Human Error (House episode)

"Human Error" is the twenty-fourth episode and season finale of the third season of House and the seventieth episode overall.

A Cuban couple travels to the United States after much difficulty, almost drowning in the ocean, to see House. Esteban, the husband, hopes that House can save his wife Marina. Back in New Jersey, Foreman is days away from officially quitting. Wilson points out that House should try to convince Foreman to stay and knows that House is not good with change, and is still playing the same guitar he has had since eighth grade, that he drives a ten-year-old car, and that he has been living in the same apartment for 15 years.

House dismisses Chase's belief that Marina has an infection and House, along with Foreman, believes that it is cancer. Chase is angry that House is going along with whatever Foreman says (accusing House of a sloppy ploy to get Foreman to stay) and later confronts House in his office. Before he can say anything, House fires him. Despite disapproval from Cuddy, Wilson, Foreman, and Cameron, House refuses to reverse his decision.

After Esteban calls House's home many times, House comes into the hospital to see that Marina's pulse has stopped even though she talks and breathes without any difficulty. House has her cough to keep the blood flowing into her head and then they administer CPR rather than perform a bypass. Wilson believes human error on Foreman’s part caused the heart to fail. House polls several medical students, who cannot think of anything helpful. After three hours of CPR, Cuddy forces House to put Marina on bypass. A surgeon declares Marina dead after failed attempts to jump-start her heart, but does not call the time of death, so that the husband can say goodbye. House informs Esteban of his wife's death after Cuddy insists that he do so. Esteban goes to visit Marina one last time before they remove the machine maintaining her heart. The machines are off, but Esteban feels the heartbeat on her chest. Suddenly, Marina wakes up after being dead for a day. House suspects a congenital defect in an artery, orders another angiogram, and finds the cause: her heart has an unnecessary third ostium, which can be fixed with surgery.