Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Degos Disease

Original story Speak Easy


'House' Season 6, Episode 4: TV Recap



Fox
Omar Epps as Foreman
In many ways, it was back to the same old “House” this week, with a mysterious illness, tangled interpersonal relationships, even a fleeting diagnosis of lupus–before House’s brilliance saved the day.
The medical mystery involved a billionaire dad with the Midas touch – everything he encountered turned to gold, except his family. “It’s karma,” he said. “First my wife, then my son.” We never did learn what happened to his wife, but it must have been bad. Now his son had a life-threatening illness, and he insisted that House figure out what’s wrong.
Cuddy told him House was unavailable, but ended up conceding that House could advise (read: continue to drive Foreman crazy.) There was the usual merry-go-round of possible diagnoses: impacted bowel due to weakened colon nerves (does that really mean constipation?) . . . no, brain cancer…  no, abdominal cancer … no, abdominal epilepsy, with severe malnutrition.. . no, wait, what are all those spots appearing right before the commercial?
Meanwhile, Chase and Foreman were preoccupied trying to figure out how to present President Dibala’s case at the upcoming M&M conference (that stands for Morbidity and Mortality, when the highly suspicious deaths are discussed).
You’ll recall from last week that the visiting African dictator, who was planning to murder half a million of his people once he was discharged from Princeton-Plainsboro, died of a rare misdiagnosis, which occurred after blood from a corpse in the morgue was – oddly enough – misplaced for his, leading the usually infallible doctors to think he had scleroderma, and give him the wrong treatment, which is what really killed him. That was Chase’s moralistic handiwork, but Foreman helped cover it up, and that put Foreman on the hot seat. They had covered their tracks …  except for a telltale 20% discrepancy between the corpse’s cholesterol and the dictator’s, and Cameron’s growing suspicions that her new husband is keeping something from her…
The third plot involved Thirteen’s departure –  from Princeton-Plainsboro and the U.S.  She was heading to Thailand, only to find her plane reservation cancelled. Was it Foreman desperately wanting her back, after firing her last week? Was it House, desperately needing her on the team? She decided it was Wilson, who conceded, “you’re the only one House hasn’t been able to suck into his crazy vortex.”
Back to the sick kid, whom the doctors decided had Degos’ disease (good thing I have a medical dictionary handy). It causes the micro blood vessels in the brain, skin and GI tract to break down, and causes papules on the penis. There’s no treatment. It’s incurable.
House: “I’m sorry. I wish there was something we could do.”
Dad:  “How long?”
House: “Not much longer.. a day at the most.”
The billionaire then took matters into his own hands and summoned his lawyers to get rid of his assets, reasoning that God will treat him better, and cure his son, if he’s broke. The suits told him he was insane, irrational, and will destroy his company and all those who depend on him. But he signed the papers and his son promptly flatlined, with the long beeeeeep of impending death, prompting the doctors to work furiously to bring him back..
Apparently Wilson hadn’t cancelled Thirteen’s plane reservation after all.  “Why don’t you just admit you like having her around?” he asked House.
“Because I was born with a heart three sizes too small,” House said.
Wait – that’s it! With five minutes left, House, as usual, got the inspiration he needed all along.
It was primary antiphospholipid syndrome – (an autoimmune disorder that causes blood clots in arteries and veins, according to Merck.)  Start the boy on heparin and prednisone and he’ll be fine, House said.
And so will Chase and Foreman, thanks to the mysterious appearance of lab reports showing that President Dibala’s former doctors were prescribing high doses of a drug to boost his HDL cholesterol, which could easily explain some unusual blood test results. Chase hadn’t requested the lab reports. Foreman hadn’t either, which means it could only have been…. ..
Chase confronted House and asked him how he’d thought of it. “He was an old black guy… I knew he had to be taking something for his cholesterol,” House said.
Chase: “You don’t think I should be fired?”
House: “Better a murderer than a misdiagnosis.”
Chase: “Whether you want to be in charge or not, you are, and you always will be.”


Viewers: Have we seen the last of Thirteen? Can Chase and Cameron’s marriage be saved? And can the fascinating House-is-crazy plot detour really be over so fast?


These are all good questions but my main one would be can Foreman really be  a leader?

Yours Truly,

mediamerlin

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