Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) is a sports medicine specialist. He was #6 during the games. He first got approval from House for successfully reviving a patient with a defibrillator while in a hyperbaric chamber, (setting her clothing on fire due to the high-oxygen atmosphere) showing he's willing to try risky techniques and isn't squeamish about saving a patient's life despite the risk of putting the patient in harm's way. Similarly, in "Mirror Mirror," he resuscitated a patient using a defibrillator while the patient's skin was wet, nearly shocking himself into a coma at the same time. Defibrillators and Kutner have become a running joke for House now, who, in "Ugly," appoints him the "professional defibrillist," a title which Kutner seems rather proud of. Kutner is not adverse to House's bizarre and often illegal methods, frequently embracing the recklessness House encourages, such as when he and the rest of the team were to dig up a dead body in "Guardian Angels." In the same episode, Kutner shows that he himself is not averse to gutsy maneuvers, as when the team hears somebody approaching while they were digging up the grave, he suggests taking out whoever it was, if it was a security guard. This rashness eventually draws negative attention from Cuddy, who collaborates with Jeffrey Cole in the episode "You Don't Want to Know" to have Kutner to be one of the fellows up for firing. This stuns Kutner, who had maintained a friendship with Cole thus far and didn't expect to be chosen for dismissal. When Cole was fired by House for dealing with Cuddy, all the other fellows shake his hand, except for Kutner, who doesn't even make eye contact with Cole and leaves. Kutner actually failed to survive House's seemingly arbitrary cuts, being fired in his first appearance for reporting Amber Volakis's recording of patient information. He continued to work even after being "fired" by House by turning his #6 into a #9 by turning it upside down and refusing to leave, and then coming up with a clever stress test for a patient's liver, using alcohol to intoxicate the patient. Kutner again survived the "cuts" as he was on the "winning" team in "97 Seconds" and continued to use House's "Cutthroat Bitch" nickname for Dr. Volakis. The mirroring patient said that Kutner enjoys new experiences, up to and including painful ones. Nicknamed "Former Orphan".
