There were 24 episodes in season three, many with more than one patient. One Day, One Room was excluded to leave 23. House was not present for Airborne, and Chase was absent for most of Human Error.
Patients treated: 29 Lives saved: 26 There were two patients each in Meaning, Fools For Love, Half-Wit counting the patient whose records House stole, Fetal Position, Act Your Age, and Family. In Informed Consent and Que Sera Serathe patients died because their illnesses were incurable, and in House Training the team killed the patient by misdiagnosing her.
My conclusions: Over three seasons the Department of Diagnostic Medicine treated 80 patients and saved the lives of 68 of them. Everyone had more credits in the third season, which I think has more to do with me than with the show. Even taking that into account, all of the Housepets improved this season. Chase grew the most this season, developing his observational skills and making the same intuitive leaps that House does to come up with diagnoses. Both Cameron and Foreman contributed more to the diagnostic process, but Foreman's error rate increased. As in season two, Cameron and Foreman appear to be equal in their performance with Chase proving to be the best diagnostician of the three. It's not a large lead, but it is definitely there.
Initial Symptoms: Woman with fatigue + pain + kidney problems + double vision Diagnosis: Third ostium (extra hole between left and right sides of heart) (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Idea to separate husband's symptoms from wife's after they had been in a boat accident, idea to look at patient's heart, diagnosis for congenital heart defect Chase (1): Spots blood clot in humerus bone Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Chase was fired approximately one-quarter of the way into the episode.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with severe headache + violent behaviour Diagnosis: Hemochromatosis (Cameron)
Contributions by Team House (2): Notices patient's bones are malformed, realizes illness is hemochromatosis Chase (1): Identifies liver failure Cameron (3): Suggests pain in other parts of patient's body is a symptom, diagnosis for hemochromatosis, notices hypogonadism Foreman (1): Says personality is not a symptom
Notes: Cameron's suggestion of hemochromatosis was rejected by House because it didn't explain the patient's antisocial behaviour, which the team believed was a symptom. House came to the conclusion later by correctly judging that the patient's personality wasn't caused by his illness, for which he was given a credit. Foreman was correct that the patient had a partial HPRT (hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase) enzyme deficiency, but this did not affect him so Foreman receives no credit for it. Foreman received an error for ignoring the patient when he said he had pain in his fingers, which would later prove to be a crucial symptom, and Chase an error for wrongly telling the patient's mother that his illness caused his personality problems. I debated the last one, but in the end decided that it had to be counted. Like Cameron's failures to tell patients that they're dying, it's not part of the diagnostic process but is part of patient care.
Initial Symptoms: Woman coughing blood Diagnosis: Bridge between vein and artery in GI tract (House) + infection (House) + depression/suicide attempt (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for infection, diagnosis for suicide attempt, diagnosis for hole/bridge in GI tract Chase (1): Points out goose bumps as symptom Cameron (2): Suggests GI bleed, points out diarrhea as symptom Foreman (1): Identifies pleural effusion (says "pressure")
Notes: I'm assuming that the goose bumps and diarrhea were indeed symptoms.
The patient was a boy who needed to have his infection diagnosed and treated so he could donate bone marrow to his leukemia-stricken brother. While this analysis covers only one brother, in the final tally it counts as two patients.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with a sneeze + fever + enlarged spleen Diagnosis: Histoplasmosis (Wilson+Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (2): Idea to make patient sicker to diagnose him, idea to stop medication to figure out if it's infection that is suppressing bone marrow production Chase (1): Sees elevated enzymes, leading to discovery of a fibrous growth in mitral valve Cameron (0): None Foreman (4): Insists on continuing testing for infections, idea to check home for source of infection, diagnosis for histoplasmosis, idea to do bone marrow transplant anyway
Notes: Wilson realized the growth in the patient's mitral valve was fibrous; I'm not sure if this was caused by the fungal infection or not, but it was implied so for this diagnosis I assumed it was. Wilson pointed out that the patient's family shouldn't have a water pump in their backyard, leading Foreman to test for farm-related diseases. Therefore they shared the histoplasmosis diagnosis. The 4/6 bone marrow transplant didn't seem to buy the leukemia patient time for a proper diagnosis, but did almost kill him. Foreman received an error as a result. Foreman's idea to perform the bone marrow transplant after the diagnosis, while horrible in its execution, did save the life of the patient's brother after every other doctor had given up on him.
Initial Symptoms: Woman with abulia Diagnosis:Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis
Contributions by Team House (1): Post-mortem diagnosis for Staphylococcus heart infection Chase (1): Suggests infection Cameron (1): Suggests bubble study, which would have shown the correct diagnosis Foreman (1): Says TIA (transient ischemic attack) caused abulia
Notes: No diagnosis is awarded in this case because it came after the fatal radiation treatment. Both Foreman and House received errors for performing the radiation treatment, Foreman for advocating it and House for approving it. As House once said, mistakes are as serious as their consequences and in this case the team killed their patient.
The patient's brother suffered from the same illness, and his symptoms and eventual diagnosis are combined here with hers.
Initial Symptoms: Girl with restrictive pericarditis Diagnosis: Precocious puberty (Foreman) induced by contact with testosterone cream (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Idea to bleed patient to prevent blood clots, realizes the patient’s brother has the same illness, diagnosis for exposure to testosterone cream Chase (1): Notes hemocrits are elevated Cameron (1): Realizes problem is environmental Foreman (1): Diagnosis for precocious puberty
Notes: Foreman diagnosed the patient's condition by testing the blood on her clothing and finding that it was menstrual blood.
House and Cuddy were by themselves dealing with what appeared to be a meningitis epidemic on a plane. House diagnosed one patient with decompression sickness, better known as the bends, and multiple patients with mass hysteria (partially caused by Cuddy!). Back in Princeton Wilson lead the Housepets. This analysis will cover their patient only.
Contributions by Team House (N/A): House was not present for this case Chase (2): Realizes that the cat's lack of appetite was a symptom, diagnosis for methyl bromide poisoning Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Suggests checking the patient's home for an environmental cause
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for maternal mirror syndrome Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: House was correct about the patient having mitral valve stenosis, but it was not causing her symptoms and Camerons said it was so mild it would never have affected her at all. House doesn't get credit as a result.
Contributions by Team House (4): Idea to paralyse fetus and perform MRI, knows that three taps are necessary on bladder, diagnosis for CCAM, idea to operate on fetus Chase (1): Idea to operate on fetus Cameron (1): Sees that lungs aren't developing Foreman (1): Suggests that lungs are the problem
Notes: Cuddy also speeds up the fetal lung development with corticosteroids, and has the idea to perform a transjugular hepatic biopsy. Chase commented that surgery would be the last alternative to diagnose a real person, not intending to suggest that they operate on the fetus, and from there House proceeded to do exactly that. They were both awarded credit for the idea as a result.
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.
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