"Good Wife" on Oct. 9 shows suit against doctor-inventor; patent application critical to case

The plotline of Good Wife on 9 October 2011 involved an invention. One doctor Farland invented a spinal cord stimulator. He had a patient who needed such, but showed her a list of FDA approved products, which did not include his. The patient allowed the doctor to pick, thinking it would be one of the FDA approved products. The doctor picked his own invention. Patient ended up worse and sued. The problem was a lead migration of the device. [The states attorney decided not to bring fraud charges against Dr. Farland.] A new (SES) device which is only a minor modification of an old device does not need FDA approval. The device in question did not have FDA approval, and the attorneys for Dr. Farland argued the device was just like the others. Will says medicine is a lot like politics, follow the money. Will then hands the opposing lawyer a copy of a patent application by Dr. Farland, showing how Dr. Farland asserted to the originality of the device therein, counter to the assertion of "minor modification."

The second story is about an outbreak of listeria at schools which outbreak is allegedly due to tainted cheese. The show presents some rather gross images of kids barfing. At the cheese maker: "guintinary" ammonium is mentioned as a cleaning agent. The quality control guy at the cheese factory says his line was clean, but that schools tend to blend many cheeses. Eli to cheese maker CEO: where do you live, fairyland?

As a side point, Grace's weird science tutor is a physics student at the "UofC" (ie, the University of Chicago). The tutor was wearing a form of coveralls.

As one footnote, Velveeta had an ad on CBS right after the closing credits of this episode of The Good Wife. Did they know the contents of the show?