Heavy (House episode)

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House episode
"Heavy"

Episode no.	HOU-116
Airdate	March 29, 2005
Writer(s)	Thomas L. Moran
Director(s)	Fred Gerber
House Season 1 November 2004 - May 2005
Pilot Paternity Occam's Razor Maternity Damned If You Do The Socratic Method Fidelity Poison DNR Histories Detox Sports Medicine Cursed Control Mob Rules Heavy Role Model Babies & Bathwater Kids Love Hurts Three Stories Honeymoon
All House episodes

Heavy is the sixteenth episode of the first season of House, which premiered on the FOX network on March 29, 2005. A 10 year old obese girl is admitted after suffering a heart attack during gym class at school. House and the team attempt to solve the case while Vogler continues to pressure House to fire a member of his staff.

[edit] Synopsis

A 10-year old girl, Jessica, is at home and not feeling well as she's going off to school. That day while exercising she complains of chest pains and collapses. As House is forced to decide which of his staff members he will fire, Jessica's case is referred to him and he's intrigued. They begun to run tests as House drops the news to his staff, and Jessica's mother disputes that Jessica's weight is the issue. Meanwhile House meets with an overweight woman, Lucille, suffering from heartburn who refuses to believe she's pregnant despite House's claims.

Jessica begins to turn irrational during testing as she apparently becomes hypoglycemic and the doctors are forced to sedate her. The lab tests prove negative for hypoglycemia and they suspect she may be taking diet pills. Meanwhile Vogler starts playing a few games of his own with House's staff to find out what they're thinking. And it turns out Lucille has a benign 30 lb. tumor but she refuses surgery believing it will make her ugly to her husband. Forman investigates Jessica's background and finds she has no friends but was apparently taking diet pills. Jessica admits she was taking the pills and they conclude they're responsible, but then Jessica starts bleeding from necrosis on her chest.

House suspects she's reacting to a drug and all but accuses Cameron and Chase of giving Jessica the wrong drug. That sets off another round of in-fighting and Vogler shoots down House's idea to keep everyone and cut the staff's pay. Lucille's husband expresses his concern and wants House to lie to her that it's cancer so she'll undergo surgery. Jessica's necrosis is spreading and they recommend amputation of the breasts – a radical mastectomy. They plan to wait as long as possible but otherwise have no choice.

House confronts Lucille, and he's deduced she's sleeping with other men – thus her reluctance to undergo the surgery. Chase meets with Vogler who points out how precarious Chase's position is if he finds someone else to feed him info on House. As they prepare Jessica for surgery, House deduces that her obesity is a symptom – along with her height (shorter then her parents), he concludes it's Cushing's, which causes hyper-cortisone levels that account for her symptoms. They use a MRI to locate the hyper-cortisonism. They find a tumor on the pituitary gland that accounts for the symptoms. Using surgery, they successfully remove Jessica's tumor and she starts losing weight.

House goes to Vogler with his decision – he's firing Chase. However, Vogler refuses to let him fire Chase and tells him to pick someone else . . . or it'll be the whole department that is fired. We're left with Cameron writing up her resume and everyone pondering the situation.