Initial symptoms: Girl with swollen ankles + hands + collapse Diagnosis:Vibrio vulnificus infection from oysters (House) + hemochromatosis (House)
Contributions by team: House (4): Realizes patient had low blood potassium, deduces patient was lying, diagnosis for food poisoning, diagnosis for hemochromatosis Chase (0) Cameron (2): Idea to test food, suggests patient's illness is caused by a toxin Foreman (3): Says food may have caused illness, realizes patient has brain damage causing her to lie, sees on scan that patient isn't telling truth during truth serum test Taub (N/A): Not in episode Thirteen (N/A): Not in episode
Notes: I'm assuming House was correct about the patient's blood potassium levels being low the night before. House is awarded a point for deducing that the patient was lying because that's how the team learned she had eaten oysters. At that point they didn't need further information to make their diagnosis, so further attempts to learn what happened the night before don't earn points. Cameron loses a point for giving the patient vitamin supplements for the bulemia she didn't have, dosing her with iron that proved to be causing her illness. Again the medicine didn't make much sense, I'm afraid, plus this is the third time they've used hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis really does make people more vulnerable to this type of infection, however.
Initial symptoms: Man with family history of premature death by cardiac arrest Diagnosis: Cerebral aneurysm (House)
Contributions by team: House (1): Diagnosis for berry aneurysm Cameron (0) Chase (0) Foreman (0) Taub (N/A): Not in episode Thirteen (N/A): Not in episode
Notes: House receives an error for sending the patient home without a diagnosis, or rather with a fake diagnosis. The emergency technicians are responsible for wrongfully pronouncing the patient dead, Foreman and House do not receive an error. Cameron receives an error for ignoring the patient's complaint of jaw pain. Not only was it a symptom, but jaw pain can indicate a heart attack - exactly what this patient was in danger of having. The medicine was pretty shaky. Why didn't they test for Wilson's disease, instead of treating for it?
Initial symptoms: Man coughing blood Diagnosis: Blastomycosis (Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (0) Cameron (0) Chase (1): Observes hemorrhage in patient's eye Foreman (1): Diagnosis for blastomycosis Taub (N/A): Not in episode Thirteen (N/A): Not part of differential
Notes: The original team is back together, with Foreman heading the department and House participating in an unofficial capacity. Thirteen and Taub are no longer on the team, but I'm assuming they'll be back. It will never be known for certain but the characters seemed to assume that Foreman's diagnosis was the correct one, so I'm awarding it to him. Foreman does not lose a point for not sticking to his diagnosis. I considered it, but it was the kind of judgment call the team makes all the time. I also considered docking Cameron a point for lying about the patient's mental state to his aide, but didn't because it's impossible to know how wrong she was and it didn't really affect his treatment. Chase loses a point for murdering the patient. He should lose ALL points but I'll stick to just one.
6.05 Instant Karma
Initial symptoms: Boy with abominal pain + fever + weight loss + dehydration Diagnosis: Primary antiphospholipid syndrome (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for primary antiphospholipid syndrome Cameron (2): sees patient has fecal impaction, notices rash Chase (0) Foreman (1): spots irregularity on heat CT Taub (N/A): Not in episode Thirteen (N/A): Not part of differential
Notes: I'm assuming that what Foreman saw on the head CT was real and a symptom, but I could be wrong.
I regret that without transcripts I don't feel I can come up with an accurate tally of points, so I'm going to just count actual diagnoses.
In season five the team consisted of House, Foreman, Kutner, Taub and Thirteen. Kutner left the show after episode 19. Chase and Cameron participated occasionally.
There were 24 episodes, and a total of 28 patients. Three of these patients died and 25 were saved, giving House's patients a survival rate of 89%. There were two patients in Not Cancer, Joy, Emancipation, and Simple Explanation. One patient died in Not Cancer and one in Simple Explanation because their illnesses were not diagnosed in time, as did the patient in Joy to the World. One of the patients in Emancipation was treated and diagnosed by Foreman alone, with assistance from Chase and Cameron.
Cuddy diagnosed the doomed patient in Joy to the World, and Wilson was given co-credit for the diagnosis in Birthmarks. The patient in the season finale Both Sides Now was diagnosed by his own girlfriend. Cameron had two diagnoses of her own, one in Last Resort and one in Simple Explanation, which is very good considering she's no longer on House's team!
Thirteen lead the Housepets with three diagnoses (in Emancipation, Joy to the World and Painless). Foreman had two diagnoses, in Emancipation and The Softer Side. Kutner had the epiphany moment in his final episode Locked In and Taub had the diagnosis in House Divided (if I'm remembering the episode correctly).
House outdiagnosed them all with 23 diagnoses (remember that many episodes have more than one diagnosis). I haven't done an analysis but I believe he's getting the diagnosis much more often than he did in seasons 1 or 2. I doubt this is deliberate on behalf of the writers.
In five seasons, House and his team(s) have diagnosed 124 patients. Of those, 107 were saved. That's an overall survival rate of 86%.
The season premiere, which counted as episodes 6.01 and 6.02, is not included here.
Initial Symptoms: Man with burning pain in hands Diagnosis: Fabry's disease (Foreman + House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for Fabry's disease Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Diagnosis for Fabry's disease Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: Foreman, Thirteen and Taub were on their own this episode, and Taub quit toward the end. Foreman and House came up with the diagnosis independently of each other, so both receive credit.
I'm back! Again, without transcripts these summaries are brief. I'll post a season summary later but given the sketchiness of my reviews without transcripts, my results will not be as precise as I'd like.
5.17 The Social Contract
Initial Symptoms: Man with frontal lobe disinhibition + nosebleed Diagnosis: Doege-Potter Syndrome (House) + autoimmune reaction to tumor (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for Doege-Potter Syndrome, diagnosis for autoimmune reaction Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (2): Sees patient's kidneys are failing, orders full body scan Kutner (0): None Taub (1): Suggests diabetes Thirteen (0): None
Notes: The team saw the fibroma on the patient's full body scan, but misdiagnosed it as a lung cyst. Taub gets a point for suggesting diabetes because the glucose tolerance test House ordered based on Taub's suggestion provided a vital clue. Doege-Potter Syndrome causes hypoglycemia.
5.18 Here Kitty
Initial Symptoms: Woman with bronchospasm Diagnosis: Carcinoid tumour in appendix (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Sees patient's rash, diagnosis for carcinoid tumour Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Kutner (1): Sees spider veins on patient's back Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: "Death cat" was based on a true story. The patient faked an illness to get to see House. I'm only counting what happened after they determined she really was ill, but it's worth noting that Taub deduced she'd faked her symptoms with methylene blue. I don't know what caused the brown urine in the end. Also, why didn't they notice at the beginning that the patient's temperature was elevated?
5.19 Locked In
Initial Symptoms: Man with locked in syndrome Diagnosis: Leptospirosis (Kutner)
Contributions by Team House (2): Sees patient isn't brain dead, realizes patient has liver failure Cameron (0) Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Kutner (1): Diagnosis for leptospirosis Taub (1): Idea for brain-computer interface Thirteen (2): Observes patient has bloody urine, diagnoses ulcerative keratitis.
Notes: Diagnosis was complicated because the patient couldn't speak. The infection caused liver failure, which caused the locked in syndrome. The medical reviewer at Polite Dissent noted this didn't make much sense. Notice that the patient's original doctor thought the locked in syndrome was caused by an infection. Cameron suggested that the team perform a lumbar puncture, but they were unable to complete because the patient went into cardiac arrest. I'm not sure if the lumbar puncture would have helped to diagnose leptospirosis, so I'm not awarding a point for it.
5.20 Simple Explanation
There was only supposed to be one patient this week, but instead there were two. Patient A was Eddie, dying of heart failure supposedly caused by lung cancer, and patient B was his wife who was the team's original patient.
Case A
Initial Symptoms: Man diagnosed with terminal lung cancer Diagnosis: Blastomycosis (Cameron)
Contributions by Team House (1): Confirmed Cameron's diagnosis Cameron (1): Diagnosis for blastomycosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Taub (1): Observes that patients' heath were connected and used this to help them Thirteen (0): None
Contributions by Team House (3): Realizes patient is faking symptoms, observes muscle atrophy in left leg, diagnosis for visceral leishmaniasis Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (1): Notices scarring on liver Foreman (0): None Taub (1): Sees patient has an infection Thirteen (0): None
Notes: Cameron observed nodules on Eddie's fingers and told House that he may not have lung cancer. House investigated and determined that Cameron was correct, Eddie had a fungal infection. Cameron was awarded the Diagnosis because although she didn't identify the disease, she was the only one who recognized the patient was incorrectly diagnosed. Without her he would have died. Nice going, Eddie's original doctors. Charlotte, patient B, died because her infection was diagnosed too late. RIP Kutner, who committed suicide at the beginning of the episode.
5.21 Saviours
Initial Symptoms: Man unable to stand Diagnosis: Sporotrichosis (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Sees swelling on patient's neck is crepitus, diagnosis for sporotrichosis Cameron (1): Sees patient's chronic hiccups are a symptom Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (2): Observes swelling on patient's neck, rules out bone cancer with bone biopsy Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None Notes: Cameron fully participated in the differential diagnosis and patient treatment.
5.22 House Divided
Initial Symptoms: Deaf boy with exploding head syndrome Diagnosis: Sarcoidosis (Taub)
Contributions by Team House (3): Discovers patient has neuropathy, idea to compare past and present brain MRIs, realizes patient has arrhythmia Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (1): Sees nerve inflammation during brain biopsy Foreman (1): Diagnosis for sarcoidosis Taub (1): Diagnosis for sarcoidosis Thirteen (0): None
Notes: House and Chase both lose points for installing a cochlear implant in the patient without consent: House for doing it, and Chase for falling for House's lies. I may be remembering wrong but I think that Taub was the first to suggest sarcoidosis. Foreman later realized that the patient's chewing tobacco habit suppressed his immune system, hiding the symptoms. I'm therefore awarding Taub credit for the Diagnosis and Foreman credit for realizing Taub was right.
5.23 Under My Skin
Initial Symptoms: Woman with collapsed lungs Diagnosis: Gonorrhea (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for gonorrhea, diagnosis for toxic epidermal necrolysis, idea to stop heart to obtain MRI image Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Spots heart abscess on MRI Taub (1): Idea to use vasodilators to save patient's hands and feet Thirteen (0): None
Notes: Whose idea was it to give the patient dopamine to stabilize her so that Chase could remove the abscess? Did they say? That person gets a point.
5.24 Both Sides Now
Initial Symptoms: Man with alien hand syndrome + bloody tears + loss of sense of taste Diagnosis: Propylene glycol poisoning Contributions by Team House (2): Observes that patient has liver failure, realizes source of blood clots Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Suggests blood clotting issue Taub (1): Realizes the patient has propylene glycol poisoning Thirteen (1): Observes splinter hemorrhages underneath patient's fingernails
Notes: There's just no way around it, the patient's girlfriend diagnosed him. House's team can't claim credit for it. She suggested to Thirteen and Taub that his deodorant was causing the problem, and their research confirmed which ingredient was the culprit. I've awarded a point to Taub because it appeared that he was the one to narrow it down to propylene glycol, but it's possible he was taking the credit for Thirteen's discovery. Wilson counseled the patient on how to handle his alien hand, and he seemed to be correct: after hearing his advice, the patient's hand never acted up again.
Initial Symptoms: Man with chronic pain Diagnosis: Epilepsy (Thirteen)
Contributions by Team House (4): Realizes patient has attempted suicide by blowing air into his IV, idea for spinal block procedure, realizes patient drank rubbing alcohol in suicide attempt, diagnosis for epilepsy Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Orders CT test which finds intestinal edema + air in blood vessels Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (2): Diagnosis for pulmonary embolism, suggests non-motor seizures
Notes: I'm fuzzy on this, but I believe that what Thirteen was suggesting when she said "non-motor seizures" is what House eventually diagnosed him with. Therefore, Thirteen gets the credit. The patient attempted suicide twice in the hospital. These were not considered diagnoses unto themselves, but House received credit for deducing the attempts.
Contributions by Team House (2): Orders bleeding test, diagnosis for PDA Cameron (0): None Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Kutner (1): Finds pleural effusions with ERCP test Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: Cameron loses a point for allowing House to cut off the top of the patient's head. (There's a sentence I never thought I would type.)
5.14 The Greater Good
Initial Symptoms: Woman with spontaneous pneumothorax + history of uterine myoma Diagnosis: Endometriosis (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for endometriosis Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Spots something on MRI (I'm not sure what it really was, he thought it was a granuloma) Kutner (1): Spots increased interstisal markings on CT Taub (1): Sees patient is bleeding into her abdominal cavity Thirteen (0): None
Notes: The liver failure was never explained. Was it because she was bleeding from her hepatic artery? The part about the patient scratching through her skull may have been taken from this story. Foreman and Thirteen didn't contribute much to the differential because they had their own drama going on.
5.15 Unfaithful
Initial Symptom: Man with hallucination Diagnosis: Alcoholism (House) + Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for alcohol abuse, diagnosis for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Cameron (1): Diagnoses alcohol abuse Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Kutner (0): None Taub (2): Finds patient has pneumocystis (indicative of compromised immune system), suggests hyper IgE syndrome (genetic immune disorder) Thirteen (0): None
Notes: The patient enters the ER with a hallucination, which Cameron attributes to alcohol abuse. House brings the case to the team as a "fake", which everyone quickly figures out. The patient ends up getting sick for real (his toe falls off), and the hallucination is considered the first symptom. House finally diagnoses the patient by attributing the hallucination to alcohol. Therefore House is credited with diagnosing the patient, but Cameron receives a point too.
5.16 The Softer Side
Initial Symptoms: Child with genetic mosaicism + severe abdominal pain Diagnosis: Dehydration (Foreman) + kidney damage (House) + poisoning from MRI contrast (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Realizes patient's kidneys are damaged from energy drinks, diagnosis for dye poisoning Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Diagnosis for dehydration Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (2): Sees patient is in cardiac tamponade, notices patient's palms are red indicating kidney damage
Notes: It's confusing but I'm attributing the patient's initial symptom, abdominal pain, to dehydration + kidney damage from energy drinks (and seriously, how much of that stuff was he drinking?) and his subsequent symptoms to poisoning from the MRI contrast. Unlike House himself, I'm not docking him a point for giving the patient the MRI which caused his illness. I don't remember if Chase was the surgeon who found the gastric fistula caused by necrotizing pancreatitis. He gets a point if it was. Thirteen loses a point for telling the parents that their son was suicidal when he wasn't and for giving the patient the truth about his condition. I'm docking her this point because it caused a rift between a seriously ill child and his parents, right when he most needed to trust them. House was absent for part of the case.
I know I haven't updated in a while, but I am catching up. I will complete season 5 and am also considering adding a list of diseases discussed on the show. As I discussed in my previous post, my reviews here have suffered because I no longer have transcripts to go by. I will continue to post my abbreviated versions. This is complicated by the fact that I waited so long to write them that I'm having trouble remembering what happened!
5.07 The Itch
Initial Symptoms: Man with agoraphobia + headache + seizures Diagnosis: Lead poisoning from bullets left inside patient after a shooting (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Realizes patient's bowel is obstructed, diagnosis for lead poisoning Cameron (2): Persuades patient to allow team to keep treating him, observes flattened villi in bowel Chase (0): None Foreman (1): Idea to perform EEG to diagnose cause of seizures Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: The team was limited while diagnosing and treating this patient, as he refused to leave his home. Removing the bullet fragments without anaesthesia was brutal even by House's own standards. I'm assuming the partial bowel obstruction was also caused by the lead poisoning. House spent a lot of the episode trying to force the patient to go to the hospital against his wishes. I'm calling this a value judgment and therefore am not awarding or deducting points around this issue. Taub loses a point for igniting the patient's intestinal gas during the surgery, but that may be excusable given the circumstances under which he performed the surgery.
5.08 Emancipation
There were two cases for the Housepets this week. Foreman diagnosed a clinic patient with help from Chase and Cameron.
Case A Initial Symptoms: Girl with pulmonary edema Diagnosis: Arsenic poisoning (House) + acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) (Thirteen)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for arsenic poisoning, gets patient to admit truth and contact her family Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (1): Notices blood in patient's urine Kutner (1): Observes on fMRI that patient is lying about her family Taub (0): None Thirteen (1): Diagnosis for APL
Notes: I'm assuming that the arsenic poisoning was contributing to her symptoms, or that it would have made her sick if she hadn't also had APL (which is treated with arsenic). From the patient's fMRI Kutner deduces that the patient is lying about her parents, and House later figures out that she's lying from guilt and persuades her to contact her family. Because the patient is a minor and (according to the show) would need a bone marrow transplant to save her life, I'm awarding points for this.
Case B Initial Symptoms: Boy with lethargy, diarrhea, bloody vomiting Diagnosis: Iron toxicity from too many vitamins (Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (N/A): Refuses to participate in diagnosis Cameron (0): None Chase (1): Suggests patient is being poisoned by his mother or brother Foreman (1): Diagnosis for iron toxicity Kutner (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Taub (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Thirteen (N/A): Not part of diagnosis
Notes: I'm going to brag here: I called the patient's brother poisoning him long before Foreman figured it out. But then I think most of the audience did.
5.09 Last Resort
Initial Symptoms: Man with lack of breath, fatigue, headaches, stomach aches, skin rashes, heart palpitations, insomnia Diagnosis: Melioidosis (Cameron)
Contributions by Team House (4): Observes patient has low lung volume, diagnoses seventh-nerve palsy, observes patient is sweating on just one side of his face, diagnoses patient with low calcium (Chvostek's sign) Cameron (2): Suggests patient's medications have been protecting his kidneys, diagnosis for melioidosis Chase (N/A): Refuses to participate in diagnosis Foreman (1): Suggests chronic lung infection Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (2): Observes patient has high heart rate, suggests chemical cardioversion to restore heart rate
Notes: Diagnosis was complicated by the patient, you know, holding House and Thirteen hostage. The medicine was confusing. If the writers can't keep it straight, don't expect me to; I'm just doing the best I can. Since chronis melioidosis can affect the brain, I'm assuming here that the patient's palsy and anhidrosis (sweating on one side of his face) were symptoms.
5.10 Let Them Eat Cake
Initial Symptoms: Woman with difficultly breathing Diagnosis: Hereditary coproporphyria (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for hereditary coproporphyria Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Foreman (0): None Kutner (0): None Taub (1): Sees problem has spread to the patient's muscles Thirteen (0): None
Notes: Either Kutner or Taub noticed that the patient had lost sensation in her foot, but I don't remember which.
5.11 Joy to the World
Initial Symptoms: Girl with hallucinations, vomiting, liver failure Diagnosis: Eclampsia (Cuddy) + poisoning with hallucinogenic mushroom (Thirteen)
Contributions by Team House (2): Notices high alkaline phosphate levels in patient's blood, stops Wilson and Cuddy from putting patient on chemotherapy Cameron (N/A): Not part of diagnosis Chase (1): Gets students to admit to poisoning patient Foreman (0): None Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (1): Diagnosis for hallucinogen poisoning
Notes: Yay, Cuddy got the diagnosis! She also found the patient's abandoned baby.
I haven't been posting my analyses for Season 5 for two reasons. First, I haven't been able to find transcripts. Second, the medicine has gotten so confusing that sometimes I'm not even sure what the final diagnosis is. Here is a breakdown of diagnoses for the first six episodes of Season 5, but this doesn't include points. Sorry. I hope I can go back to analysis one day, but in the meantime I'm grateful to Scott at Polite Dissent for posting medical reviews of the show. What follows is pretty much cribbed from him, and the Fox recaps.
Notes: How could the team have missed the ectopic pregnancy? Kutner should lose a point for that. Foreman should lose a point for giving the patient chemotherapy which would have killed her if House hadn't diagnosed her infection in time. Someone suggested she had an infection picked up while traveling, which was the case.
5.02 Not Cancer Initial symptoms: Two patients who received organs from the same donor. Four other patients who received organs from this donor had died. Diagnosis: Cancer stem cells from the donor (House)
Notes: The team was trying to save two patients. One died before the diagnosis was made, and one was saved. I couldn't make any sense at all out of Kutner's intestinal perforation theory, and neither could the physician who writes the medical reviews. At the beginning they said no blood is transmitted in a corneal transplant, so how did the cornea transplant receipient get the donor's cancer cells in her brain?
5.03 Adverse Events Initial Symptoms: Man with visual agnosia Diagnosis: Experimental drug interactions (House) + bezoar (House)
Notes: House deduced that the patient was in different experimental drug trials. I think he also figured out that the patient had a bezoar but I don't remember. Taub earns a point for confirming from the patient's old paintings that the patient's symptoms are caused by drug interactions.
5.04 Birthmarks Initial Symptoms: Woman with abdominal pain + vomiting blood Diagnosis: Pins in patient's brain (House + Wilson)
Notes: I'm attributing the final diagnosis to both House and Wilson because House's diagnosis followed from Wilson's realization that the patient's parents tried to kill her when she was born. I'm really uncertain about what caused the patient's symptoms here. At first House suggested that she had iron overload, but in the end it was all attributed to the pins in her brain. Was it one or the other? Or both? I think we're supposed to believe it was just the pins, that's how the Fox recap reads, but that shouldn't have caused all those symptoms.
5.05 Lucky Thirteen Initial Symptoms: Woman with tonic clonic seizure, severe fatigue, history of retinal vein occlusion Diagnosis: Sjogren's Syndrome (House)
Notes: I really had a problem with House's behaviour this episode. I thought he was torturing the patient for fun. Why would the lung cysts have smooth muscle cells in them?
5.06 Joy Initial Symptoms: Man with blackouts + hallucinations Diagnosis: Familial Mediterranean Fever (House)
Notes: House deduced that the patient's daughter suffered the same illness as he did, so this case counts as two patients. The symptoms don't match the diagnosis at all. Cuddy met with a woman whose unborn baby she wanted to adopt. With Cameron's help she ended up diagnosing the unborn baby with underdeveloped lungs and the mother with placental abruption. This isn't part of the analysis because it wasn't House's team working on the case, but still worthy of note.
Thanks to the writers' strike there were only 16 episodes this season, half of which were dedicated to House's Survivor game. The second half of the season featured House's final motley team of three new Housepets, Hadley (Thirteen) the internist, the Kutner the rehabilitative and sports medicine specialist, and Taub the plastic surgeon. Foreman the neurologist rejoined the team as well and Chase and Cameron remained on the sidelines in Surgery and Emergency Medicine respectively, contributing only rarely. House was away treating his own patient in Whatever It Takes, and Foreman diagnosed a patient in another hospital in 97 Seconds. These two cases were not covered here, and except for them there was one patient per episode.
Patients treated: 16 Lives saved: 14 The patient in Wilson's Heart died because her body was too damaged to survive, and the patient in 97 Seconds died because competition between the fellowship contestants interfered with his care.
My conclusions: After four seasons, 96 patients have been treated by House and his pets and 82 lives were saved by them. The new team started off better than the originals did, because they had to. After the first season they're all pretty equal to each other. Taub has less overall points, but he also gets less focus than the other characters.
Contributions by Team House (5): Idea to search apartment for toxins, idea for deep brain stimulation to retrieve memory, notices influenza rash, diagnosis for amantadine poisoning, knows that dialysis won't clear drug from blood Cameron (N/A): Not in episode Chase (1): Sees jaundice Foreman (0): None Kutner (1): Stops Thirteen from connecting wrong tube on patient Taub (1): Suggests a toxin (lead, drugs) is causing heart trouble, diagnosis for influenza Thirteen (0): None
Notes: This was a very hard episode to assign points for. I stuck to my method of working backwards from the correct diagnosis, which meant discarding a lot of things that would otherwise have counted for points or errors. The telling point here is that nothing would have saved the patient (Amber Volakis), so everything they did to her that could have potentially harmed her was irrelevant. I'm also calling influenza a separate diagnosis, although it didn't cause her fatal condition that they were diagnosing, because 1) it did cause at least one symptom and 2) knowing that she had the flu may have led them deduce that she had taken drugs for it and led them to the amantadine poisoning diagnosis without House's memory of seeing her taking the pills. Wilson persuaded House to induce hypothermia and put Amber on bypass to avoid sending chemicals from her damaged heart to her brain. Everyone but House and Wilson acts as if this was a bad idea, so I'll assume it was. Again it didn't matter in the end, so no points were awarded or subtracted for it. House and Foreman wanted to treat Amber for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever before confirming the diagnosis, but Wilson prevented them from doing so. Foreman acts as if this is bad medicine, but it makes sense to this layperson. On Foreman's suggestion he and Cuddy later warm Amber up, but as Wilson feared the chemicals produced from her damaged heart do affect her brain. If Wilson hadn't stopped them then perhaps she would have suffered brain damage. For this reason I'm awarding Foreman an error for it, even if technically it would have been inducing brain damage in a dead woman. Taub suggested "infection" but her influenza was not what caused her symptoms, so no points were awarded. Taub does get credit for a diagnosis for declaring her rash a symptom of influenza, however, as House later remembered that she did indeed have it. I'm assuming that the flu pills which killed Amber was not in her apartment to find, that the only ones she had were on her and lost in the bus crash, so Kutner and Thirteen lose no points for not finding them in the apartment. I'm still awarding House a point for suggesting they search there, however. Thirteen almost connected a wrong tube on the patient, but Kutner stopped her. Thirteen doesn't lose a point because she didn't actually hurt the patient, but I'm giving Kutner a point. House asks everyone what the significance of sherry could be in his dream, and Kutner suggests it may stand for Sharrie's Bar. I considered awarding a point to Kutner but didn't, as the information gained didn't really advance the case and it wasn't exactly a medical suggestion anyway. House has an idea to regain his memory by using deep brain stimulation. Cuddy rejects this by saying it's too dangerous, but Wilson later persuades him to do it. It's through the procedure that House remembers Amber taking amandatine and makes the diagnosis. Cuddy, however, turns out to be right about the procedure being dangerous.
This review is a partial one only, and will be completed when/if a transcript becomes available.
Initial Symptoms: Man with injuries from traffic accident + leg paralysis Diagnosis: Air embolism (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for air embolism, idea for removing it Cameron (0): None Chase (0): None Foreman (0): None Kutner (0): None Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: House begins the episode convinced that one of the passengers on a crashed bus is ill, and that person appears to be the bus driver. House diagnoses him only to realize that he's not the patient he was looking for. This review focuses on the bus driver's case, the medicine of which I found confusing but I did the best I could here. Kudos to Thirteen (now given a name: Hadley) for performing the procedure on the patient, but I honestly can't remember the circumstances on how she came to be the only person in the room to do it. For now she won't receive a point, but this may change when I see the episode again. To find the ill passenger, who is revealed to be Amber at the end, House has Chase hypnotize him. When Amber appears in House's hypnotic vision, however, Chase tells House to ignore her and therefore prevents House from realizing the truth. If I were awarding points for this part of the diagnosis Chase would get a point for knowing how to perform hypnosis (is there anything Chase can't do this season?) but would lose one for influencing House's recall during the procedure. While I laughed out loud when Cuddy told House to go home and rest after discovering his skull was fractured and when Foreman the neurologist told Kutner to forget House's condition, again those aren't part of the differential here.
Initial Symptoms: Man with loss of peripheral vision Diagnosis: Allergic vasculitis (House) + allergy to quinine (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Notices patient has peripheral vision loss, sees patient is delirious, diagnosis for allergic vasculitis, diagnosis for allergy to quinine Cameron (1): Idea to test thyroid with iodine uptake test Chase (N/A): Not part of differential Foreman (1): Notices patient is using his fingers in an odd way Kutner (1): Sees that patient's kidneys aren't filtering iodine Taub (0): None Thirteen (0): None
Notes: I'm calling the vasculitis and the allergy two different diagnoses, because it was possible to diagnose one without diagnosing the other, so House gets credit for both. I'm assuming that Foreman's suggestion about the patient having a neurological problem based on how he was holding his stethoscope was correct, since he did have other neurological symptoms. Cameron makes suggestions for testing the patient for nerve entrapment when his foot becomes numb, and for testing his thyroid when Graves Diseases is suspected. By my method of working backwards from the correct diagnosis, these ideas would usually not receive credit. Cameron's idea for the iodine uptake test prevented House from destroying the patient's healthy thyroid, however, so I'm giving her credit for it.
Hello! I'm a simple fan who became interested in the professional dynamics of House's team. I'm not a fan of any particular Housepet, as I call them, so my reviews are as unbiased as I could make them. This was a surprisingly subjective task, however, so feel free to politely disagree with me.
Quotations, etc. Copyright Heel & Toe Productions, Bad Hat Harry Productions, et al.
Pictures from the show copyright Fox Broadcasting Corporation Questions, Comments (remember we are not related to the show): bewarne@housemd-guide.com
