# House - Love it, but is the premise at all valid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555 "2009-05-15T19:04:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/21 "2009-05-16T04:43:12Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > OK, then what about the little girl who was going to have her arm cut off, but it was stopped on the operating table? > > I guess, since he turns out to be right in the end, the law suits might be more difficult, but it seems like frequently, a good portion of the patient’s medical problems turn out to be complications from an incorrect treatment. He does a lot of things like drilling into people’s brains and other invasive procedures that might be approached with more caution, and often to no avail. I’m not a lawyer, nor even a doctor, and I’m going off just the episode from a week ago or so House prescribing antibiotics in that case wasn’t anything wrong. The reaction that caused her skin to fall off is exceptionally rare, and Wilson even says that House didn’t do anything wrong with it. Even though House apologized, it doesn’t necessarily count as an admission guilt (although I don’t recall the exact wording). I can’t really speak for any others, but just because a treatment causes terrible side effects doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t have been tried. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/22 "2009-05-16T04:48:16Z")
It was a treatment that didn’t solve the problem at all, but left her with her skin falling off. Yes, it’s a rare side effect, and maybe it wasn’t his fault, but people sue for less than that all the time. And he does more egregriously risky things than that every week. I’m just not sure how he’s bringing in enough money to offset the costs of all the lawsuits. For instance, when he gave that deaf boy cochlear implants without consent. Now, it turned out the mother secretly wanted to do that, even though she seemed pissed off at first, but isn’t doing that kind of thing frankly illegal? Would something like that ever happen in real life? ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/23 "2009-05-16T05:08:38Z")
Speaking of the skin falling off, did anyone else here see the story on Discovery or some other science like channel abotu the woman to whom that happened who lived? Briefly, I LOVE this story: Woman has horrible reaction. ALL her skin sheds. This is virtually always fatal. Because this means ALL your skin, including every layer, your eyelids, the mucous membranes…everything. This woman was a nightmare. Evidently her agony is indescribable. So, miraculously, she survives. This is unheard of. But the expectation is that she will be hideously scarred, like a burn victim, since that’s pretty much what she looked like. She was just a raw open wound. Well, turns out just the opposite occurred. She grew new skin from scratch and it was perfect. Like a brand new baby. Very delicate the first year or so she had to stay completely covered in the sun. But her dermatologist told her that she’s going to look half her age, because her skin really is new… she got to hit the “delete” button on 30 years of wear and tear on the skin. I would never want to go through what she went through to get there, but GOD I envy how she came out the other side. One of the biggest bummers about being fat most of my life is that my skin is trashed. I will never be able to look like someone who was never fat, no matter how much surgery I might get, no one can. (It’s the great personal tragedy of weight loss. At least, weight loss after a long time of being fat.) But imagine losing all the weight, then being somehow able to shed your skin and grow a brand new, tight, unstretched, springy skin?? They will find a way to do it some day, long after I’m dead. I’m so jealous. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/24 "2009-05-16T06:10:17Z")
One thing I wonder is whether his truth checking through medication happens. That is, whenever the team agrees on a diagnostic, they immediately give the patient whatever fixes it. If they’re not sure, they give him all the different meds for all the different hypothesis and see what sticks. That seems… stark raving loony to me. Wouldn’t the effects of different meds interfere with each other in new and interesting ways ? And wouldn’t real docs rather wait for new symptoms to appear before giving the patient heavy meds with serious side effects on a guess rather than a certitude ? I mean, OK, there may never be an ironclad certitude. But “hmmm… that disease could fit. Give him the meds for that, see if he gets better”, in my understanding of how medicine works, would lead to : - “Damn, now his kidneys are failing. It wasn’t Lupus. New symptom !” - “House, kidney failure is a possible side effect of what we just gave him” - “…Yes. I knew that. So we don’t know whether it’s a symptom or not. OK, let’s split the board ! Come up with another disease fitting the previous symptoms and give him the meds for that. And come up with a disease fitting the previous symptoms plus kidney failure, and give him the meds for that _too_ !” - … House, did you get your medical degree from [Dr.Mario](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Mario_(video_game)) ? He’s not a real doctor, you know… ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/25 "2009-05-16T09:29:57Z")
How come once they do get the right diagnosis, and give the treatment, the patient is (almost) always right as rain? There is never any hint that they might suffer some chronic problems from all the times they almost died, or blood started coming out of their eyes, or whatever. Also, if House is such a great diagnostician, how come he _ **always** _ gets it wrong about 5 times, before he finally figures it out? ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/26 "2009-05-16T09:47:14Z")
And how come his cronies, er, henchmen, er, assistants never get arrested for breaking into patients’ houses all the time? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/27 "2009-05-16T10:39:26Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Also, if House is such a great diagnostician, how come he _ **always** _ gets it wrong about 5 times, before he finally figures it out? Is there any evidence that we see all his cases, and not just the interesting ones? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/28 "2009-05-16T14:06:55Z")
House probably sees about 50 patients a week. We only see the one he screws up. The rest are diagnosed, treated and out of there. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/29 "2009-05-16T17:46:14Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > House probably sees about 50 patients a week. We only see the one he screws up. The rest are diagnosed, treated and out of there. That depends on how you define patient. He probably zooms through most of his clinic patients, both because he hates everyone whose name is not “Wilson” or “Cuddy” and because he is an ace diagnostician. It wouldn’t surprise me that, though he surely does fewer clinic hours than most of his peers, he sees more patients in the clinic. If you restrict patients to those admitted to the hospital and in the care of the entire team, Wilson has said that he averages about 1 of those a week. Assuming he gets 4 weeks vacation, I’d bet that we only see half, and the others are, however interesting from a medical POV, boring from a dramatic POV. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/30 "2009-05-16T21:47:56Z")
I can’t willingly suspend my disbelief enough to get past the fact that the hospital would be sued by his students and staff themselves: order them to obtain a female supervisor’s undies, under penalty of being fired for failure? That’s a lawsuit. All medical dramas follow the same arc anyway as they gradually run out of ideas through the various seasons: Season 1: A patient has Wuzzle’s disease. Season 2: There’s a plane crash and the hospital is overflowing. Season 3: There’s an _outbreak_ of Wuzzle’s disease. And a plane crash. An original cast member leaves the show. Poignantly. Season 4: There’s a guy with a gun. With Wuzzle’s disease. More OCM’s leave, with varying degrees of poignancy depending on how much money they wanted. Season 5: Uh, we’re stuck on a plane. With a guy with a gun. Who has Wuzzle’s disease. Departing cast members are barely even referred to anymore. Season 6: Aw, Jeez. Uh, have we done a dream sequence yet? Season 7: Or a musical episode? About a guy with a gun who’s survived a plane crash only to wind up in a hospital full of doctor’s dreaming about Wuzzle’s disease? Season 8: The lead quits. Possibly poignantly. Season 9: His replacement is a fearsomely capable. black woman who don’t take shit from Wuzzle’s disease, guys with guns, plane crashes, dream sequences, musical numbers, departing cast members or any roll D20 combination of the above. Season 10: Welp, we’re cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/31 "2009-05-16T22:30:15Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > I can’t willingly suspend my disbelief enough to get past the fact that the hospital would be sued by his students and staff themselves: order them to obtain a female supervisor’s undies, under penalty of being fired for failure? That’s a lawsuit. > > All medical dramas follow the same arc anyway as they gradually run out of ideas through the various seasons: > > Season 1: A patient has Wuzzle’s disease. > > Season 2: There’s a plane crash and the hospital is overflowing. > > Season 3: There’s an _outbreak_ of Wuzzle’s disease. And a plane crash. An original cast member leaves the show. Poignantly. > > Season 4: There’s a guy with a gun. With Wuzzle’s disease. More OCM’s leave, with varying degrees of poignancy depending on how much money they wanted. > > Season 5: Uh, we’re stuck on a plane. With a guy with a gun. Who has Wuzzle’s disease. Departing cast members are barely even referred to anymore. > > Season 6: Aw, Jeez. Uh, have we done a dream sequence yet? > > Season 7: Or a musical episode? About a guy with a gun who’s survived a plane crash only to wind up in a hospital full of doctor’s dreaming about Wuzzle’s disease? > > Season 8: The lead quits. Possibly poignantly. > > Season 9: His replacement is a fearsomely capable. black woman who don’t take shit from Wuzzle’s disease, guys with guns, plane crashes, dream sequences, musical numbers, departing cast members or any roll D20 combination of the above. > > Season 10: Welp, we’re cancelled. This progression doesn’t work for _House_. It only works for ensemble shows, which House is not. You can’t replace Laurie and keep the concept working. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/32 "2009-05-16T22:54:12Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > I can’t believe House isn’t sue all the time. For instance, in the finale-- an improper treatment caused the girl’s skin to fall off. He actually apologized to her for it. Then, he wanted to cut her hands and feet off, which ooops, turns out wasn’t necessary after all. Wouldn’t a doctor who did stuff like that on a weekly basis be sued out of existence, and have his medical license revoked? He’s just too quick to do crazy shit to people, often screwing up and hurting them, if not permanently, certainly scaring the crap out of them. The problem is, if anyone says no to him, he turns out to be right. > > So yes, the show is medically infuriating. I watch for Hugh Laurie, period. This is why I can’t bear to watch the show (the Lovely and Talented Mrs. **Shodan** loves it). He’s addicted to drugs, and everybody on staff with him, including the administrators, knows it. And they overlook it, as well as his abuse of patients. This is the kind of situation tort lawyers dream of, and wake to miss. A House lawsuit would bankrupt not only him, but the entire hospital and everyone who ever worked with him. I don’t care how brilliant and charismatic he is. He is a walking - OK, limping - talking time bomb, and when he gets sued, everyone and everything is going down with him. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/33 "2009-05-17T01:22:06Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > OK, then what about the little girl who was going to have her arm cut off, but it was stopped on the operating table? What I don’t like is when he inevitably enters the OR in street clothes without scrubbing up or wearing a mask to either stop the operation or actually perform a procedure. Also, FYI, the show is inspired, at least in part, by a monthly column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. You can read some of the columns [here](http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/health/columns/diagnosis/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/34 "2009-05-17T01:25:10Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Part of the reason House is a great diagnostician in the show’s universe is that he can read people’s emotional states but doesn’t care in general about their emotions. Cameron could be as good as he, I think, if it weren’t for those pesky feelings. and sadly people like to place all kinds of weight on warm and fuzzy when you need someone like House for the lose-lose scenarios to pull out a not lose so bad. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/35 "2009-05-18T14:02:06Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > There are some damn fine American accents being done in the movies and TV, but Hugh Laurie is genuinely flawless. I have a really good ear (and I’m completely immodest about the fact that I do great accents myself. I can say that because everyone else does…I’ve fooled a pretty good number of Brits in my day.) and I can hear the tiny imperfections, and I swear he doesn’t have any. Absolutely perfect. Of course I can’t remember it now, but there was one time when he pronounced a word with the “wrong” vowel sound. Does he have that tiny lisp/issue with esses when he speaks in his natural voice, or is that added to the character? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/36 "2009-05-18T15:23:17Z")
I wonder why they do not use computers in diagnostics. I see him put symptoms on a blackboard and then try to figure them out. Why can’t a computer do the heavy lifting? It surely could eliminate a lot of wrong guesses. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/37 "2009-05-18T17:14:35Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > However, the show is extremely repetitive. Doesn’t that get to you after awhile? It did for me. That’s what makes the show so great - you always know what to expect. It’s not like The X-Files or something where I might tune in hoping for a Monster of the Week episode only to get an hour of conspiracy bullshit; House is the single most reliable non-reality show on TV, because every episode is the exact same thing, with the same events occurring at the exact same time in every episode. I’m never let down by House because it always delivers exactly what it promises. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/38 "2009-05-18T17:50:55Z")
I’ve only seen the current season and random other episodes here and there, so was it ever explained why and how the doctors can always gain access to the patient’s homes? Do they ever have permission to do that? That whole aspect always seems so bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/39 "2009-05-18T17:57:53Z")
They only complained about it in the first episode and House countered with some racists remarks about Foreman robbing people. After that it became SOP to check the patient’s home. Sometimes it looks like they have permission and other times they probably don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555/40 "2009-05-18T18:03:09Z")
IANAL, but from watching endless hours of Law & Order, the police can sometimes perform a warrantless search under [exigent circumstances](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exigent_Circumstances), including when someone is in imminent danger. Perhaps the hospital’s lawyers would argue that the search by the doctors is permissible due to the immediate danger posed by the patient’s illness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-love-it-but-is-the-premise-at-all-valid/496555.md?page=3)