House Season 1 Episode 9: DNR

Full Recap

A famous but wheelchair-bound jazz musician, John Henry Giles, is at a gig. By mid-session he collapses due to lack of oxygen. Later at the clinic House is intrigued with the fact that Henry has been paralyzed for two years without anybody finding an explanation.

The team starts looking for explanations. Henry's primary doctor, Hamilton, already diagnosed ALS, but House doesn't buy this. He talks Foreman into administering IVIG, which later causes Giles to crash. Just as Chase wants to intubate Foreman mentions that the patient has signed a "Do Not Resuscitate" form, but House doesn't give anything about it and intubates anyway.

House is sued for battery. Cuddy supports him in this case telling him that she expected $50.000 per year just for lawyers when she signed him. Foreman on the other hand calls in Dr. Hamilton, who flies in from Los Angeles.

House wins the case with a judicial dodge and wants Chase and Cameron to administer cytoxan, which treats Wegener's disease - a shot in the dark. If he's wrong, Chase and Cameron could lose their medical licenses. Chase checks on the lung biopsy, but only sees an inflammation.

Dr. Hamilton finally shows up and tells House that he wants to pull the plug. House tells Hamilton that Henry won't be able to breathe if it is Wegener's. Hamilton says that his tests for Wegener's came up negative, so he turns off life support. Henry breathes on his own - it's not Wegener's. However, Henry's arm is paralyzed now as well. Another sign for ALS? House doesn't think so and talks Henry into taking an MRI, which shows that Henry actually had a stroke. They go in for brain surgery and succeed in restoring his arm. The doctors are baffled, however, when Henry claims to be able to move his legs again.

Meanwhile Hamilton (who is his old friend) offers Foreman a job that pays three times as much. As he mentions the offer to Chase and Cameron they tell him that they are not in it for the money and they also don't hate House like Foreman does.

House has an idea how to find out which medication helped Henry. He wants to take him off the dozen drugs he's currently getting, then restart the dosage one by one.

Later Hamilton asks House which medication Henry was being treated with, because the patient's condition is worsening. House re-prescribes steroids and a second MRI. During the MRI Foreman and House discuss their working relationship. House tells Foreman to work for who he thinks is the better doctor, House or Hamilton.

The MRI results surprise everybody because they show that Henry is suffering from Arteriovenous Malformation, which was compressing his spine and ultimately causing the paralysis. Foreman wonders how Hamilton could have missed something that simple, but House points out that they all did. He thinks that something disguised it on the MRI.

They realize that it was the inflammation they originally saw on the MRI. The steroids treated the inflammation which allowed them to detect the AVM. They succeed in removing the AVM during a surgery and John Henry Giles walks out of the hospital without his wheelchair.

Not written by me. Credit to Tv.com