Humpty Dumpty (House)

"Humpty Dumpty" is the third episode of the second season of the television series House, and the 25th episode overall.

Plot overview

Dr. Lisa Cuddy's longtime handyman Alfredo falls off her roof, causing breathing problems. While on route to the hospital, Cuddy notices that his two little fingers on his right hand are turning dark. Cuddy requests House and his team take the case, but she also sits in on all the diagnoses, often suggesting dangerous treatments trying to save Alfredo's hand. House maintains that she has lost perspective because she has not been a real doctor in years, and is acting entirely on personal guilt and emotion.

After Alfredo's hand starts to show signs of gangrene, House decides it needs to be amputated. Cuddy fights him on this point until she realizes it is the only way to save Alfredo's life. During the surgery, Dr. Chase notices that Alfredo's other hand is starting to show the same symptoms, giving the team much less time to determine the diagnosis.

Diagnoses

The team is unable to figure out what was wrong so when the patient's right hand developed gangrene, they had to amputate. Only later did they discover the cause before they had to amputate his left hand. Alfredo is diagnosed with endocarditis, caused by psittacosis received from a chicken. He works on Saturdays as a wrangler at a local cockfighting arena. Because of his asthma, he was made vulnerable to the infection. As Cuddy puts it "If a bird is infected, you can get psittacosis just by breathing his dust."

Clinic patients

• Unidentified Man (Foreman's patient): Foreman has an African American patient with high blood pressure to whom he gives medication "targeted to African-Americans". The older man has heard of drugs that were given exclusively to blacks due to racism and he does not want to be part of an experiment, so he comes back and is seen by House. After telling House he does not trust this new drug and won't take it, House tells him that he will give him "the same medicine we give Republicans," but actually gives him the medicine that is better for blacks. Foreman is later upset that House lied to the patient.

Notes

Music

• "Delicate" by Damien Rice

Arc advancement

Characters

• House and Cuddy: Cuddy reveals that she knew House in University of Michigan, although she claims only by his legend. Cuddy was just an undergraduate at the time while House was getting his medical degree.

• House and Cuddy: At the end of the episode House calls Cuddy an idealistic perfectionist, saying she never would have hired him if she didn't see the world both as it was and as it could be, while 'ignoring' the 'gaping chasm' in between. This reflects on Cuddy's earlier admission to Cameron that four other hospitals fired House before she hired him, illuminating the source of his grudging respect for her.

Trivia

Behind the scenes

• Following the episode, a statement about the American Humane Association aired, assuring the audience that no animals were harmed during the cockfighting scenes.

Goofs

• In one scene, the nasal cannula Alfredo is breathing through is dislodged from behind his left ear when he becomes worked up and angry. In the subsequent shot, it is seen as being returned to its previous position.