"House knows how to astonish: He makes mistakes, grinds his teeth, but he knows how to recognize what is human when he sees it."
"This is the important point, often overlooked in medical practice: amazement at the mysterious humanity of the patient."
"House," Bellieni remarked, "lets the little girl with a tumor hug him, whose life he prolonged by one year, and impressed with the moral strength of the little girl he begins to change his way of life."
"In the same way," he continued, "he is amazed by the little hand of the fetus as it comes out of the womb during surgery and grasps his finger. For the rest of the day he continued to look at his finger, asking himself who is that life that no one considers human, maybe not even himself, but that touched him.
"His amazement is the foundation of his curative ability."
"House never seems to be there for his patients," concluded Bellieni. "He is not a good doctor, he is full of pain; but he is rich with a meaningful question, which does not lead him to despair.
"For this reason he is impressive, in an age in which nothing seems to have value except one's own whims, especially in medicine."
The whole thing is interesting. I have heard similar enthusiasm from a priest friend for Prison Break, which he contends must have a Catholic writer.
