House: 4.08 You Don't Want To Know--a few observations
Interesting episode, which I'll sum up for myself by pointing out that if the PPTH staff would simply stop drinking coffee they'd all be a lot healthier....
Six years ago, my mother went to breakfast with a friend, who requested decaf coffee. Forty-five minutes later, she was on her way, via ambulance, to the hospital--where she spent two days in the ICU. Because she'd been given the wrong coffee. She was allergic to caffeine. Good thing 13 wasn't, right? Can you say involuntary manslaughter, House?
And 13, spiking the coffee of an opioid-dependent patient with more narcotics--without knowing how much he'd already ingested? Let's try repeating after me again--only it's your turn this time, 13. Involuntary. Manslaughter. And much easier to prove, too, as I do believe that 13 might just have a vague idea that House takes frequent doses of opioids. But maybe not, as she seems pretty clueless in the first-do-no-harm department anyway.
And... I won't even go into the sheer unlikelihood of anyone getting the wrong blood with all the current checks and re-checks in place. And I'll also leave alone the illogic behind House's experiment, except to say, one bag 'tainted'? okay. an entire lot tainted? Uh... no. Just... no. [And I'll just throw in here, for fun, that AB is the rarest blood type, and that the blood bank of a Level 3 trauma center is highly unlikely to just toss a bag of the precious stuff at anyone who doesn't demonstrate a medical need for the transfusion. Just sayin'.]
We all know that we'll never know how and why House knows Wilson's bloodtype. Because that would require someone besides the viewers to actually remember that the line was spoken. And if the writers can't remember Cuddy's several-episode-arc-of-desperation, mere months ago, to get pregnant, well then--it would be truly unreasonable of us to expect them to remember one 60-second scene, wouldn't it? [Even Lisa Edelstein questioned this apparent oversight about Cuddy's character in this November 20 TV Guide interview.]
What I don't know--and yes, it's been frustrating me for over a week--is how the writers of last week's Ugly got away with insisting that we had to find that 'target rash' for a definitive dx of Lyme Disease. Considering that the rash can disappear after just a few hours and that 50% or more of patients never get any rash at all, I'm wondering if the med consultants had gotten into the continuity monkeys' absinthe that week. [ more info on Lyme here]
And by the way? I'd figured out Huntington's chorea for 13 a mere eighteen minutes into the episode. And sometimes I wish I had no medical backround at all, and could buy all these informational errors they are so freely disseminating. [more info on Huntington's here]
[And by the way, again. I'm so proud of myself that I didn't even touch on the fact that following House's liver [and kidney and lung] biopsy, the inadvertent patient was not made to lie quietly on his right side for two hours. There are damned good reasons for this precaution. But i'm guessing that the immortal House is immune to all those scary little complications to which the rest of us are susceptible . I mean, a transfusion reaction, a large overdose of narcotics, three painful and potentially dangerous invasive procedures, and a short time later even Wilson's aware that Super!House is --and I quote--"about to run out of here...." Yup--real proud of myself that I haven't mentioned this wee disregard of medical reality! ;) ]
And... we need more Wilson.
*** edited to include even more ranting, and also a link to a great Lisa Edelstein interview, 11.21.07 at 5:00pm.