No, as far as I know, Kal Penn is alive and well. Perhaps his movie career is driving him away from television? But I've really heard nothing about the reasons for writing him off the show and have no idea if this was at his request or not.

http://tinyurl.com/cxj4v7

Did anyone else get a "Gift of the Maji" feeling about this story? Each being willing to give up their most precious thing (their life) to save the other?

As always, the moral to the story is everybody lies. And lying to your doctor is idiotic. She could have confessed to one of the docs when she was in a separate room from her husband, that would have saved her life.