TV-Reviewed

This week’s patient comes to House in a rather unusual manner, via the U.S. Coast Guard. A Cuban couple tried to make it to the U.S. from a boat, which was hit by a storm and the engine stopped working. The simple fact that House was sought out by a foreign couple strikes me as bizarre, quite frankly. There hasn’t been a whole lot that leads me to believe that House has any kind of fame within the U.S. or elsewhere, so again, it’s just a little odd that a couple of foreigners would come to the country with one doctor in mind.

Anyway, the team initially thought she may have a fever, since she was from a tropical climate (Cuba), but Foreman put out the theory that she may have MS. House gave him the go-ahead to treat the woman with interferon. While tending to Marina, Foreman accidentally snaps her wrist like a twig. Whatever she has is causing her to have brittle bones. She’s too young for osteoporosis. Could it be bone cancer? No, she seems to have a blood clot near her heart. When the team tries to get rid of the clot, Marina suffers ventricular tachycardia and flatlines. House and his team keep her alive by giving constant CPR but are unable to revive her. Amazingly, three hours go by and Foreman is told by Cuddy to put the woman on a heart bypass machine.

The writers get a little lazy with the way they handle this medical story. Or it could be creative, depending on how you look at it. We had another House Vs God moment here. House couldn’t believe how Marina’s dead heart began beating on its own when the bypass machine was turned off, and neither can I. It doesn’t make any sense! It’s silly to believe this sort of thing would happen. Call it a miracle or whatever you want, but this is just lazy writing in my opinion. It’s easier to write something with such mystery/fantasy than it is to turn this into an interesting piece of TV apparently. Either way, I got to see House show off his excitement about his surgery. He was able to save the woman’s life and for once, he expressed his joy in doing so.

The drama with Foreman takes a big step up when the team falls apart. Dr. Chase is fired and Cameron quits. So much for House’s crack diagnostics team. Although many are going to see this as a great cliffhanger, there’s no way they will all be leaving the show, and however they bring them back, it’s not going to be very believable in my eyes. We shall see, however.

House - Human Error
Original Air Date: May 22, 2007

Rating: 7.8