House – Recap – Episode 2-2

Archive

House – Recap – Episode 2-2
September 20, 2005
“Acceptance”

The only way to save a girl’s life…is to take it? -Fox Blurb

The show opens with a young girl donning a blonde wig, singing along to Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”. She begins to give herself a shot of medication, when suddenly she seems the walls shaking and crumbling. She places her hand on broken mirror, then realizes her hand is bleeding. The walls stop shaking, and Mom runs in just time time to save her. But, we see that there is no damage to the room, it was all a hallucination.

Opening credits roll.

House has come to work with a cold. Wilson tells him of his case of the 9-year-old cancer patient, named Andie, with hallucinations. Originally thought to be caused by a brain tumor, they find out that the tumor is gone. What is causing the hallucinations? The team gets together, and reviews her case. They go through a laundry list of possibilities, scanning results, and nothing positive is come up with. A list of tests is ordered, but House has a hunch that the kid is making it up, not wanting to get into trouble with her Mom for breaking the mirror. The girl goes though a cat scan, pessimistically denying any luxuries that are offered to her.

House is given another patient, and after doing his best to avoid it, he complies. His new patient states that he had a girlfriend who had never been with an uncircumcised girl before, and that he did a home-job with a box-cutter.

Results from the Andie’s tests come back, and all were negative. They note that her oxygen level is 1% below normal. House’s cold gets the best of him, and he heads home, leaving with the team to sort things out.

Robert performs another test, to see if her lungs are performing as they should be. Andie asks him many questions, which we find out she already knows the answers to. She explains that she just likes to hear Robert talk. Andie tells a story about liking a boy at a cancer camp she attended last summer, but she’s afraid that she won’t live to see him again this summer. Fearing that she’ll never kiss a boy, she asks him for a kiss. He refuses, she begs. After another request and refusal, Robert complies. The kiss is soft and slow, right on the lips.

House comes back to work, to hear that once again, the tests came back negative. Allison is given permission to write the symptoms on House’s white-board. Eric pushes a possible diagnosis: syphilis. Robert admits the kiss, defending the girl has never had sex. The crew is disgusted. House pushes the possibility, ordering a rape kit. Allison performs the rape kit exam, which comes back negative.

House comes back to Wilson, looking for advice. House raises the possibility that it is a type of ailment that is beyond extremely rare, but effects both the lungs, and causes hallucinations. Wilson refuses to believe the chances, and orders House to try to find another cause.

House calls the crew to a locker room, to listen to Andie’s echocardiogram. “Better acoustics.” Her valves sound normal, at first glance, but Allison picks up an inconsistency. They order an exploratory cardiac surgery.

As House and Wilson walk down the hallway, Wilson notes how brave the child is, House thinks is a bunch of bologna. They discuss how there must be snobby kids dying of cancer out there.

Andie’s surgery begins, with Robert looking on. Wilson brings the news to the Mom that there is a tumor growing in her lungs that is attached to her heart. The procedure involves removing the heart, scraping it clean, replacing the parts with bovine tissue, and returning the heart. Wilson lets the mom know that her chances aren’t good. During the surgery, Robert notices that she has a bleed in her eye.

The cardiac tumor is benign, so it isn’t causing her hallucinations. The tumor is unrelated. The crew, plus Wilson, debate the possibilities. House makes a tumor-Al Queda metaphor, saying that the tumor might have sent out cells before they removed it. An angeogram is done on Andie, but a clot is unable to be found. House tells Wilson that there is a clot, but they can’t find it. House asks Wilson if he can come along with him when he lets them know of Andie’s condition, as a way to test if the girl’s emotions are sincere. Wilson tells him to go to hell.

He debates’s the child’s reaction with the team, saying that she had no reaction what so ever. Maybe her bravery is a symptom. Maybe the fear center is what is being effective. “The only time you will see this clot is at autopsy”, says Eric. “Lets do it!”, replies House.

He goes to Lisa to okay the procedure. After some debate, she complies. Wilson tells the family the plan. “The plan is basically to re-boot your daughter.” He describes the procedure to Mom, selling it as their last option. He gets consent. House asks Wilson what Andie had said, and Wilson lets him know that he didn’t tell the girl, only her mother. House insists that Andie deserves to know that’s going on, and tells her himself.

His delivery is typical House, dry and factual, as he is speaking to a 40-year old. House lets her know that she has a choice in that matter, but also lets her know that she has to option to not have the operation, and die. He lets her know that eventually, she is going to die. The choice of now is hers. Andie says she is staying to make sure her Mom is okay, House tells her she can’t do that. That she needs to live for her own life, not for her Mom’s.

The surgical team goes through a run-through with a corpse. House gives a play-by-play as the team practices, and fails. Fails again. And again. Eric suggests bolting her to the table.

Now, it’s the real thing. Andie is upset over the huge number of people attending her surgery. The 60-second timer starts, and the team of doctors go through the steps. Her head is drilled, her body is cooled, her heart stops. They drain two liters of her blood, then send it back in. The timer stops, but House pushes it. Suddenly, Eric is the only one who sees the clot. The doubt him at first, but when the clock continues to tick, they order that Andie be revived.

Wilson lets the Mom in on the good news. Andie is doing well after this procedure, and she is now having the clot removed. Mom cries. The teams prove Eric right, and find the clot. Its removed, and Andie comes out of surgery. Andie awakens, and Mom is full of joy.

Wilson walks in on House snorting cold-medication. Wilson encourages House to say his goodbyes to Andie, as she is on her way home. Wilson lets him know that the clot was no where near her fear centers in her brain. Her bravery was not a symptom. House accepts this, and uses his brand of sarcasm to show how her being brave will get her no where in the end.

Andie is applauded by the nurses and staff as she leaves the hospital. House is standing at the end, and Andie greets him with a smile. “I’m not going to kiss you, no matter what you say.” Andie hugs him, House looks uneasy.

The show ends with House looking into a motorcycle dealership, and asks to test drive. He speeds through the streets, into the countryside.