Franklin Lipa

Franklin Lipa was Stevie Lipa's father in the Season 3 episode Needle in a Haystack. He is married to Judy Lipa. A member of the Roma community, he makes a living by buying and selling second-hand goods. 
Franklin is away on business when Stevie gets sick. When he finds Stevie in the hospital, he wants to modify the environment to bring in things from his home as he believes the hospital environment is not conducive to healing. He is antagonistic to Stevie's girlfriend Leah because she is not Roma. He is very defensive about his cultural identity, believing that most people still discriminate against the Roma.
As Stevie gets worse, the doctors want to try other treatments. However, Franklin refuses, feeling that the doctors only want to experiment on his son.
The antagonism between Franklin and House's team continues to grow and Franklin loses confidence in House and tries to get him thrown off the case. He refuses treatment and testing. However, when Stevie's symptoms point to his intestines, House uses subterfuge to distract the family so his team can perform a colonoscopy. He deliberately uses the racially charged term "gyp" in front of them. While he's arguing with them, Eric Foreman and Robert Chase do the colonoscopy and discover the cause of Stevie's symptoms.
Category:Males
Category:Characters
Category:Season 3