House - Episode 24 (Season Three): “Human Error” (Season Finale)
An uninspired episode with sloppy medicine. It’s a shame that this was the season finale of House. Hopefully they’ll rerun the first and second seasons during the summer instead of the third.
Esteban and Marina, a young couple from Cuba, travel to the United States in a rickety boat to get Marina treated by Dr. House. Their boat breaks down and they are picked up by the Coast Guard. Unfortunately, her medical records are lost in the sea. The couple is coming to America because Marina is “sick” and suffering from a variety of symptoms, many of them quite non-specific. She has been treated by medical experts in Cuba to no avail so her husband “got permission” (from whom?) to bring her to Dr. House for assessment. Her symptoms include fatigue, pain all over her body, cough, dry mouth, double vision, rash, fever, and an elevated bilirubin. The team’s initial diagnoses are rheumatic fever or some sort of infectious disease or parasite. House thinks the symptoms relate to her head, so he orders a brain MRI. He also has Chase evaluate the husband to see if shares any symptoms.
Foreman announces that Marina must have multiple sclerosis (MS) and wants to start her on interferon. Esteban insists that Marina cannot have MS because she was tested for that in Cuba. While Foreman is examining her, he accidentally breaks her wrist by twisting it slightly. Now the question becomes are all her bones weak, or just the left wrist? The team considers osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta (a genetic disease of collagen that leads to weak bones and frequent fractures), but discards them both as she is either too young or too old. Bone cancer is a likely cause of a pathological fracture, so a PET scan is ordered to look for a tumor. A hot spot is seen on the scan, but it is a blood clot and not a tumor. House now wants a cardiac catheterization because he feels that the ultimate cause of any clot is the heart. During the catheterization, Marina suffers ventricular tachycardia then slips into asystole (flatline). CPR is started. House refuses to stop the code or start her on a heart bypass machine until he can discover what caused her heart to stop. He polls a passing medical school class who suggest Marfan Syndrome or botulism from a bad Botox treatment. House discards both ideas. No closer than before to an answer, he reluctantly starts her on a heart bypass machine after she had been coded for three hours.
House tells Esteban that he must say goodbye to Marina because it is time to pull the plug. He shuts off the heart bypass machine, but miraculously Esteban detects a pulse. House switches on the monitors which show a normal heart rhythm. Marina wakes up and is fine, in fact all her pain has resolved and she feels entirely better. She attributes it all to an act of God. House suspects that there must be a congenital defect in one of her cardiac arteries, and inflammation from this has caused her symptoms. He wants to perform another cardiac catheterization, and this time finish the study, to find this abnormality. He talks Esteban into it. The catheterization shows normal arteries, but it also shows what House calls a “third ostium.” This hole between her left- and right -sides of the heart is the cause of all her symptoms, and Marina will be better after a surgery to repair the hole.
The medical mystery wasn’t particularly interesting because the symptoms were so vague. The show could have used one of the dramatic character introductions it usually features or some of the fancy special effects. Instead it was all symptoms written on a dry erase board. The final solution didn’t seem all that exciting either, even though the writers tried to set it up as “House vs God” (a theme which has been handled better before, and really, couldn’t every episode be described as House vs God?).
The medicine itself seemed particularly sloppy. You’ll notice they never mentioned the MRI results — because that would have been normal, making MS much less likely, and the whole Foreman/interferon scene overkill. While the heart can frequently be the source of blood clots, these are best demonstrated on echocardiogram, not cardiac catheterization — but that echocardiogram would have easily shown the hole in her heart about thirty minutes too soon. Coding someone for three hours is simply ridiculous; CPR is not that effective for that long. Heart bypass machines are used for a few hours during heart surgery, not to keep someone alive who coded. Marina’s heart miraculously restarting on its own was just plain silly (and I don’t care what House thinks, this was never explained. And isn’t she still plumbed into the bypass machine, even if it isn’t on?) I’m not clear on the third ostium bit either. The ostium primum and ostium secundum are openings between the left and right heart that occur in the fetus prenatally. They can sometimes remain open after birth and may require a surgical repair (but do not show symptoms as dramatic as Marina’s). What then is this mysterious “third” ostium, and how would it be any different from the more common atrial septal defect or ventricular septal defect?
I’ve laid off complaining about the Young Guns performing tests they aren’t experienced in, but this episode pushed it over the edge. Since when are the Young Guns (or House) cardiologists and how did they get credentialed to perform cardiac catheterizations? And why is Wilson performing surgery?
I give the medical mystery a D, because it was boring and uninteresting. The final solution I give another D- because it not only was uninteresting, but made no sense. The medicine was shoddy, sloppy, and often just plain wrong. A good example of the latter half of the season. I give it an F. The soap opera was the best part, but even then — other than the firing of Chase — was too telegraphed. I give it a B-.
The previous House review
A list of all prior House reviews
May 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
:) But the show still rocks.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Thanks for a great season of reviews. The medicine was awful tonight with too many unanswered questions.
How is your recuperation going?
May 29th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Totally disappointing series finale. I have mixed feelings about Season 3 as a whole, and this episode did little to help me decide whether or not I’m going to buy the DVDs in August.
Thanks for the great reviews, though - I’ve really enjoyed this site!
May 29th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Official Comment
Spencer,
Recuperation is going well. I’m back to work, and in 2 weeks I can resume jogging and biking. And mowing too, unfortunately.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I know almost nothing about medicine, and there were a few times in the episode where even I couldn’t believe it. I’m probably the only person sad to see Chase go, in the last 2 or 3 episodes they’ve finally made him into a multi-dimensional character and they immediately get rid of him.
Oh well, I still enjoyed it (although I’m sure not being a doctor helped that).
May 29th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I also thought something was going to happen btwn him and Cuddy. What was that whole thing on the light and her legs. I heard they were going to redo the show for next season, and I hope it gets better.
I love this site! I hit refresh until I see your review every tuesday!
May 30th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Wow, it’s amazing how they could somehow save the worst for last. I can’t even begin to describe how disappointed I was with the whole episode. House firing Chase was the only redeeming moment, but it instantly signaled the fact that all the Young Guns would be gone by the end of the episode. Being a lay person, the medicine always seems vague to me, but I was particularly offended tonight as nothing made sense and nothing was explained. It’s actually a relief to find out that the “third ostium” doesn’t actually mean anything.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I am not a doctor so from my point of view, this was a good episode as it really gave a good insight into two major characters: House and Foreman. There characters have been very well characterized and the way they express themselves really distingushes them from others. I would personally say this episode was one of the best ones (if lookes from the soap opera perspective. =)
May 30th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Scott, your reviews are usually insightful but I disagree this time because, yeah, the third ostium clearly did pass you by!
(1) Recall from anatomy that there are CORONARY ostia. This is the place where a coronary artery originates from the aorta. There are normally two ostia (a left and a right), so finding a third is abnormal, as House said. That *has* to be what he was talking about — it fits completely with his reference to the artery in the same sentence (as best I can recall). Thus, the points in your review about the ASDs are completely off the mark, and an echo would not have shown anything useful. (Agree with point about clots and echo.)
(2) Three hours on CPR is not so far-fetched. I remember reading a case where a woman who had two hours of CPR walked out of the hospital, normal (well, I bet she had a sore chest!).
I agree with your points about the plumbing issues with her still being on bypass when her heart re-starts.
Yok
May 30th, 2007 at 12:30 am
“An uninspired episode with sloppy medicine.”
Exactly!
May 30th, 2007 at 12:44 am
I’ve always found it funny that I coincidentally tend to love the episodes with awful medicine. This episode was an exception. The 3-hour CPR and miraculous recovery went waaaay beyond my usual suspension of disbelief ~ and I’m no doctor either, I just watch all the medical shows and read your reviews.
But really, I just wanted to post to say a big huge THANK YOU!! for your excellent medical reviews! They’re always great to read (as are your other posts, but they don’t seem to get as many comments as these reviews…). Hope you’ll continue into the fourth season and beyond. Best wishes on your rest and relaxation in recuperating…perhaps you could get the mowing excused for a little while longer?
May 30th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I’m still puzzling over the husband’s inability to speak any English during the rescue, and his perfectly good English at the hospital. (Did I miss something?)
May 30th, 2007 at 6:23 am
I was tired, sleepy and wanted to go to bed early but I stayed up to watch House…..I should have gone to bed… Your review was great as always.
Sorry that you’re going to have to start mowing your lawn again :-(
OT-the guy infected with the super TB could he have been barred from flying? It seems like the doctors suspected/knew that he had TB. Couldn’t they have put him on the no fly list before he let the States since he was suppose to go to Greece for his wedding?
May 30th, 2007 at 7:25 am
OK, so I know Cuba and the US governments are on the outs, but House can’t call the woman’s MD and ask for a fax of her records? Lazy, lazy writing, my big complaint of this whole season.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Thanks for another season of great reviews. I always DVR the episode and watch it the next day and often find myself tempted to pause and read your review. This time in particular, when the woman’s heart spontaneously restarted. I couldn’t wait to hear the contrived explanation after the commercial break, but I guess House looking heavenward with his hands out imploringly was supposed to be sufficient.
If the Young Guns really have been shown the door the writing staff and medical advisor should soon follow. If they are going to redo the show, they need to clean house (lol) behind the camera, as well. If not, I can see the Young Guns reunite in the season opener to save House for “good old time’s sake” and get rehired.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Dear Scott,
I have been reading your postings all season but never commented on them. So I wanted to thank you for all the insights you’ve given us, I’ve been looking forward to your reviews every week. :)
I actually liked the season’s finale very much (but I often disagree with what other people think about the episodes, and I don’t really care about the accuracy of the medicine ;)), I found it an interesting cliff hanger for next season.
So, a big thank you!!! for your great reviews, and I’m looking forward reading from you next season! :)
Best wishes from Europe,
Lisi
May 30th, 2007 at 10:25 am
The medicine in this episode was so far out that I found myself wondering, early in the episode, if this would all turn out to be a dream sequence or a Vicodin/ETOH/etc induced daydream episode.
I guess we won’t know until next season.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Nice review/reviews over the entire series, I actually stumbled across your blog tonight while searching for some online stream of this episode, but I digress.
I just have to say great job, I vastly enjoy reading your medical critiques and history, especially because for the most part I have little to no knowledge in the area. I haven’t seen this episode yet but I’m hoping it isn’t as disappointing as people have made it sound.
Also, I haven’t seen it yet, but I firmly believe he will be back in the next season. Soap operas tend not to eliminate main characters so quickly. I can imagine there will be some sort of loophole or exception where chase will return triumphantly >.>
Anyways, I’m favoriting your site now, I look forward to reading more from you in the future.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:14 am
This episode was an unbelievable trainwreck. Who’s the medical consultant? A 6th grader? If she’s still on bypass, how can her heart start working again? How can it pump blood if the blood is BYPASSING the heart?
I’m just glad House cleaned out the team. The characters developed (IMO) too much in the wrong directions. I just hope they bring in an even hotter chick for the team. Scarlett Johansson anyone?
May 30th, 2007 at 11:29 am
The last season of your reviews has demonstrated that I am perfectly willing to accept bad medicine for good drama. I like the show as much as ever, its dissapointing when I find out it was full of holes.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for this season’s reviews! It is always interesting to find out whether the medicine that sounds so dodgy to a layperson, actually is or not.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Question: the breaking of her wrist, was that ever addressed again? I’m not quite clear on how a cardiovascular problem could affect the bones.
Next, I’d just like to chime in that I liked the episode very much and that I thought season 3 was the best of the three. This is because to me, the medicine on House is a very interesting sub-level, but one that I cannot even hope to understand without coming here and reading the reviews. You will notice that after each barrage of technical terms from medicine, there’s always someone conveniently repeating the important bits in human language. The fact that the medicine portrayed on the show is often so close to medicine as it occurs in real life (at least compared to shows like Grey’s Anatomy) is a very nice bonus that I’m sure the writing staff is going through all sorts of hells for. However, bottom line is this show is not made for doctors. If a majority of the audience can buy the medicine on the show, the writers have done their jobs well enough.
Let me quickly add that today’s episode was one that didn’t even satisfy these much lower expectations. For instance, unless someone can explain the wrist breaking, that’s just a huge questionmark, and as you said, one doesn’t need to be a doctor to understand that the heart restarting while still on bypass doesn’t make any sense. I was wondering, is she pushing her blood through that machine too? That’s gotta be a strong heart.
Theoretically, the medicine on House could be replaced by mechanics talking about cars or IT specialists talking about firewalls. Just that that wouldn’t be quite so dramatic. It’s something cryptic and complex that the normal watcher has no intimate knowledge of. This is where the soundbites come in: “cerebral magnetic resonance angiography enhanced by rapid auto-transfusion during hypothermic circulatory arrest” might as well be Arabic, but “we’re going to put her into an icebath until her heart stops and then drain her blood and quickly put it back in while looking at her head” is something we can grasp, and sometimes there’s just enough clues, both in these soundbites and the things we saw/heard on the show that we can guess along, and then the show works.
Finally, House is a superhero for all intents and purposes. Yes, he can perform surgeries and any diagnostic procedure ever invented, and no, that doesn’t make any kind of sense in real life, but there you go. We accept this because it’s the basic premise of the series. It’s always a tradeoff: maintain a semblance of realism or up the drama? I think the writers usually find a good balance, but that’s just me.
And to me, House is a drama first, and everything else second. It’s the character interactions that make or break an episode, not the medicine. My favorite episode so far, by the way, was Lines in the Sand, with the 17 year old “nymphomanic” stalker. I don’t even remember the main medical mystery on that show, but I remember there were so many awesome one liners and the whole show was a string of strong character moments, and that’s what matters to me.
In case I haven’t said this yet: thank you for your medical reviews! They DO add a lot, even if the medicine is secondary to me. I’m incredibly curious about all things medical, and every time I understand something they’re doing on the show, it makes me a little happy. You help with that ;)
May 30th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I thought the episode had some decent humor and twists to support the poor medicine. Even though the woman waking up seemed rather absurd I really enjoyed the scene of House looking up toward god with that “wtf?” expression on his face. The scene where he polled the medstudents was pretty hilarious as well. I was a little confused about the language barrier aspect of the show, and as always a little disappointed at the lack of House in the clinic. Maybe that wouldn’t have fit so well into this episode though? Anyway, can’t wait till next season. I might actually be able to catch some of these medical issues before I read your review Scott. Thanks!
May 30th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I knew the heart was going to start beating as soon as the bypass machine came off. I told my husband as soon as House walked into the room, before he even started to throw the switches. It was far too obvious. I just hope that next season’s ducklings are as good as the old ones.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Thank God Cameron’s gone.
But Chase - just when I was beginning to like him.
Is this the year of crappy season finales? First it’s Heroes. Now House. Shucks.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Hi.. i have a question that is bugging me since watching the season finale, does having a dysfunctional heart allows a doctor to stop the machine and ‘let’ her die?? i thought u can use the machine for as long as it takes- until u find a heart donor or a mechanical heart.. The brain is still functioning for goodness sake. The last time i checked the term ‘dead’ refers to brain dead and not heart failure anymore.. anyone care to elaborate on the House episode case?
May 30th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Yeah, definitely a disappointing finale. Where was the excitement? What a let down…
May 30th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Aww, I am going to miss Chase. But Cameron and Foreman, whatever. Shoo.
May 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Does everyone/anyone really believe they’re actually ditching half the cast?
Me, I want to start the pool on which character will be the first to utter the phrase ‘putting the band back together’ in the season 4 opener…
May 30th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Ok. First of all, the Heroes season finale was awesome (from a comic book reader’s perspective). But…that’s not what this website is about. So, into the House discussion:
I’m not going to say how the medicine was silly. I think 80% of us have already stated that and, by this point, it’s beating a dead horse. I’m sure none of you want to hear it again. Other than that…
I thought the ending of this episode was really good. The first 45 minutes I could have done without, but House finally pulling a Tabula Rasa was perfect. Don’t get me wrong! I love Foreman and Chase has REALLY grown on me this past season (the one of the few things I liked about this season was Jesse Spencer’s character developement), but I agree with B.A. (19.) The Young Guns have been pulled in too many different directions (here’s looking at you Cameron) and it’s just getting bad. I also think that we’ve explored them enough to be satisfied with who they are.
I hope the writers do get fired and they hire new ones who LOVED the first season. Because if we get a new cast for next season, it had better rock just like the first season did. Let’s get back to decent medicine and awesome drama. And, as I’ve said before, REUBIN SANDWICHES and minus House being a horrible drug addict!
I do like the fact that House has enemies every season. Like Daniel (22.) said, it makes him seem like a super-hero. Lol.
Anywho, that’s my lame two cents.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I hadn’t even caught all the holes in the story line (Esteban suddenly speaking English, or the ignored wrist-bones issue) until people brought them up here. Good points. Also, I thought the way they handled the Young Guns leaving was bizarre — starting several episodes with this strange “Foreman doesn’t want to end up like House” thing. You don’t want to end up like House? Then don’t! Since when do you inevitably become exactly like your boss? I didn’t find that very convincing, they never even *attempted* to explain why House fired Chase, really, and they left Cameron’s departure unexplained as well. Maybe it’s because she’s decided she wanted to be with Chase, but so what? He’s found another job and is moving out of state already? In short, all three left without any good reason — and that seems like shoddy writing. Would have been pretty damned easy to find good reasons for them — budget cuts, or outrage over House’s behavior, or better job offers . . . whatever.
Still. All that being said, I didn’t see it coming, and I find this cliff-hanger surprisingly engaging! Will they be back? Will they be replaced? Personally, I’m hoping for the latter, because I think new characters and new blood will create a new dynamic for House and rejuvenate the show. Though I like the old characters as well, and I was quite enjoying Chase’s previously invisible independence and backbone these past few episodes.
So I don’t care what the show’s writers do — but I’ll definitely be watching.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:19 am
Cardiopulmonary bypass works by sucking any blood out from the right side of the heart, sending it around the pump, and dropping it back into the aorta. There is nothing to prevent the heart from getting blood. In fact you would need an extra drain in the left atrium since you would get some flow back from the lungs via bronchial arteries.
If the bypass machine was turned off, blood would finish up its flow and (depending on gravity) the right side of the heart would fill up with blood. Once it started beating again, the blood could conceivably go back into normal circulation.
That said, I have no idea what was going on with the ostium…tertium? I guess the coronaries could have closed off due to inflammation then opened up somehow, who knows. And even then, I don’t know if the heart would have been able to start beating in sinus rhythm all on its own, without any shock.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:49 am
The biggest hole I saw was right away, right in the beginning, how they made Esteban drop the suitcase with the medical records but then they hauled him up onto the helicopter in a way that he still had both hands free anyway. Couldn’t they put the harness around him while he was still holding on.
Also, how the hell did House override the monitor in Wilson’s OR, and since when do endoscopes have microphones on them? Do medical video monitors even have speakers on them?
May 31st, 2007 at 2:07 am
I think House fired Chase because Chase had grown too much of a House-ian logic, which makes him difficult to manipulate or dismiss. House’s “I need you” comment was also a demonstration for Wilson.
Cameron didn’t make much sense. House’s comment on Cuddy’s legs didn’t make any sense.
I actually don’t want any of them to come back. I hope they have a new set of interesting characters next season.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:03 am
The season finale was ridiculous.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:33 am
I totally agree. season finale was a let down. It was much hyped as “neve befor seen stuff” and was true to its word. CPR fpr 3 hours, hear heart miraculously starting up again.
Wilson (as far as my menory goes is not a surgical oncologist) was operating??
Chase I think was the only guy in teh entire season who got cleverer. Thats probably why house fired him.
Hopfefully the next season will have more beievable medical mysteries.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:36 am
I’m also wondering how a congenital heart defect that has gone unnoticed by everyone for over ~20 years suddenly leads to osteoporosis. And this is never mentioned again.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:41 am
Actually… I have a theory. I think what’s been happening as far as the medicine goes is that convenient explanations for all these weird seemingly unrelated medical happenings in each case are scripted and shot, but are left on the cutting room floor for lack of time. In the season finale in particular, I wonder if they have initially shot for a 2 hour finale, and then had to cut it down to 1. It seems that they could have easily turned this into a 2 hour episode with exponentially better results.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:58 am
I’ve thought for a long time House, the series, would work better with the same character but a different premise. Instead of having House and the Young Guns at the teaching hospital every week, each episode should have House and Wilson called to a new medical mystery somewhere else in the country. Maybe they work for the Center for Disease Control or some similar agency. House arrives, annoys everyone, solves the mystery, and leaves. Next week, a new location and a new bunch of people to annoy.
This seems to me a more plausible way for House to function. In reality, a doctor so persistently annoying would eventually be unable to function in his hospital; all the nurses and orderlies would hate him, and so they’d delay his test results, delay his prescription requests, and generally freeze him out. But if he meets a new supporting cast every week, he can insult them with abandon, and it won’t matter for next week because he’s somewhere else.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:51 pm
1)
Why does Marina become conscious at the very moment House turns off the cardiopulmonary bypass? It shouldn’t make any difference to brain if it’s her own heart or a machine that pushes the blood through her body, should it?
2)
FOX reruns 2×18, 2×20 and 2×21 today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
Next tuesday, it’s Que Sera Sera (3×06).
May 31st, 2007 at 1:12 pm
First off, I’m beginning to ask myself how anyone but a person versed in medicine is entertained by the show. Yes, it’s drama, but don’t you get bored if more than half of the dialogue flashes by you?
As a med student, I was pretty disappointed by this third season. With the help of a doctor at my teaching hospital, I’ve called into life a Dr. House seminar, where we do just about what House does with the young guns: Use a board and collect symptoms, differential diagnoses, etc.
It works surprisingly well (if you hit “Pause” quickly enough…).
Do I have to mention we use season one almost exclusively? There are some season two episodes I’d like to run eventually (Euphoria 1+2, for one), but season one by far offers the most sound medicine. Especially if you consider students are supposed to learn something from it.
If there are just a few minor kinks and errors, it’s actually fun picking them out.
If an entire episode is riddled with flaws, if the diagnoses are off and the symptoms don’t fit AT ALL, it’s not fun. It’s tedious and unrewarding. Not even good drama can change that.
I hope the authors come up with something good for season 4. I’m still rooting for Stacey to return, because her interaction with House kept the drama steady.
I’m also hoping for at least one new young gun to have an acerbic cynicism to match House.
But what I hope for most, and what can justify Stacey’s absence and lame new young guns, is solid, evidence based medicine.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I’d be willing to bet that the student who made the Botox suggestion in this episode will be in the next series.
Thanks for all of the enlightening reviews.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
George, I’ve wondered how I stayed interested myself - not knowing a thing about medicine. Fact is, I probably like it more than the people who know medicine because I’m not nitpicking everything. Not saying nitpicking it is bad, it just distracts you from the drama little more. The drama - especially first season and most of second - was extremely good and more than enough to get me hooked. If I started watching it this season, I probably could have stopped. And the House writers always do breakdowns (via House and his crazy analogies) to help viewers like me better understand.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Hey all, I’m hoping you can answer a question for me
Why does Foreman suggest giving the patient interferons “and see if she feels better” for the MS? That’s not the way I’ve understood it to work at all… It’s a preventative measure, not a cure. Interferons (such as Avonex, Betaseron, Rebif, etc) are used to reduce the frequency of attacks by about 33%, but not the severity or length of the attacks. It doesn’t really make any sense to give her this medication (immunomodulator) as a countermeasure to an ongoing attack does it? For a reduction in length and severity you’d use corticosteroids wouldn’t you? It does make sense to give her a sustained interferon treatment after establishing a MS diagnosis from lombard-puncture results showing inflammation in the cerebrospinal fluid, and MRI scans showing demyelinated areas and lesions in the brain and spinal cord.
Also, interferons don’t work till after 3-6 months anyway. Either I’ve completely misunderstood what Foreman was saying, or they’ve let off their team of medical consultants who usually keep the show accurate. Judging from the multitude of other unexplained oddities in this episode, this may very well be the case.
I really hope someone can give me an answer to the interferon question, that one’s been bugging me to no end since watching the season finale. Thanks in advance!=)
May 31st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
To George (41):
Having no medical background, this show is a window into the very exciting and interesting world of medicine for me. It always takes me two hours to watch an episode as I’m pausing it all the time to look up terms and technical-speak on the internet. There may even be an aftermath adding one or two hours of extra study-time if something has particularly caught my interest. I google it, browse wikipedia for it, look at discussion boards, and so forth. Ultimately I end up making pretty good sense of what’s happening, and I feel great for actually learning something from a drama show on TV. It even sticks in my brain for later use, which is a very welcome surprise. It almost feels like a poor man’s education in medicine ;)
I’m not sure how many people do this pausing and reading thing, but it may just be a very narrow target audience. The show does seem to be leaning more towards the drama than the medicine in the third season, and I’m not particularly happy about that. The show will go where the money is at of course, can’t be helped I suppose… We’ll see how the fourth season goes if we get one, I’ve got my fingers crossed!
May 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I’m not a doctor (though I hope to become one) but from what I do know, I definitely agree that the medicine was sloppy. I did like the soap opera aspect, though, since I’m a Chaser and this episode showed him in a particularly good light (as has the season overall, I think). And his scenes with Cameron were adorable. Overall, a decent episode, though I wish it were better supported by the medicine.
May 31st, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I’m a board certified internist in practice for 27 years. I found this episode to be beyond sloppy–the medicine was incomprehensible, bordering on the ludicrous. The cast are all fine actors, but why oh why do they waste their talents with scripts that lack all verisimilitude? Frankly, the medicine on “The Sopranos” is truer to life.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Well, on the plus side, at least it wasn’t advertised as “THE MOST SHOCKING EPISODE YET!!!!” I mean like the past 7 episodes have been called the most shocking. They can’t All be the most shocking…
May 31st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
and none of them have really been particularly shocking.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:29 am
The CPR on House bothers me. As I understand, they should be pumping twice as fast and leaning their bodies directly over the patient. (Especially if you’re going to be doing it for three hours.) Also, in a couple of episodes I think they were using 2 breaths every 15 compressions–this has since been changed to 2 breaths for every 30 compressions (professional) or only compressions (general public).
I know the medicine can get sloppy, but CPR is something everyone should know and is relatively simple. TV shows like House could at least demonstrate proper technique and encourage everyone to brush up.
On a side note, I’ve also heard stories (one second-hand) of multi-hour CPR saving people’s lives–but it seemed far-fetched for a hospital to be doing it. Why did they wait until surgery to shock the heart? Isn’t that something you want to try before, if not immediately after the heart stops? But I’m not a doctor.. my knowledge of this stuff ends after CPR and AEDs.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:43 am
George, I think it’s a vast exaggeration to say that more than half the dialogue is incomprehensible to laymen. For one thing, as people above have pointed out, they do a pretty good job of explaining what’s going on in normal English immediately afterwards for us morons. But I’ve got to say, obviously it’s *not* boring for us. If the show was only of interest to doctors it would have been off the air immediately. Indeed, I would suggest that while this board is valuable and no-doubt informative for doctors, demands that the show itself be absolutely realistic are silly. The crux of the show has been — in my opinion — the fascinating character that is House, the “unsolvable” mysteries that only he can solve, and the consistent and complex moral issues they have to address and resolve in every episode. (Of course, I get great pleasure from the interplay between House and Wilson and House and Cuddy, as well as various scenes in the clinic and the fantastic dialogue — but these seem to me closely related to what I’ve already described as the shows focii).
I’m a lawyer, and I like Law & Order (or I used to, at least), despite the numerous and egregious ways the show misrepresents the legal system. Of course it’s even more fun if the writers have the time, knowledge, and ability (that is, a way of doing so without compromising the drama of the story-line) to make shows like L&O or House “realistic” as well. But I have to tell you, it’s not “tedious and unrewarding” at all even without this realism. As long as House is unpredictable, smarter-than-everyone else, and a bastard, I’m pretty happy . . .
June 1st, 2007 at 7:33 am
Did anyone else think that when House admitted “God only knows” to the Cuban guy when he was asked what he’d do next, it was a perfect time for the Beach Boys’ song of the same name to start playing…
Maybe a little -too- perfect, though.
Thanks, Scott, for 3 seasons worth of fascinating medical facts.
Fry
Melbourne, Australia
June 1st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I agree that it would be an even funner show if House went around the world solving medicine. It would then be House making ‘house’ calls, and it would be kind of like a live action “Black Jack” (the manga/anime, which I really like as well). Really though, I think that he should get a completely new team next year, and I’m wondering if the show is heading towards a sort of ‘get new lackies-train them to be annoying/medically proficient-get rid of them every few years’ cycle. I think that would be interesting. Then only a fewer characters wouldn’t cycle (Wilson, Cuddy, House).
June 1st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
The only people who can pull House out of its tailspin are the Fox executives who pulled the A-list writers and medical consultants off the show last year in favor of other projects. They figured the demographic for this show had plateaued and the hard core fans would stay hooked no matter what swill was shoveled in front of them. Those guys all work for Rupert Murdock, so I’m not holding my breath for a change of heart. RIP, House. It’s time for Hugh Laurie to get back to PBS and Masterpiece Theater where he belongs and quit lending undeserved credibility to this sow’s ear of a network.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I am just wondering if Marina’s heart could not be saved why an emergency heart transplant was not considered. On the other hand I think the soap opera was quite good ( and not only for firing Chase ). Also, I am too wondering how a congenital heart defect lead to osteoporosis
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Big thanks for your review for the whole season of House. As my third year medics knowledge permit, I would say that this one episode is just so unreal and untrue that it bet that it will never ever ever happen in the real world.
Anyhow, can I just ask about a question though. Can the hospital treat a persom from Cuba just like that. I have been doing my rotation in NHS and I can understand that it will be possible if it is in the UK. BUt in the State?.. emmm. can somebody explained!! I thought you have millions type of insurance needed before you can even step into a hospital
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
gracias por los reviews…los hemos explotado al maximo!!! sigue en la 4ta temporada
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I agree with Apococlock. I love the show, and although I find the medical reviews here interesting, I’m willing to suspend disbelief long enough to watch the show. I know enough about medicine to know what they’re doing when they mention it, but that’s about it. I suppose I’m more into the “soap opera” part of it.
I was disappointed with the final dispostion of the characters in the finale, though. I hope they don’t try to bring in a whole new group. The group House has now has finally hit their stride, and having to watch him break in a new bunch would just make the show annoying. I think that’s why a lot of tv shows go downhill–they try to fix what isn’t broken.
House is fine the way it is. It’s consistently risen in the ratings, becoming more popular in each season. They shouldn’t mess around with a good thing.
Great site, though.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
LadySidhe: I think what’s frustrating to many of us is that the series does not have to sacrifice good medicine to continue being popular. By and large, the inaccuracies have not been there in order to make the episodes less confusing to the general population, or to make the medicine “less distracting.” They seem to have been there merely out of simple sloppiness. The good detective show that constituted the first two seasons seem to have given way to startling revelations for the sake of startling revelations. Well, Hugh Laurie is talented enough to bring that off, but he’s also talented enough to make Plutonian pseudo-gastroenteritis seem convincing; that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deserve more rational scripts.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Brian nails it for me.
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Hi Scott, thanks so much for your medical reviews. They help so much in understanding this show, I’m not sure how I’d muddle through without them! Not just for explaining things, but for backing me up when I think “Hey, that’s not right!”.
You said an echocardiogram would have shown the heart defect immediately. In the scene where House polls the first year med students, one suggested Marfan’s syndrome and House replied “Structural abnormalities would show up on the echo, you get a C.” So there was an echo done but we didn’t get to see it, and somehow it didn’t show the structural abnormality.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I think the reason nothing would show on the echo is because the anomaly was meant to be an extra coronary ostium–the place where the coronary arteries come off of the aortic root–and not a septal defect (a hole between the chambers of the heart, which *would* show on an echo).
There are many case reports of anomalous coronary ostia–go to Pub Med and search–but the overwhelming majority of these have no clinical significance.
This was the lamest script in quite a while IMHO.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:02 am
I don’t really pay too much attention to the validity of the medical condition and treatment. I would prefer more dramatic cases than medically accurate ones. In reading posts on other sites, it seems that viewers like the episodes where there is more flirting going on than the ones without it. Don’t forget that the writers look for real cases that have have strange diasnoses. Also, this being a season finale, there is extraneous information given to us that may not make sense until next season.
I rewatch episodes over and over. I already know what the condition and treatment are. The rest of the program is so good, they could leave the medicine out and I would still love the banter between characters.
Hugh is incredible as House, and I find that watching episodes repeatedly gives me greater appreciation of how incredible he is. The writers have encouraged physical comedy from Hugh in recent episodes, which has helped me bridge the gap between Hugh as comedian and Hugh as serious actor.
Season three was all over the map. A lot of emphasis on House and Vicodin. House had legal trouble. The writers went in depth with House and religion. The flirting. Foreman’s departure took too long. There were a lot of set-up scenes that were left hanging with no follow-wp, such as House/Wilson/Cuddy dating scenes. What happened to that in the last three episodes? Virtually no mention of events that took place in prior episodes. It was an inconsistent season that had no flow. There were some POTWs whose stories were not interesting, such as Words and Deeds, and Needle in a Haystack.
Foreman is gone for good. The writers exhausted every possibility for him to stay, and he never bit on anything. Chase and Cameron could return in their old jobs with an apology from House. Cuddy could offer C & C their own department, as she did for Foreman. I think there will be three new ducklings next season, with interaction between House and C & C as colleagues, not employer/employees. At the end of next season, I think they will try for a spin-off for C & C. It will force House to change in the way he interacts with them.
I am new to this site, but I do appreciate the effort to bring some clarity to this series.
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:27 am
Uncluttered atheism and a plug for Cuba’s medical system were the only things that saved this crappy ep. Coming out of my semi-lurk to express my gratitude for what I see as increasing amounts of realistic atheism showing up in the writing.
When the show gets bogged down in sentimentality and pretentious, tendentious delusions of importance and Big Questions of Meaning, it loses its edge and disrespects its audience. Yes, hospitals are where life and death and illness happen, but life and death and illness are mundane, very normal and worldly. May we please have a TV show that does not feel obliged to rub our faces in emotionalism just because it deals with death and illness? Cheesh.
I am not begrudging those who DO experience illness as Big, Meaningful, yada yada, but there is a cultural expectation that we all must share in stupefying reverence and “validate” the “felt reality” of those who wear their illness like a public hairshirt with angel wings. Such conceits are usually only available to those who are not very sickly and are creepily narcissistic to boot.
I guess what I am saying is there is a place for Hallmark TV, and “House” isn’t it. Even if the main characters are not realistic (and they aren’t, which is much of their charm), they are sympathetic. IMHO the characters are best when presented as deliberately theatrical, distinctly NOT real people. Kind of telenovela-cum-opera crossed with Sherlock Holmes. The point is not the actual medicine presented, the point is not the plausibility of the plots. Face it, “House” is mostly mediocre TV with the magic of Hugh Laurie.
When the writing is good, it is often moreso because House or Cuddy deliver zing lines so well. Some of the best actual ideas are peppered into the dialogue with a light hand, unapologetically. Like: “supernatural existence” is an oxymoron. Like: illness doesn’t make you noble. Like: competence is more important than niceness in modern medicine, and when you get both (which in reality is most of the time), the niceness is a condiment. It is competence that saves your ass.
June 3rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I think the shows would be so much better if fans wrote them. Let’s face it, who knows what we want better than us?
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
my jaw dropped when house fired Chase, but upon thinking about it they had been leading up to it very subtly. The main reason House says Foreman isn’t ready to go is because foreman still trusts houses judgement over his own. When Chase stands up and yells at House about a medical procedure, that proves to him that Chase has reached the best House is ever going to get him to be. Chase has hit all of the Criteria House is trying to impart. he is competent, will stand up for what he thinks is right, and trained. (It was chase who noticed the abnormality in an eye blink, not the others). I thought it was wonderful layered scripting on that particular note.
June 4th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Skeptyk: There’s a site out there that does fan-generated typescripts for the shows. Reading through those has given me a greater appreciation for the show aside from Hugh Laurie’s admittedly stellar performances. The show is simply better when the detective work is rational rather than ill-considered, methodical–though never boring–instead of haphazard. Ultimately, it’s the logic of the show that draws me in; medicine, as you say, is just the backdrop. It could just as easily have been software engineers hunting down a bug (and believe me, there are seemingly just as many of those as there are human diseases), except that medicine is naturally more dramatic, because human lives can be at stake. I don’t begrudge them that choice!
That’s why, even though I find things like the repeated confusion of edema for effusion baffling–since it could so easily be fixed–it is far more troubling to watch the team come to conclusions in a scattershot manner. It undermines the fundamental logic to the show, and I’d rather watch (otherwise) rational religious people than illogical atheists.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Just wanted to say thanks for your reviews. I found this site midseason (through IMDB, I believe) and coming here is always the first thing I do after watching an episode. (It helps that I’m on the West Coast and I often watch the show a day or more late with TiVo.) Have a great summer!
June 4th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
My friends who are nurses have a problem with House, MD, and all the doctor shows, including ER. The nurses are there around the clock, and provide the bulk of the care, and sometimes prevent a doc from doing something embarrassing or even dangerous. On TV nurses are almost invisible, and rarely have speaking parts. China Beach was the only TV series that showed nurses doing what they really do.
When they’re rebuilding the cast for next season, I’d love to see a tough, super-competent 30-year veteran charge nurse prominent in the mix. The kind of love-hate interaction she could have with House would be very fruitful in story lines. Also, it would be interesting to write in parts for one or two of the newly-minted MDs, who show up every July, knowing far more about medicine than they ever will again, as they begin their year of suffering and exhaustion. Nurses dread July.
June 4th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Well, I’m in the minority here in that I liked the soap opera part of this episode very much. I think the story, which to me really semed all about House’s reaction to change, worked well. I also enjoyed the reprise of the “House vs. God” idea, only this time without Chase to keep score on the whiteboard. I for one am going to miss the Young Guns.
Sadly, even I could see some of the holes in the medicine, and I’m a medical dunce. The “bypass” idea was ridiculous.
Glad to hear your recovery’s going well, Scott.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Lee, I do not believe a nurse part would be good at all. What good drama could come from House telling her to NOT do something so that his new Young Guns can? There is actually a REASON why nurses are not in this show - House would never let them do a single thing. It’s not like E.R. in which they’re just ignored. They’re ignored here on purpose.
Want to watch a good nurse show? Watch Scrubs. Seriously…nurses are a huge part in that show.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
well i thing the tagline of the episode was : time for a change, for house,for his guitar, for his crew and that was a major step in the character’s development in comparison with the previous seasons. Remember the episode with the autistic kid that house wanted desperately his carpet back.Now he is willing to change. Btw foreman will be in the show next season as the actor has already sign.
As far as medicine is concerned: Maybe the doctors in Cuba suspected initially MS and gave corticosteroids. These drugs can cause osteoporosis. That’s why they tried interferon afterwards (ok that’s a long shot). From the second angiogram we can see that the ostium refers to the coronary vessels that are three. But where in the hell are the grafts? What kind of bypass was that? or they just put her in the extracorporeal circulation? of course for the reliving thing i have no explanation and i ll never have. Theoretically an inflammation in the third coronary vessel could cause a heart attack-like condition but there must no be problem for the viability of the heart as there are two more vessels to supply blood.
June 7th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the “Young Guns”. I think Foreman will be back no matter what. Maybe not the other two. I absolutly loved the last bit when House was talking to Foreman. Yeah, the medicine may have sucked but who watches it for the medicine? People watch it because of how House acts and how he interacts with people. It is a modern day Sherlock Holmes and people like that.
June 8th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I wish that one-ep wheelchair doctor would come back. She and house had some good rapport.
BUT I really hope against all odds Stephen Fry will be his new underling. The world is ripe for SAUSAGE TIME.
June 8th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
No one from the cast is leaving. This has been pretty well-established. Check IMDB’s House board–there are about a million threads about it, and here’s a recent confirmation from TV Guide: http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Ausiello/default.aspx?posting={CC30A3E1-8503-444C-8B2B-EA1BD39BD25D}. You might have to manually copy the last part in; for some reason I couldn’t make it clickable.
On another note, love the site! One of my all-time favorites.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I have to say that “I understand that…” falls a bit shy of confirmation. (At least by my standards.) Is there a more definitive statement by anybody, citing anyone by name–no “anonymous sources”–associated with the show?
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Foreman returned in some capacity, but Chase and Cameron’s kiss seemed to tie up a loose end and suggested a certain finality. So I’m surprised to hear indications that they’re coming back. Surprised, and a little disappointed, too, as I was kind of anticipating watching House break in a new pair of shoes, so to speak.
Maybe they will return “in an advisory capacity” only, and there will still be a new team…
June 9th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I’ve heard of a 8-year old child, who survived many hours of CPR after nearly drowning (the doctor had a child of the same age and thus refused to give up). The child suffered brain damage, but to my understanding was only physically handicapped afterwards.
This is to me second-hand information. A nurse, who was present at the time, told us this story at a first aid class.
From one matter to an another, what was the talk of ventilation being excluded from CPR? I’ve also heard of a study concluding that more people would survive if they recieve CPR from a layman and are not ventilated.
June 10th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
They were all in their third year of their fellowship when they were only supposed to have 2 years. They will be back just maybe not as ducklings.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Did anyone notice the model of guitar house unwrapped at the end of the episode? It looked like a C.F.Martin D-28 to me, but which one?
June 13th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Cerre: From one matter to an another, what was the talk of ventilation being excluded from CPR? I’ve also heard of a study concluding that more people would survive if they recieve CPR from a layman and are not ventilated.
I was also shocked/confused about this when I first heard about it. Apparently it’s because people are afraid of doing CPR wrong, and end up doing nothing–which is the worst of all possibilities. (Bad CPR being better than no CPR!) So the new approach is KISS: do only compressions, which will keep blood circulating to the brain. Maybe this keeps the brain alive long enough for paramedics to arrive and take over. Maybe there’s enough oxygen exchanged by the chest compressions. I don’t know the details.
The change to professional CPR was based on studies. Apparently it takes the most of the 15 compressions to “prime the pump”. If you stop after 15 compressions, blood backflows and you’ve lost most of your work. So increasing the number of compressions to 30 greatly increases the blood circulation. First responders usually have access to oxygen, which would use the time stopping for 2 ventilations even more effectively.
That’s my understanding behind the new CPR techniques.. please feel free to correct me or add information!
Geoff
June 13th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
If the writers really want to give the show a little bit of CPR, they should concentrate more on House/Wilson, because the duo’s fiesty chemistry really rocks the show. Did anyone buy the tepid romantic exchanges between Cameron and House? She’s a decent actress but their collective vibe was so-so, and Laurie’s much too strong an actor for that…
June 16th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
OK, I am not a doctor I am not even American. (yes I am from south america so I could enjoy the spanish spoken during the episode) What I think we have to consider are the people that watch this series. About 80% (if not more) know nothing about medicine or doctors or diagnostics, so these milions of viewers will enjoy the series and be awed by the solucions house finds within the medical field (even though they are far fetched).
Ok that is all I can say, but I do enjoy the reviews you guys put on.
Thanks (I will keep reading them, but won’t change my mind about my HERO: HOUSE)
June 17th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I think the show is mostly entertainment and not much for serious medical review. Truthfully, how can they be expected to have a different rare diagnosis every week? Still, it would be great to see them address some rare genetic diseases such as PCD and others to enlighten the viewing public.
I like the change in Chase over the last few episodes; he’s much more interesting. As for him and Cameron, I don’t see the chemistry between them (yes, I know actors are engaged) and I wish they’d forget about trying to be “Grey’s Anatomy” with the sex in the closet scene. The first season was awesome, the second was good, but season three was very weak. I think the show lost its edge when everyone disrespected House. To me his character still has to be likable.
I’m still a fan.
Patti
June 18th, 2007 at 12:07 am
This is a great, well thought out, critical analysis of the medicine and procedural treatment surrounding House MD. For a show that is both extremely popular in the ratings (#7, I believe) and as intelligently written, it’s a shame that not too many serious thought and discussion has been devoted to this television drama.
However, while I can’t disagree too much with your analysis of the medicine (I’m not a doctor), I do have to disagree with some of your critique regarding the storytelling of the show. Your grade of B- for the Season Finale, while respectable, is not at all how I would rate the season closer. There were so many elements of the last episode that really brought home the major points of the entire series: Chase’s maturation into becoming more House-like (seemingly without his own awareness), Foreman’s ambivalent feelings about becoming House, and Cameron’s insight into House’s inability to change. These three interpersonal relationships between the Ducklings and House have been planted during the course of the series (Chase’s frequent stroke of geniuses to solve cases, Foreman’s ambition to become House dramatized in “Euphoria”, and Cameron’s remarks to House in “Fools for Love” about “Going on like you always have..”) and it’s satisfying to see them all pay off at the season closer. Also to note, the staff’s departure from House’s department was foreshadowed rather severely in the closing of “Half-Wit”, but to see all three doctors leave House was surprising but should have been completely expected, which is what all good ending should do. It is worth mentioning that the the ironic reference to the “Human Error” in the title of the episode is a statement concerning House’s inability to change although he thinks he has. He views his dismissal of his staff as “change”, but in actuality his refusal to make any sincere human contact outside of Wilson is the thing that hasn’t changed and remains constant. This discussion of change and constancy overbears much of the series, most notably in House’s interaction with his ex-love Stacy Warner.
All in all, I have to commend Season Three of House as being daring. If you re-watch Season One and Two of House, and compare it with Season Three, any viewer will see a noticeable difference in the scope of the latest year, and it ventures into new territory that the previous two seasons haven’t quite covered. One of the most notable revelations in the series include House’s confession of why he became a doctor in “Son of Coma Guy” which displays House’s most desperate moment for human contact. However, the season offers up three of the series’ very first serious misfires: “Top Pilot”, “Resignation” are particularly weak and irredeemable; and in some cases the patients are two-dimensional and not at all memorable. However, the character’s evolutions are noteworthy and more than make-up for the missteps. Cameron experiences one of the most significant changes starting in the ending of “Informed Consent”.
I sure seemed to have ranted in your website, but thank you for webspace and time, and good luck with everything. ;)
June 18th, 2007 at 12:41 am
To Kyle, Drezn and Wertrew:
Please don’t take my post as a personal offense.
Given the experience of the seminar on the show, it became painfully obvious just how much one can go into the medicine of each episode, take it apart, and compare the diagnoses for validity and course of treatment. Maybe I’ve just lost focus on the actual show, and got more and more concerned with “just” the medicine.
I’m glad you all enjoy the show to such an extent, and sincerely hope it will pick up again with better writing and a fresh new cast for the Young Guns.
While I still mostly watch it for the medical part (and the cynicism), I guess the drama does carry the show for a good part as well.
And while I’m told the series is at least in parts based on actual cases, some of the episodes in season 3 are either so radically changed from their actual case files that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to actual, contemporary medicine, or they’re just plain fiction.
Maybe a few less overtly spectacular cases with sounder, better medicine could turn things to the better. At least I hope so.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am
“And while I’m told the series is at least in parts based on actual cases, some of the episodes in season 3 are either so radically changed from their case files that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to actual, conemporary medicine.”
I’ve often wondered if they get their medical mysteries from real life, why don’t they just stick to what happened? Why DO they feel the need to change things around and make the medicine worse?
June 18th, 2007 at 10:43 am
I agree with those that would like to see a strong nurse character. If nurses are anything like paralegals, a good one is worth his/her weight in gold and can make valuable substantive contributions to cases (not to mention, on occassion, catch mistakes and prevent malpractice). I also agree with those that would like to see at least one of the Young Guns replaced (I don’t particularly care which one). To the extent that each of the YGs represents some aspect of House’s conflicted personality, after all this time I’d like to see a different aspect explored.
June 20th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Scott,
My wife and I have not been able to find Season 3 on disk yet, so I haven’t read these blog entries yet. But we were finally able to watch Season 4 as it was happening. I was so dissappointed when I didn’t find any blogs of yours for this season. I don’t know if there is a reason that I have missed by not reading the Season 3 entries. I hope all is well and I miss your commentary on one of my favorite shows.
Casey
June 20th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Season four’s already done!? Did I seriously fall asleep for that long!?
July 12th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Don’t you think this episode sort of tries to counter Michael Moore’s SiCKO?
July 21st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
The show seems to have fallen off. Maybe shaking up the cast for next year (if that’s what they are doing) is a good thing. We’ll see what next year is like. I am definitely still watching.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Actually, there was a case, where a group of scientists or researchers or something (I can’t remember the exact deatails though) went off to some jungle and one of the guys on the expidition got bitten by a snake. The toxin got to him, and not long after that, his heart stopped. So the group took turn doing CPR on him until help arrives, and they did it for about 9 hours (if I’m not mistaken). So, CPR can be effective for long hours.
Not in the way they’re doing it though. Their CPR techniques are laughable.
CPR crash course: Keep your arms straight aligned with your shoulders, use your the force from your shoulders to pump the chest and try to get about 60 compressions in a minute. Take note, it could be life saving.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
So I was reading up on…some FAQ stuff for House. It makes sense, looking back at a lot of the episodes. But the writer is kinda basing his char. off of Sherlock Holmes. Kinda interesting to see the similarities. As per the site, House is a play on the name Holmes, and James Wilson is essentially James Watson. Just thought Id thrown that out there :)
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 am
I thought the premise of the episode and the medicine that followed were ridiculous. Did the House writers forget about the Patriot Act? The couple would have gone to an immigration detention center and received medical care there. They never would have reached New Jersey terra firma. Just ridiculous!!!
I loved all the House/Wilson scenes - really if it wasn’t for that I would have deleted the episode. During the surgery scene, Wilson mentioned that his patient was 47 and then he said he hoped his colon didn’t look as bad. Were the writers trying to tell us that Wilson is 47? And this brings up something that has troubled me throughout S3. I don’t understand why the PPTH board has not gotten complaints from others and staff about Cuddy allowing House’s behavior. Some of it is dangerous to patients. You talk about suspension of disbelief. It makes S3 House look like a caricature of his former self. I don’t mind House being a bastard as long as he’s an adult bastard - you know S1 and early S2 House.
I am so glad that the ducklings are gone. Foreman is the least popular character on House and yet he has had the most story arcs. And how many times can Cameron be surprised by House’s brilliance or Chase laugh at House’s jokes? I am looking forward to the first three episodes of S4 because we’ll have lots of House/Wilson and Cuddy and other people for House to interact with. I wouldn’t bother to watch this show if it weren’t for Robert Sean Leonard. The medicine and logic of House’s analysis hae gotten so sloppy that I find it difficult even to pretend I’m interested in the medicine. I hope there’s a drastic improvemnt in the medicine or I will find myself TiVo’ng through every scene that does not include Robert Sean Leonard. And please no nurse main characters. I’ve hated every nurse character that I’ve ever seen on TV.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Hi Scott,
I first found this website from wikipedia when I was watching season3. Your reviews really answered me some questions during the past two seasons. I’m not a doctor and English is not my mother language so I have to watch the drama with Chinese transcript. Your reviews really clarify something which were not translated into Chinese. Thanks very much for your excellent reviews and I’m looking forward to the next season and your reviews.
Sincerely,
Allen Q From China.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
Great website! Really enjoy your medical reviews!
One suggestion: would it be possible to list your reviews by the “marks” that you gave the medical portions of the show?
I’d love to be able to see, for example, only the “B+ or above for medicine” episodes enumerated…
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Hi-
Season 3 just ended in the UK. Thanks for the great write-ups. They’ve added no small amount of enjoyment to an already (usually) very enjoyable hour of television.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Like Yok said, my fist impression of the ostium-saga (watching the episode) was in relation to the aorta openings into the coronary arteries.
The bone breaking could be explained like so: inflammation of arteries (vascular endothelium), would initiate a coagulation cascade forming a clot; this clot could, though unlikely, deposit in the vasculature of the limb (left- shown) and cause avascular necrosis; this could possibly cause fracture due to loss of integrity of the osseous tisse and cause a fracture. I couldn’t notice the fracture on the x-ray, and nothing seemed to suggest it was ‘complete’ or, lets say, too large to rule this possiblity out. I know. Unlikely. But i’m getting bored.
Love to hear back from someone.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Hello Scott,
First of all I would like to thank you for your excellent reviews. Even though it is a drama series, it is fun to read that sometimes what they say is medically correct, and sometimes not.
I have a few questions, though:
* Wouldn’t they be able to detect a hole in someone’s heart in Cuba? Several diagnostics were discarded because “They would’ve found that in Cuba” .
* I thought I heard about the rule where you were only admitted to the US if you managed to get on dry land by yourself, and you were sent back otherwise. Is that true, and wouldn’t the couple be sent back, then?
I for one was happy to see Foreman go… pity about Cameron. She was very nice to watch (look at).
Cheers,
Peter.
September 9th, 2007 at 12:51 am
I thought Wilson had sub-specialty in Oncologic surgery. I can’t remember where I read that at so it’s likely I am wrong.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:10 pm