Should We Sue Dr. House for Malpractice? The Answer May Surprise You

Summary:

• House, M.D. is one of the most popular shows of all time.
• The protagonist is a liability to the hospital and a problematic person.
• If it were real life, we probably should’ve sued him whenever we got a chance. Or should we have?

Look, don’t get us wrong. House, M.D. was a problematic show, especially if you view it through the 2024 lenses. House was rude, he had a terrible bedside manner, and he sometimes tended to go a little bit overboard with the patients who didn’t deserve it. That is all true.

But the man got results. Real, tangible results and diagnoses, saving lives in the process. He got the job done, even if he was terrible at being patient, coexisting with other human beings, or having professional integrity when it came to his colleagues.

But look at it from this point of view: when you talked to one, two, four, six doctors, and they all tell you there’s nothing wrong with you, but you know for sure there is because it hurts like hell, well, wouldn’t you just be happy that there is one doctor that takes your complaints seriously?

A “diagnosis”—it’s such a simple word, but it would make so many people happy if they actually got one. But the reality is often different: doctor after doctor after doctor turn you away, until you come across Gregory House who is an asshole but he gives a damn and thinks everybody else but himself are idiots.

Wouldn’t that make you want to thank the man instead of suing him?

House, of course, got sued on the show, and multiple times, at that; it is America, after all. There was a special budget fund allocated just to be spent on all medical malpractice lawsuits that got thrown back in House’s face. But they all failed, apparently; he worked at the hospital, he treated patients, and he still thought he was smarter than everybody else (well, up until the last episode).

House was basically indestructible, irreplaceable, and invaluable. Cuddy made up the Department of Diagnostic Medicine just so she could keep him there, a liability and a danger to the hospital’s funding and reputation.

We might get where people who think it’s all medical malpractice are coming from. After all, House mocked his patients, made them do things they didn’t want (only for them to realize that this is what they wanted all along; it is a bit icky), and was not a good person to be around.

We think that he might have been suspended if the show’d taken place in 2024; after all, too much has changed since 2005.