Who's Your Daddy?

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Crandall: "If I let you do the [paternity test], it means I don’t trust her."

House: "No, it means I don’t trust her."

―Who’s Your Daddy?

Who's Your Daddy is a second season episode of House which first aired on May 16, 2006. An old friend of House shows up with his newly found daughter, who has survived Hurricane Katrina. House agrees to take the case only to try to convince his friend that the young woman is lying to him.

This episode finished 3rd in Facebook's poll of the best episodes of the series which was completed in April, 2012.

Recap

While on a flight with her newly found father, a girl who survived Hurricane Katrina starts hallucinating that the plane is filling up with water. She then collapses.

House is trying to deal with his leg pain on his day off and starts off the day with Vicodin. He tries to massage and exercise his leg to relieve the pain. Just as he's about to inject himself with morphine, Cuddy leaves a message that he has a new case.

The patient has cardiogenic shock, but has not had a heart attack. Cuddy briefs House on the case. There is nothing wrong with her heart, no infection and no drugs. It turns out that the girl's father is an old friend of House. House pretends not to know him, but quickly admits he is putting on the most gullible guy on the planet. He tells House that the girl is the granddaughter of a famous jazz pianist, Jesse Baker. He tells House how he just found that she was his daughter, but House thinks the girl is lying. He agrees to treat her anyway.

The team does a differential. House decides that it might be an arrhythmia, and he decides to induce one even though it might be dangerous. He also decides to get the informed consent from the father himself. He talks his friend into consenting, then admits it's a dangerous test, but still tells him to sign the form. House also suggests a paternity test. His friend feels such a test will show he doesn't trust his daughter.

They proceed to induce an arrhythmia. The patient starts having a heart attack, but doesn't hallucinate. They keep proceeding with the test on House's instructions. She finally starts hallucinating and they freeze the affected muscle in her heart, expecting that will cure the problem.

Cuddy asks House to review her sperm donor candidates. House calls them both losers. Cuddy tells House to find a suitable donor himself.

The patient awakens and seems to hear someone asking for water. However, she is just hallucinating again.

They realize that the heart wasn't the problem. House thinks it might have been an atypical seizure. He thinks it's unlikely that the heart problem caused the hallucination. He starts thinking that pain may trigger the hallucinations. He decides to put the patient in pain. House sticks the patient with a needle, but she doesn't hallucinate. House also confronts her about lying to his friend about being his daughter, and she finally starts hallucinating when he bends her finger. The hallucinations under pain indicate an autoimmune disorder, but they don't know which one.

To diagnose her, they need to destroy her bone marrow and replace it. When her father finds out, he demands a bone marrow test, but still no paternity test. He is afraid that the test will either show he didn't trust her or that she isn't his daughter. Either way, he loses.

Cuddy asks House if he told anyone else she was looking for a sperm donor. He denies it. She just wanted to see if she could ask anyone else to help her. He agrees to help Cuddy with a shot into her gluteus maximus.

Wilson asks House why the patient's father is a friend. House admits that he was only his friend because he had a car. They have found a bone marrow donor for the patient, but while they are irradiating her, she starts leaking stool out of her mouth.

The stool indicates that it isn't an autoimmune disease. House orders a liver biopsy.

House's friend comes to see him again. House tells him that the patient's liver has failed and her digestive system is running in reverse. He needs consent for the biopsy because the patient could die during the procedure. House once again confronts his friend about only knowing the patient for a few days.

House starts listening to a tape of the patient's grandfather. Wilson comes in with his lunch. He thinks it is great that House is standing up for an old friend, and that the old friend is taking responsibility. He tells Wilson about the stool coming out of the patient's mouth. House tells Wilson that he once broke up one of the old friend's relationships, supposedly for his benefit.

House calls off the biopsy when he realizes the girl's grandfather on the tape is playing just perfectly, but thinks that the piano is out of tune. They go to see the patient, whose skin is getting darker. This indicates hemochromatosis.

House calls in one of the sperm donors, ostensibly for a job interview. He doesn't come off well in front of Cuddy. House makes his point about not meeting a baby's father.

They start treatment for hemochromatosis, but the patient goes into respiratory arrest. They figure that the chelating agent they gave her may have attached the iron in her lungs to a fungus. However, they can't treat her unless they know what fungus it is. They treat for aspergillis because it is the most common.

Cuddy confronts House about the privacy of sperm donors. House confronts Cuddy about accepting sperm from someone she doesn't like.

Cameron tells House that the patient doesn't have aspergillis. They have to figure out what kind of fungus it is, and they have to ask the patient. She can only communicate through blinking. She admits she lied to his friend. He asks her to write down where she stayed during the flooding. It turns out she was in a recording studio, which is a breeding ground for zygomycosis, which only breeds in very wet conditions - such as flooding of studio sound insulation.

The patient responds to the treatment for zygomycosis. House tells his patient he ran a paternity test and she really is his friend's daughter. However, we see the test, and it shows negative.

Major Events

House's former bandmate, Dylan Crandall comes to the hospital, seeking House's help.
Crandall reveals that House used to use the nickname “G-Man”. This is also slang for “federal government agent”.
House starts giving Cuddy fertility injections.
House figures out that Leona is lying to Crandall about him being her father.

Zebra Factor 7/10

Zygomycosis infections are rare because the fungus is not common and most healthy people can resist the infection. However, people with iron rich blood are more susceptible to most fungal diseases and some infections.

Trivia & Cultural References

Hurricane Katrina was a category 3 hurricane that struck the City of New Orleans in August 2005. As a result of the surge from the storm, the protective levies around New Orleans were breached, resulting in widespread flooding of the city.
House’s answering machine claims his telephone number is disconnected.
Mozart was an 18th-century composer whose music is still among the most commonly performed of the classical repertoire.
Chicken mole is a Mexican chicken dish with peanuts, tomatoes and peppers.
When Cuddy says she is leaning towards sperm donor 613, House replies, "Oh, sure, go with the Jewish number." House is referring to the 613 mitzvot, the canon of Jewish biblical law.
In most House episodes, the main patient has one disease, and when the patient has more than one diseases, there's usually a causal relationship (Disease A causes Disease B) and coincidence is frowned upon. This episode is one of the rare instances when a patient has three separate, coincidental diseases: Abnormal electrical pathway in the heart resulting in cardiac arrhythmia; genetic hemochromatosis; and zygomycosis.

Clinic Patient

A young boy comes in with what appears to be a bright orange rash. House diagnoses that he merely was lying on a bright red couch right after having a bath - it's only dye.

Links

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Forever

Who's Your Daddy?

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No Reason