House

I was flipping through channels one afternoon and stumbled upon an episode of Fox's House.  This is a medical show about a very arrogant doctor.  Each episode they highlight a specific patient's journey through a serious illness.  This episode highlights the case of a piano-playing savant played by Dave Matthews.  The character originally became a savant because of a car accident, and later in his life began to have seizures.  As it turned out, half of the patient's brain was dead.  The patient's father had a choice to remove half of the brain or keep it.  If the doctors removed the dead half of the brain then the patient would gain brain productivity btu lose the ability to plat the piano.  If they did not operate, the patient could continue to play the piano, but he would live with a life of seizures. At the end the father decided to get the operation and it was immediately apparent that the patient gained brain function because of it.


I took a few things from this episode.  First of all, I thought that it was interesting to see disability viewed in a medical way. I also noticed the difference between how parents view their children and how the rest of the world does.