that we dipped into 13’s purpose, and I thought it was a good move with the Wilson/House split. Plus, no one annoyed me like that hit and miss P.I did this week.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Love the site. I have no training in medicine and even I thought the episode seemed strange. Wanted to know if I was crazy but turns out I’m not. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing was a dream/hallucination in the patient’s mind like when they brought Bobby Ewing back.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
^ Hopefully House won’t start using ghosts. You need to see the season finale.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
First time leaving a comment:
The one thing that I noticed that has not come up was the lighting. Everything was so dark, moody, and dramatic. I did not like it. Strikes me that hospitals ought to be well lit—as Princeton-Plainsboro has been in every other episode—not gloomy as it was last night.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I liked the PI, but I share a lot of the reservations others posted before. Especially Taub shocking the hell out of Apple as if he was in a defib-contest…also, don’t they all work at a teaching hospital? And no one was there to see brain surgery?
September 24th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Oh!Oh! I remembered something else! Wouldn’t someone have prudently closed the curtain when “You have the same thing *Perky* …so lets Watch as he dies horribly, squirting BBQ sauce from his Trach-tube! YAY!” franks death scene?
…is it just me or are people named “frank” the “Red shirt/ Kowalski”s of this show? Guy gets introduced & you *know* hes going to die before the show is over.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I’ve noticed that no one has compared the very beginning and the very end - the only times you see from Apple’s POV - when she’s hallucinating - her vision looked FINE. Other than House holding a cleaver, there were no filters, nothing to clue in that her brain might not be interpeting correctly. Having her eyes covered after surgery was just dumb. She looks at House, and hey, no removed filters, no cleaned up vision - it ‘looks’ the same as the first shot - which was of course, normal vision.
As someone who has had eye correction her whole life, I pay close attention to this kind of stuff.
I HATED the PI. With a blinding white-hot passion. He was worse than useless, and far too knowledgable about medical terms/pronounciations, and that he’d open himself to a lawsuit by changing out the hanging IV bag. Seriously.
I was amazed that House didn’t get his tab dismissed by threateneding to report the PI to the hospital and have him prosecuted for tampering with a patient (even on his own orders).
Sigh. Come back, House!
September 25th, 2008 at 7:55 am
As far as it’s interesting to read your medical dissection of House I don’t care too much about how close to reality this show is. To me this was a good episode, with a new interesting character, some comedy and as good dialogues as ever. I hope it indicates the fifth season is going in a very interesting direction, far from the worn off mold we know from the earlier seasons.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
@ Sable Hope - I haven’t noticed that Frank is the red-shirt character’s name in House, but I’ll make an effort to keep that in mind. I think that it would be a funny running joke, although I’m sure they’d start using it to set up the ol’ bait-and-switch (e.g. sometimes it *is* lupus).
@ hwk - thanks for letting me know about the math. I would have liked to nitpick it a bit - perhaps that way I could have contributed something technical to this forum. :^)
September 25th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I think I liked this episode more than most on here. I kind of liked the PI, only because he gave House all he could handle. I did think he was too smart by half, so when I read about the spin-off, I thought: “Aha! House, PI. Now I get it.”
I agree with EngineeringDr: There is something about the PI that doesn’t match-up. He knew a lot about House and Wilson. I’m thinking that he has been put up to this by Wilson, or Cuddy or something. Something smells fishy there.
Other thoughts:
I am still not buying the Stoner Kumar as the smartest doctor in the room.
So, Foreman has gone from being the character they didn’t know what to do with to the butt-end of the poop jokes…. just great.
No Cameron? I didn’t miss her. I liked her better when she was on House’s team. Now she seems like a glorified nurse who has nothing to add.
Chase is Mr. Surgeon. I think it is remarkable that he has gone from a resident immunologist to master Surgeon in 13 weeks! Wow! That really IS a teaching hospital.
What was Cuddy’s resitance to House’s idea all about? Considering that NO ONE thought it was cancer, how could she ignore her ace doctor when he came up with a solution that better fit the symptoms? She has agreed to far crazier ideas before. That seemed out of context to me.
The add-on characters all need to go. I don’t get it…supposedly they save money by not hiring extras for nurses and Dr. Specialists… so we can have Foreman hanging around to get pooped on, Cameron dispensing aspirin in the ER, Kutnar making stupid suggestiongs, Short Jewish Doc expressing disgust over anyone and everyone, and 13 brooding in the background while we wait for her to die???
Here’s a thought: Can the three new “sheds.” Let foreman start up his own diagnostic center at the Hospital and offer a competitive challenge to House. Have Cameron and Chase go work for Foreman.
And bring back Wilson, for Gawdsakes. Things are far too boring without him.
Give house new residents… start with that chick in the green shoes that House interviewed (way back in Season one when Cameron quit) she was great. How ’bout an oriental doctor, while we’re at it?
Maybe for the thrid dcotor we can have a rotating doctor that Princeton gets from a foreign exchange program or something. Part of the fun in House is watching people’s first reaction to him… it would be a good device to have someone who can react to that over and over again.
Just a thought…
September 25th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Hey, love the site! I actually commented a while ago back in season 3 but didn’t remember to mention that! I think it’s so great that someone who actually understands what’s going on behind the jargon can explain it to us. Here I was thinking about going to med school just so I could understand the show, lol.
Anyway, on this specific episode, I gotta say I agree that this doesn’t seem like it was a proper episode. Two comments to this post, the one about how David Shore wrote this episode and how apparently the PI- Lucas- is getting his own spin off make me think the episodes a little off because Shore was too busy focuses on Lucas, and setting him up with his established hit’s audience. He’s milking us and making sure we tune in when Lucas’ show airs.
Hopefully Lucas won’t be shoved down our throats much more, I personally don’t like him yet- he seems to be a little too comfortable with House, I mean, Foreman, Cameron, and Chase have known House for years and are still shocked by some of the stuff he does. Lucas goes from being a little shocked about switching the girl’s meds, then he’s back to normal asking for money. And I don’t like how Lucas was the one to give him the epiphany- I can’t wait for Wilson to return.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Here is a question that I have never seen asked, they have medical consultants for the show, why is it that the medical consultants don’t point out when the medicine or procedures are way off reality? Or does the drama need to negate the medicial accuracy to be dramatic?
September 25th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Couple of comments and perhaps spoilers for those who never seen the DVD sets…
@EngineerDr: If you don’t have DVR, but do have a good Internet connection, then I suggest watching the episode on fox.com.
@tikva: Dudek was let go by the Producers at the end of season 4. Nobody seemed happy by it, but it certainly seemed genuine that she’s not coming back. And as others said, see the final episode of last season.
Unless the actor for Wilson, Robert Sean Leonard, got a new gig elsewhere, I’d be surprised to see him gone long. Leonard and Laurie are good friends on and off the set, and long before this series. So, I suspect a twist later in the season. Hopefully it will be witty, and maybe make us view this episode differently.
I’m also agree with the complaints about Foreman not noticing a potential Neurological problem, or participating in brain surgery. This is in addition to last week, when Foreman didn’t step up to lead the team when House abandoned the patient to Wilson. It’s like the writers forgot his character, and he’s really a better actor than silly/setup potty jokes.
As for the spinoff, this episode is making me less interested in seeing more of the PI character.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
@tikva: If you’ve seen the S4 DVD, they were going to let Anne Dudek go forever, but they wanted her back. The initial idea, when they got her back, was to kill her back.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I of course defer to the knowledgeable about the substance of the medicine, but I think the series can be cut a *bit* of slack when details of procedures are glossed over or omitted: the writers (and editor) have forty-seven minutes in which to tell their story, and over-burdened as they are, now, with characters, it’s becoming an arduous, if not near-impossible, task.
I am sure that either or both of God and the Devil are in the details when it comes to real diagnosis and treatment — not to mention real life generally — but in fiction, things not only should, but must be left out. It’s one of the most necessary of the mind’s functions to be able to “fill in the gaps”, and it is only due to that ability that we can come to understand a story at all. (Prestidigitation works because the filling-in isn’t always correct, and is susceptible to being “led” by those who know how to confound it.)
Always read the posts here after watching an episode; refreshingly intelligent and spirited discussion.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
@ Leland - I’ll take a look when the episode is available online… Fox doesn’t release them for 8 days, which is rather annoying. Thanks for the idea, though! Perhaps next week I can add to this episode’s general snark level. :^)
September 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Strangely enough, the title of this episode made me think, “it surely is”.
September 26th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Regarding the post-autopsy pressure test: The few times I have seen autopsies they remove the whole GI tract. The contents are removed to check what they are and to examine the GI tract for anomalies.
After autopsies are done skin is of course stitched together, but I cant remember stitches to the GI tract. Wouldn’t it give better results to remove the bowels again?
Then again, this weeks show doesn’t make sense…
September 26th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Did anyone notice that House was throwing a CRICKET ball? Isn’t that sport non-existent in the US? Or perhaps it’s a reference to him being British?
I thought the whole point was that her cornea was actually fine - I mean, else fixing her brain would not have made her ’see’ fine at the end. So the ‘cancer’ cells DIDN’T spread to her cornea (which would have been impossible since it is avascular) but rather the problem was in her brain?
But definitely one of the worst episodes medically speaking…Or otherwise, for that matter…
Lastly, if the cells DID spread like that, surely they should have been present in the donated organs too, and possibly have affected those organs? I mean, surely??
September 26th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Oh, and did the guy editing Apple’s brain surgery have a bad day? i.e. remove skull -> remove skin -> remove skull again?
September 26th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Well….at least the animations seem to be back!! ;-)
September 26th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I gave up on the show after the supermodle/doctor thing. I keep coming to this site to see if its worth going back too yet. from the posts here, obiviously not, which is sad because we used to throw House Parties where larger groups of people woud come over and wtch to gether, now we just re-watch older seasons.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
No lie.
Maybe because I am NOT a doctor, when I was watching this with my wife, after the first time someone said; “Each of these patients has had a different organ attacked”, I said; “Cancerous Stem Cells”.
That was somewhere near the 15-minute mark into the show.
By the end, my wife heard the wrap up and said; “Of course, you’d guess it right.”
(because I’m notorious for figuring out normal mystery shows - I don’t even TRY with HOUSE, because the end solution is usually so arcane - if not outright b.s.).
So… yay me.
;-)
September 26th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Four thumbs down…
The mathematical chance of cancer stem cells to lead to organ failures IN DIFFERENT PEOPLE AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME - is so f*cking small !!
The dialog is tired and re-hash of older episodes;
magical and insightful PI is so fake…
They are usually old, fat, and so don’t care about your inner struggles.
September 26th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Aside from the medical inaccuracies what is up with the PI? He goes from hot to cold, insightful to ignorant. I really hated the character, infact I hate all of the new characters, none of them add to the story so I just hope that by the end of this season they get axed and the old team is reinstated.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Kuttner *is* your Asian doc. I actually want to know more of his back story, if it explains his thought processes. So far, we know that his parents were killed in an accident and he was adopted by a non-Indian family. Coincidentally, I work with a number of Asian adoptees raised in non-Asian families. A lot of them are original thinkers. Maybe that’s a coincidence, but it’s, I think, the most interesting aspect of Kuttner’s character. He’s rational AND intuitive. Besides, I REALLY like Kal Penn.
I agree it’s insulting the way Foreman’s character has been marginalized. If Wilson does stay away, they’re going to need Foreman more, not less, as the prosthetic moral compass House lacks.
There’s every reason to think Amber will be back from time to time, especially if Wilson is not really gone from the show. FWIW, I like the more hallucinatory moments that pop up occasionally.
What I DON’T like is sticking to the formula. I never watch an episode twice because once you solve the mystery, there’s not much else there. If they could bust out of the formula, have mysteries that take longer than two episodes to solve, or that never get solved at all, that would be far more interesting. I think “House” IS a parody, not of itself, but of Sherlock Holmes.
I hope the Wilson drama does create a real character arc for House (the character). He has to deteriorate. He has to hit bottom. Maybe the writers do have that trajectory in mind in setting a certain number of seasons to realize the arc, but it looks stalled to me. You just can’t keep doing that much Vicodin and not have something fall apart on you.
I thought it was interesting in this episode that Apple asked House if things would be better if his leg were better, and that he came back at her with, “I haven’t given up hope.” That could be the beginning of some movement in his character. I think her line at the end that he looks sad is part of that. It’s not just about Wilson, and I think he’s going to spend some episodes struggling with that.
I love the idea that the P.I. might be working both sides. Otherwise, I also think he’s a waste of time at worst and a cheap deus ex machina trick at best.
Thanks for all the medical insight… one question… let’s say that shocking Frank was called for, wasn’t Apple’s oxygen tank a problem?
I wonder if David Shore reads these posts.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Early in this episode House tells Dr. O’shea (his “date” in cafeteria) that he took: vicodin, opioids and B12. I thought that vicodin was an opioid, or am I wrong?
September 27th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Vicodin is a combination of the regular ‘painkiller’ medication along with opiods (paracetmol+hydroxycodone).
House takes his vitamins regularly, eh? That’s the first time I’ve seen him be concerned about his health.. :D
Bad episode.. Its as if they wanted to add even more shock value from the nonsensical start to the season. I certainly hope they get more characters involved in subsequent episodes, as it is the medicine has been at a steady decline since a while..
September 27th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Ironic that this episode was written by David Shore, the show’s creator, and his right hand man, Laurence Kaplow.
medically: If Apple had had sight before, then she would have been able to recognise the problems in her vision post-transplant, so she was probably blind before. But if she were blind, isn’t there only a small window for the optical neurons to develop and after that it’s too late? If they suddenly gave her sight in her mid-twenties, wouldn’t it be too late?
soap opera: I like the PI and his scenes with House but it really pointed out how little chemistry there is with House’s new team. Even the DDx sessions have got boring.
September 28th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I’m really disappointed with this season. :/ House has been really good, up until this point. It’s been lackluster, at best.
September 28th, 2008 at 9:44 am
What I found interesting is this - I flipped on the TV the other day, and the first ever episode of House was on. They discussed the reasons that he had chosen the doctors - that Foreman was there because he had broken in to someone’s house and had street smarts, Cameron was there because she was pretty and yet still did medical school and worked hard - which meant to House she was damaged, and Chase was there due to a phone call made by poppa Chase.
This set up each of these characters with a story line - House would ask Foreman to do unethical things, Cameron’s damage was eventually investigated (yet, never 100% explained), and Chase eventually got fired, which seems to be what House wanted all along. There was some depth there.
Notice that these arcs took a while to develop. Also notice the detail House put in to choosing that team, versus the new team.
Thirteen has some depth there with the potential death - and the decision to matter while she is still alive - but the arc felt very short. Kutner and the plastic surgeon are ok, but what are the back stories?
I let myself relive the first episode and I realized how they developed some real characters with a story in season 1, while it seems like the new team just doesn’t have anywhere near the depth the previous team had. I wanted to figure out what was wrong with Cameron, or how far House would push Foreman, or if Chase would gain his respect.
I couldn’t even remember Taub’s name without looking it up.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
That detective character is mixed up, I agree he is alternately wise and stupid. It’s really annoying. He’s too young to be that wise, and he just doesn’t pull that off at all, it’s so fake.
Besides, all these characters talking to House in this incredibly deep, insightful, honest manner. Giving him insights into themselves and into him and what he’s going through. The medical director, and Wilson, the detective, even his patients- they all sound alike with this stupid psychological insight junk. And almost nobody really talks that way to each other, come on. Except me and one other friend I know are the only ones that talk like that- but I get a LOT of flak for it whenever I do to anyone else!!
Lastly, I hope the character of Wilson goes away forever, for his own sake. He’s completely right- House is a cancerous, negative taker. No, maybe they really weren’t ever friends! Yes, House should have been on that bus alone! Yes, Wilson has been enabling House and rescuing him all this time- and it needs to stop!! Given that the whole series is built on House being exactly House and therefore he will continue to be dysfunctionally miserable and NEVER get over his issues (just like the show Monk), then I hope that Wilson never ever answers the door or the phone to House again.
For that matter, Cutty the medical director needs to stop enabling him too. Fire him, for crying out loud- he’s deserved it for risking his patients’ lives ten times over. Especially this episode- playing this stupid stunt of staying home until Wilson talks to him!! If I were his boss he’d be gone so fast his head would spin, and I’d do everything in my power to yank his medical license to boot.
I was really really mad when that detective character last season didn’t win that court case. I thought he was completely in the right. House was way out of line, he was addicted and not sorry whatsoever. He should have lost his license. And that whole story arc ends with the judge knowing that Cutty lied for House, tells him he has better friends than he deserves, and closes the case & lets him off the hook? End of story?? LAME!!!
House is an immature jackass and he needs to get over himself and grow up. Yeah he got hurt. Yeah life stinks. Yeah he’s in constant pain. So are millions of other people, and he has a way better life than most of them. Get over it. Shut up and learn to be a decent human being.
Why on earth I keep watching I don’t know, because the nature of the beast is that House will never get better. I guess I keep waiting for him to get what he deserves, even though I know he never will, this is television.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:15 am
now i’m curious: if Vicodin effectively = paracetmol+hydroxycodone, doesnt that make it a plain old Tylenol 3?
We had oodles of that stuff laying around the house… Funny, I could never tell the difference between those & extra strength normal ones.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Hmmm… The surgeon with Chase during the biopsy is not Taub, Taub is shorter and younger than that guy.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Official Comment
Sable,
Tylenol #3 is codeine + paracetamol (or acetaminophen, as well Americans call it). Vicodin replaces the codeine with hydrocodone, a stronger narcotic. So Vicodin is a stronger pain medication than Tylenol #3, particularly in the higher doses of Vicodin.
September 30th, 2008 at 3:02 am
I didn’t really like this episode… no one lied, come on!!!!! Sometimes I wonder if writers still remember what series they are writing for.
I liked the theory in earlier posts here that Lucas the PI might be paid by Wilson to discourage House… which would explain why Wilson doesn’t seem that surprised or angry when Greg tells him about the PI.
Well, if they want to keep their viewers, the writers had better get us some better stuff next time.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:26 am
Does anyone know why the corpse of the tennis player was so… decayed? mummified?… Even if the body had been in a morgue fridge since death, surely it wouldn’t have shown such dramatic change…
It seriously looked like they’d just gone dug up an old corpse from the nearby cemetery.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I think these criticisms of the code scene are completely correct but I think people are missing the point. I got the feeling Taub did such a piss-poor job of it because he wanted to do the biopsy and the wife refused to give permission on her live husband. So when he coded, Taub took it as a chance to make sure he wasn’t going to come back. And thus, he could get his biopsy.
It’s a shady thing to do, for sure. And probably highly unethical (illegal?) to purposely screw-up a fairly common procedure in order to get around consent issues. But I don’t put it past Taub to do something like that. It just seems like Taub knew exactly what he was doing and purposely messed up the procedure. He’s not the kind of guy to freak out and hysterically shock someone like that. I think he did it that way because he couldn’t refuse to resuscitate obviously, but he just made it LOOK like he was trying even though he had ulterior motives… The best way to ensure death while making it seem like you are doing the opposite….
Maybe someone can answer this: so, in NJ, do you need family consent to perform an autopsy or not? It seems like sometimes House does (like in “All In”), sometimes not (like this episode). Does anyone know?
I would just assume that the wife wouldn’t want her husband’s head cut open/gut blown up, if she didn’t want it before. I guess you could make the argument that her only reservation was that he was alive… but I dunno. I’m not convinced she would have consented to a dramatic autopsy like the one they performed.
October 4th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Hiya, I’m not at all a doctor so it’s easy for me to say this but I actually think this was one of the best episodes of House. I’m just a psychology student but even I knew this episode was pretty shaky on anything technical but it just seemed to me like they were loosening up the structure of the show and just having some fun and I thought it was a ton of that. Has to be pretty frustrating for anyone who knows better though.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Oh, i getcha- Thanks for the clear up Scott! :)
October 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
What are those “cancer stem cells”? Something like a teratoma?
October 13th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Yeah the dead gut scene didn’t seem right to mean, not that I know that much medical stuff.
I was bothered by the patient’s statement of how before the surgery that when she was 20/200 “was practically blind”. I have that vision in my good eye and while that is legally blind , it’s no where near complete blindness.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
1. since when the autopsies are handled by staff who is not trained in Pathology
2. there is a body in the morgue with open skull…then we see that it was stitched straight true the forehead…no aesthetics here huh ?
3. All 6 people died at almost same time from different causes however the tennis player was already decomposed beyond recognition..the rest look good.
4. Inflating the bowel of a diseased to look for perforation…o come on…and splashing Format…disgusting
5. It seems that this team has expertise in every thing..starting from general medicine to autopsies..
I wont event comment on the quality of the slides, who is interpreting them, how you prove amyloidosis with no special stains ( Congo-Red), don’t get me started on Blood Banking..
October 27th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Official Comment
I can’t argue with any of those points (well, except #3, the patients actually died over a six-month span, the beginning vignettes just made it seem like it all happened close to the same time).
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Wow, lately (since the 4th season) I’ve been getting the feeling the writers are starting to care less and less about the medicine… I really hope they don’t beacause I love this show especially because of that: the balance between medicine (albeit not always good) and drama. If it fails to do so, we might end up with another Grey’s Anathomy.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:07 am
I didn’t take the time to read all the replies and I’m sure someone hit on this but there is mounting evidence against the cancer stem cell theory, certainly it only works for specific tissue types as the Morrison lab’s recent publication showed nearly single cell to tumor success is possible. It would clearly show up on a scan. I enjoy reading this blog. Well done.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Cancerous stem cells do not act in the way shown in the episode even in any remote possibility.Cancer stem cells have give rise to all cell types found in a particular cancer sample. They are responsible for metastasis and recurrence.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Sorry, bad English.Scott, this is a great site. I keep commng back here after every episode.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Am I the only one who thought the character of Lucas was really #$^%ing annoying? I have now watched much more of the season and am THRILLED that he has disappeared. Anyone else agree?
March 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
There is a rare condition to shock a flatline.
Sometime the fibrilation is very small e.g. obese people
And in case of a therapy resistant asystolie we shock sometimes…
i work on/at a NICU in Munich/Bavaria
June 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I’m a disappointed Brit turning up late to this cocktail party of abuse. All of the best snacks are gone and there’s only a couple of warm beers left for me to snaffle.
I called this show as having ‘jumped the shark’ at the end of Season Four.
Never been sorrier to have been proved right about anything. Over here, the show has jumped from being the top-rating draw on a low-rating terrestrial channel to one that’s being promoted to death on pay-tv.
The most charitable explanation for this mess is that the show and everyone connected with it is staying on until they reach a hundred episodes.
House has turned from curmudgeon to monster. Medicine from a life-saving art to a sadistic form of licensed torture.
I don’t have the heart to skip ahead and read reviews and spoilers for the episodes that have not yet been broadcast here.
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