House M.D. | Season One | Episode Twelve
Episode 12: “Sports Medicine”
- Joe Cocker, “Feelin’ Alright” | Download from Amazon UK
- Robert L. Wyckoff, “You Better Stop”
- Windy Wagner, “I Never Saw it Coming”
A baseball player named Hank Wiggen shoots an anti-drug commercial but it’s not going well. The director tries to provide some help, but Hank doesn’t grasp what to do until his wife, Lola, advises him to just tell his own story. Hank got mixed up in drugs and only quit because he was going to die. Now he’s clean and getting ready to pitch on Opening Day. On the next take, Hank throws a pitch and his upper arm breaks. His comeback is over.
At the hospital, Wilson tells House that he thinks Hank has osteopenia but that his bones are too thin to be fixed. Since Hank is young, House feels that cancer is the cause and Wilson hasn’t found the cancer yet. The rest of the staff agrees that it must be cancer. Looking at Hank’s baseball card, House notices that Hank put on 25 pounds after spending the previous season in a Japanese league. The doctors suspect steroids, which would explain the kidney problems and bone loss.
