House Episode Recap: Informed Consent (HOU-303)
Official Teaser:
House puts a well-known medical researcher through a battery of tests to determine why he collapsed in his lab. When the team is unable to diagnose the problem, the doctor asks the team to help him end his life. House is forced to use his cane again after the ketamine has worn off as he deals with a clinic patient’s teenaged daughter who has a crush on him.
Recap: (after the jump)
Here’s one for my mother-in-law to fall in love with: We’ve got lab mice. (She hates mice!) Well, now the old guy has killed the mouse. She’d like that. A quick dissection… old guy is gasping for breath… mouse still has cancer… old guy goes for next mouse and collapses. Cool graphics show his lungs filling with fluid. OK, my mother-in-law has just passed out: The mouse he dropped is crawling on his chest.
House comes into the office with his cane. He’s going on about the case; the team is staring at his cane.
House: “Also, disregard the facial lacerations. They’re creepy, but completely irrelevant. Don’t you want to know why?”
Cameron: “You have your cane.”
House: “No, why the lacerations are creepy. he was about to dissect one of his lab rats when he collapsed. The little vermin seized the day, so to speak, and went medieval on his ass.”
Ah… the old guy is Dr. Ezra Powell, some famous physician. Chase and Foreman are arguing over whether or not it’s his heart or lungs. House decides to settle the spat with a stress EKG.
Cameron is helping Powell onto the treadmill, though he’s having trouble actually working hard enough to make it worthwhile. Powell wants to quit, and Cameron lets him. House reams her, and tells her to redo the test. So, they’re draining the fluid from his lungs with a big fat needle.
Now House is in the clinic looking at a dad’s throat. Dad is arguing with his teenage daughter about a school formal. House is surprisingly witty… and sarcastic. Is he intentionally flirting with Lolita? The diagnosis is a simple cold, but when House drops his papers on the way out the door, Lolita is johnny-on-the-spot to help pick them up. Now SHE’S intentionally flirting.
Cameron pops over to say Powell is still unable to work hard enough. Now they’ve got him on some sort of rowing machine. So, House gives him epinephrine to boost his heart rate. They his the magic pulse of 130, and the EKG is clean. So, it must be the heart. Cameron comes over to bring his heart rate back down and Powell tells her to stop. He begs her, instead, to kill him!
In the conference room the gang are arguing the morality of Powell’s request. Foreman and House are out. Chase is ready to give him an overdose of morphine. Cameron wants to respect his wishes… but isn’t willing to help him die. Nice retort from Foreman.
Foreman: “Who’s side are you on, senator? First, respect his wishes, then invade Iraq, then get the troops home. Make up your mind.”
House doesn’t care about the debate and gets back on task.
Beepers go off; Powell has been trying to choke himself to death. House tries to bully through, and Powell says he’s done. No more tests. House listens well… and stuffs a breathing thingy into his mouth. The team pull him off, so House tries intimidation: No treatment, no comfort. Slowly drown from the inside. Powell doesn’t bite, so it’s time to play Let’s Make a Deal. House wants 24 hours to make the diagnosis. If he fails, he helps Powell die. The clock starts, and it’s time to run every test in the book. Go!
Cameron heads to Powell’s lab to look for toxins. Foreman and Chase are at the hospital. There’s poking and prodding and pain. Fluids of various sorts. Dead rats. Lots of coffee.
House strolls in the next morning, and so far nothing. House gets a phone call.
House: “Yeah. Who? Tell her to call the clinic. Then, tell her to leave a message and I’ll get back to her. Then, tell her to leave a personal message.”
Time’s up and the team have nothing. So, House lies to the Powell. Again, Powell isn’t buying, so House begs for more time. Powell says no, and uses House’s own words against him. After a pain-filled night, House decided to give Powell the morphine. Cameron bails first. Foreman objects for a moment and then splits. Chase helps close the curtains. House pushes the morphine… and then revives Powell!.
House: “It’s something I like to call a lie. Bad, I know, but way further down the list than murder.”
Now that Powell is unconscious, House can continue testing without the objections.
The gang object; House ignores it. He wants the team to go continue testing. “Wait!” They haven’t moved. House notices lung scarring on his MRI. Lupus is the first thought, to Chase and Foreman are off to do a colonoscopy. Cameron, on the other hand, bails, and a nurse tattles to Cuddy. She’s not happy with House… but she’s not objecting too much. House gets in another pregnancy accusation, then questions Cuddy’s complicity.
Cuddy: “We’re doctors. We treat patients. We don’t kill them.”
House: into the imaginary microphone in Cuddy’s broach “How right you are, Dr. Cuddy. We also don’t pad our bills, swipe samples from the pharmacy, or fantasize about the teenage daughters of our patients, either.”
Bad news: the colonoscopy was clean.
Worse news: While doing the colonoscopy, Powell crashes and falls into a coma. Now it’s plan B, IPF, which involves an open lung biopsy. In the locker room, House gives Cameron a cryptic reference to a 30 year old medical journal.
Wilson find House in his office, and the two argue. House is saved by the pager. Now Cameron finds House in the surgery observation room. Apparently the journal contained an article by Powell where he lied to a group of parents and injected a radioactive agent into newborns. Not so different from what House is doing, but Cameron doesn’t care.
Cameron: “The fact that a patient did bad things doesn’t change anything. He still deserves to have some control over his own body.”
House: “If he had control over his own body, he’d be dead.”
Cameron: “SOME control. We can withhold treatment without killing him.”
House: “No you can’t! You either help him live or you help him die. You can’t have it both ways.”
Meanwhile the lung biopsy is negative for IPF. Powell crashes again, and House has to step in and save him… with his unwashed bare hands. Good thing, because now House is testing his reflexes. He’s not reacting to pain on one side, so it’s time to wake Powell up for the next test. I’m sure he’ll be in a good mood.
Powell’s awake, and again, despite the objections, House confirms sensory loss using the old fashioned techniques of cold water and a thumbnail. House wants a skin biopsy and he sends Cameron after it. Results negative for sarcoidosis, so House suggests amyloidosis. Bingo! Oh wait… it’s terminal. All that, and there’s no treatment.
The next morning, Cuddy tells House that Powell died. At 1:00am he was fine; at 1:30 not so much. Cuddy asks House if he knows anything about that. House warns her about asking questions when you don’t really want to know the answers. Finally, House tells Cameron he’s proud of her.
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POSTED IN: House Episodes, House Recaps
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