Establishing shot of the hospital, as an EMT's voice tells us that the mother is thirty-eight and that, following her respiratory arrest, she was intubated and fully oxygenated. In the lobby, Friedman paces back and forth in front of someone whose face is hidden by a newspaper. The noise of all the steps causes the someone to drop the paper in annoyance. It's House, though, so he could just be jealous of Friedman's ability to reverse direction so quickly. Friedman asks House whether it's a good hospital. House, rather politely for him, says he likes the chairs. They do look pretty comfortable, but that could be because I and my oversized laptop are currently stuffed into an area small enough to make Gary Coleman a little claustrophobic. A doctor emerges, and Friedman rushes over to him to ask if his mom's okay. We focus in on House in the foreground as the doctor tells Friedman that his mom had a small pulmonary embolism, broken off from a larger clot in her leg called a deep-vein thrombosis. Friedman busies himself writing this down in a small notebook as the doctor asks if his dad is there. Friedman says that his dad is running a little late, and then clarifies, "He's dead." As far as times to employ gallows humor, I'd say having your only living parent be a schizophrenic whom you're charged with taking care of is pretty far up the list.