Initial Symptoms: Man with Gulf War Syndrome symptoms Diagnosis: Hereditary hemmorrhagic telangiectasia (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Realizes patient has brain infection instead of tumors, knows depleted uranium is irrelevant, diagnosis for hereditary hemmorrhagic telangiectasia Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Chase was correct in his suggestion that the patient had been exposed to depleted uranium, but receives no credit because it was medically irrelevant.
The Housepets worked more on treating House for his fake cancer than they did on diagnosing their real patient. Because all of the team, House included, studied Luke N. Laura's case, I counted it as a separate diagnosis. Two patients were diagnosed in this episode as a result.
Official Patient Initial Symptoms: Man with brain damage + dystonia (muscle contractions) Diagnosis: Takayasu's arteritis (Chase+Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (5): Realizes patient can create music as well as play it, spots increase in heart rate, predicts bleed below kidney, proves patient still has activity in "dead" part of brain, suggests hemispherectomy to stop seizures and improve brain function Chase (1): Diagnosis for Takayasu's arteritis Cameron (2): Realizes problem is that seizures are getting worse, suggests bleeding in the brain Foreman (5): Knows that listening and playing are different neurological processes, realizes heart problem didn't cause dystonia, realizes patient's brain is getting worse, suggests intercranial EEG, diagnosis for Takayasu's arteritis
Notes: Chase suggested an auto-immune disease. The team then worked on confirming this, and ultimately Foreman narrowed it down to Takayasu's arteritis.
Alleged Cancer Patient Initial Symptoms: Patient with mass in dorsal midbrain Diagnosis: Gumma from neurosyphilis (Chase)
Contributions by Team House (0): None Chase (2): Tests "House" for protein PHF, diagnosis for gumma Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Recognizes position of mass and its implications
Initial Symptoms: Girl with Chronic Insensitivity to Pain (CIPA) + car accident injuries + fever Diagnosis: Tapeworm in the gut (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Noticed patient had CIPA, idea to biopsy nerves, realizes patient has B12 deficiency, diagnosis for tapeworm Chase (1): Idea to induce pain in patient Cameron (1): Realizes patient's symptoms were caused by treatment Foreman (1): Realizes patient's pain is emotional
Notes: I was tempted to give House an error for insisting on biopsying the patient's spinal nerves for his own purposes, before he even knew she was sick, but I didn't because he didn't actually do it. Besides, without House insisting on all those tests they wouldn't have found the tapeworm at all. Biopsying another nerve was diagnostically necessary and revealed important information, so he still received credit.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with bloody pleural effusion Diagnosis: Swallowed toothpick which punctured multiple organs (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Thinks patient has "a mass" in his liver blocking the hepatic vein, diagnosis for finding toothpick in colon Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: The toothpick was found while directly examining the patient's colon; everyone mistook scar tissue for a granuloma on the scans. House ordered the colonoscopy, so he gets the diagnosis even though he had no idea what the Housepets would find.
While House saw several clinic patients and Cameron watched a homeless man die of cancer, the Housepets did not treat or diagnose a patient in this episode.
Initial Symptoms: Man with shortness of breath + altered mental status + chills Diagnosis: Male menopause (House) + broken heart syndrome (Cameron) + spinal meningioma (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Spots arrhythmia on EKG and suggests heart attack, diagnosis for male menopause, suggests environmental cause for heart attacks (the woman the patient loves), diagnosis for spinal meningioma Chase (2): Suggests patient is hiding his chest pain, realizes patient is having a heart attack Cameron (1): Diagnosis for broken heart syndrome Foreman (2): Suggests a brain tumour (twice), runs MRI on patient
Notes: The broken heart syndrome was caused by the tumour, since the tumour created the false memories that seem to be responsible, but is credited as a separate diagnosis. House was assigned an error for ignoring the abnormal EKG at the beginning of the episode. He also received an error for giving the patient electroshock therapy to wipe his memories. He should have gotten more confirmation of the diagnosis or considered other treatments before resorting to essentially killing the patient. The symptom of the patient's memories being false was missed, but who missed it? My first reaction was to say Cameron, but she wasn't the only doctor treating the patient. I've concluded that the entire team is guilty of that one, so Cameron isn't given an error for it. Foreman was given credit for performing the MRI on the patient because it seemed to have been his idea, but this wasn't completely clear. It wasn't House's idea.
Contributions by Team House (5): Idea to do gallium scan, sees that liver is shutting down, knows that illness is widespread and will hit pancreas next, diagnosis for LCH, realizes that patient isn't a dwarf and the LCH caused her stunted growth Chase (2): Points out that ear infections may be relevant, diagnosis for LCH Cameron (2): Knows why TB test wouldn't work on CHH dwarf, suggests illness is autoimmune Foreman (0): None
Notes: Langerhans cell histiocytosis caused the tumor, which in turn caused the growth problem. The tumor and growth deficiency were counted as one diagnosis, separate from the histiocytosis. House hit upon the LCH diagnosis unaware that Chase had suggested it earlier, so they both receive credit for it.
Contributions by Team House (1): Predicts gallstones Chase (3): Realizes shape of scratch test indicates allergy, suggests a primary blood disorder, diagnosis for erythropoietic porphyria Cameron (2): Suggests allergy, realizes patient gets sicker every time they treat her Foreman (1): Identifies blood clot in arm
Notes: Cuddy diagnoses the patient's anxiety attack and puts her under a shower to cool her down when she develops a fever. House received an error for ordering amputation of the patient's arm and leg without confirming that she really had an infection.
Initial Symptoms: Man with vomiting + heart attack Diagnosis: Chronic ganulomatous disease (House)
Contributions by Team House (6): Diagnoses hepatitis A based on itchy feet, knows that patient doesn't have toxins left in his system so they need to test his first vomit, realizes patient has osteomyelitis, realizes spots on MRI are fungus and not tumors, diagnosis for chronic ganulomatous disease, infects patient to diagnose which immune disorder he has Chase (2): Suggests a virus, diagnosed botulism Cameron (1): Diagnoses Eikenella Foreman (1): Diagnoses syphilis
Notes: The patient's multiple infections were treated as symptoms of the underlying immune disorder, which was the diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Man with akinetopsia + seizure Diagnosis: Liver failure from alcoholism (Cameron) + red ragged fiber disease (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Notices akinetopsia, realizes illness is genetic, realizes that liver failure is due to medication + alcohol, diagnosis for red ragged fiber disease Chase (1): Realizes patient is an alcoholic Cameron (1): Diagnosis for liver failure Foreman (1): Realizes patient's problem is his heart and not his liver
Notes: What happened to the kidney failure? It was never explained. Cameron received credit for diagnosing the liver failure because she was the first to spot it, not through a clever deduction.
Initial Symptoms: Man with morbid obesity + coma Diagnosis: Lung cancer (House) + paraneoplastic syndrome (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Notices loss of appetite, diagnosis for lung cancer, diagnosis for paraneoplastic syndrome Chase (1): Rules out lumbar puncture on patient Cameron (1): Idea to put only the patient's head in MRI Foreman (1): Idea to rule out MS from CSF sample
Notes: Chase received an error for deserting the team and the patient. Yes House told him to "sit on his ass", but completely leaving is not the same thing. It was clear that Chase did not want to treat the patient at all.
Contributions by Team House (3): Idea to take wife off steroids to rule out infection, realizes patients are brother and sister, diagnosis for angioedema Chase (1): Sees edema throughout wife's brain Cameron (1): Realizes illness isn't environmental Foreman (2): Diagnoses allergy to antibiotic, sees bowel isn't dead and says high lactic acid was from stress
Notes: The patient's husband became a patient himself when he fell ill too. The husband and wife's diagnoses were combined because they had the same illness and the team realized this during the differential diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with severe autism + screaming Diagnosis: Pica (House) + raccoon roundworms (House)
Contributions by Team House (6): Suggests parasites, suggests problem is in lungs before pleural effusion occurs, gets patient to inhale gas, suggests liver is damaged, diagnosis for pica, diagnosis for raccoon roundworms Chase (3): Realized that elevated blood pressure + screaming indicated chest pain, suggests parasites, suggests illness is caused by something the patient ate Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Pica caused the patient to eat sand, leading to the roundworms exposure. Since pica is a medical condition that can have serious health consequences, it is included it here as a separate diagnosis although it was the roundworms that caused the patient's symptoms. Foreman received an error for insisting the patient wasn't sick, since if he were the attending physician the patient wouldn't have been diagnosed and treated.
Initial Symptoms: Man with respiratory distress Diagnosis: Amyloid A (AA) amyloidosis (Chase)
Contributions by Team House (5): Tells Cameron to remove fluid from lungs, injects patient with epinephrine to test heart, notices lung scarring on MRI, notices nerve damage in right side, confirms amyloidosis Chase (2): Diagnosis for amyloidosis, insists problem is in the heart and not the lungs Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: House should have ordered an echocardiogram and not an exercise stress EKG. Since this was never mentioned in the episode, it's assumed that it was a mistake by the writers and not the character and House doesn't receive an error for it. Chase received an error for collapsing the patient's lungs during a lung biopsy. I'd like to give Cameron a credit for fulfilling House's promise to euthanize the patient, but since killing your patients isn't considered part of medical care in New Jersey it wouldn't be appropriate. (No, I'm not being sarcastic).
Initial Symptoms: Boy with hallucinations + rectal bleeding Diagnosis: Chimerism causing abnormal cells in the heart, bone marrow and brain (House)
Contributions by Team House (6): Suggests patient has a bleeding disorder, spots section of myocardium not beating, idea to inject antibody tag into brain-blood barrier, realizes that tag won't work on brain cells, diagnosis for chimerism, idea to induce hallucination to find and remove foreign cells from brain Chase (2): Analyzes DNA from heart and patient and sees they don't match, idea to cut out foreign tissue Cameron (3): Suggests testing clotting factors, realizes that hypertension activated patient's clotting factors, idea to tag foreign DNA with an antibody Foreman (1): Insists hallucinations are being caused by problem in the brain
Notes: House received an error for wanting to send the patient home, even though it was because he was having a crisis of confidence rather than poor medical judgment. If Wilson and Cuddy were part of this analysis... let's not go there.
House has contradicted what he said about his leg damage in Three Stories and now has full leg function back! He's feeling so good he's taking on two cases:
Yoga Girl Initial Symptoms: Woman with paralysis but no spinal trauma Diagnosis: Scurvy (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Proves patient isn't really paralyzed, realizes patient has cardiac tamponade, diagnosis for scurvy Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Wheelchair Guy Initial Symptoms: Man in vegetative state after treatment for astrocytoma Diagnosis: Addison's disease (House) caused by hypothalamic dysregulation resulting from scarring from brain surgery (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Realizes patient's throat muscle response is due to problem in his brain, diagnosis for hypothalamic dysregulation, diagnosis for Addison's disease, suggests cortisol to prove diagnosis Chase (2): Picks out fever + frequent urination as pattern, agrees to keep treating patient with re-scan of head Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Recognizes dry eyes are a symptom
Notes: Chase probably agreed to continue treating the patient to please House and not because he thought it was the correct thing to do medically, but since it was he gets the credit. It doesn't seem fair but that is the criteria. I've assumed that the fever, frequent urination and dry eyes were indeed symptoms of Addison's disease.
There were 23 episodes in season two when the final episode, No Reason, is excluded. The breakdown for the season is:
Patients treated: 25 Lives saved: 19 Sex Kills counted as two patients because the team diagnosed a dead woman to save their actual patient. Euphoria and Forever also counted as two patients each, even though I didn't include the baby's treatment in my analysis of Forever. The deaths occurred in Daddy's Boy, The Mistake, Euphoria, and Forever. For Daddy's Boy, The Mistake and Forever the patients were diagnosed but could not be cured. The cop in Euphoria died before he was diagnosed.
My conclusions: Chase and Cameron improved this season over last, while Foreman did not. Again Chase shows that he contributes more to others' diagnoses than by coming up with his own. I would argue that Cameron and Foreman are equal overall, but it's possible that Chase outperformed them.
Initial Symptoms: Man with severely swollen tongue Diagnosis: ?
We didn't see the team treat this patient after House was shot. We don't know if they treated him at all, or what his diagnosis was. Everything that happened between the shooting and the final scene in Emergency was a hallucination, so this episode was not included in this analysis at all.
Initial Symptoms: Girl with cardiogenic shock + hallucinations Diagnosis: Hemochromatosis (House) + Zygomycosis infection in the lungs (Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (4): Recognizes that hallucinations are caused by pain, diagnoses patient's grandfather with hemocromatosis by listening to his music, diagnosis for hemocromatosis, idea to confirm hemocromatosis diagnosis by looking at patient's skin Chase (1): Suggests mold as cause of illness Cameron (0): None Foreman (3): Realizes patient is in liver failure, suggests patient has fungal infection, diagnosis for Zygomycosis infection
Notes: House received an error for giving the patient radiation to kill her bone marrow to treat an autoimmune disease they didn't even test for. House correctly deduced that the patient was lying about her paternity, but since it was irrelevant for her diagnosis this was not credited.
Initial Symptoms: Woman with seizure + elevated calcium levels Diagnosis: Celiac disease (House) + stomach cancer (House)
Contributions by Team House (5): Idea to induce seizure, idea that symptoms are caused by niacin deficiency, idea to biopsy baby's intestines to diagnose his mother, diagnosis for celiac disease, diagnosis for stomach cancer Chase (1): Sees villus atrophy in baby's intestines Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Suggests cancer
Notes: The baby was not considered as part of this diagnosis, since his problems were caused by drowning and suffocation. There was no diagnosis to be made for the baby and he wasn't treated by the entire team, so he's not counted as a separate patient (though I have included him in the final tally).
In the first part (episode 2.20) Foreman contracted the patient's illness after visiting his apartment. Since it was immediately apparent that Foreman and the patient had the same disease, the two cases were combined here and treated as one diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Man with euphoria + shot in the head Diagnosis: Legionnaire's disease (House) + primary amoebic meningoencephalitis from Naegleria (House+Cameron)
Contributions by Team House (6): Diagnosis for Legionnaire's disease, idea to biopsy Foreman's brain, idea to biopsy an infected animal, suggests that disease might be an amoeba, realizes that Legionnaire's disease was fighting amoeba, diagnosis for Naegleria Chase (1): Points out that bullet may be magnetic so a MRI cannot be done Cameron (2): Idea to perform angiogram, diagnosis for Naegleria Foreman (2): Knowledge about bullets and police vests, idea to perform white matter biopsy
Notes: After some internal debate, I've decided to call Cameron's biopsy of Foreman a diagnosis. On the show this was represented as the last option if the team failed to diagnose Foreman in any other way, but it was indeed a diagnosis. Foreman was diagnosed by two separate methods at the same time. Chase was correct in his suggestion that the initial patient had elevated carbon monoxide concentrations in his blood, but it appears this was unrelated to his symptoms and infections so Chase was not awarded credit for it. House was given an error for destroying the MRI when he already knew the bullet was magnetic.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with cramping + partial seizure Diagnosis: Tuberous sclerosis (Chase) + herpes encephalitis (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for herpes shrinking Wilson's patient's tumor after exposure to House's patient, diagnosis for herpes encephalitis Chase (1): Diagnosis for tuberous sclerosis Cameron (1): Suggested an infection Foreman (0): None
Notes: It appears that the initial diagnosis of water toxicity was wrong. House's determination that an ordinary STD caused the "miracle" liver cancer remission was classified as a diagnosis. The patient's belief that God talked to him, which the team called auditory hallucinations, was not included here as a symptom.
Initial Symptoms: Woman unable to sleep for 10 days Diagnosis: Bubonic plague (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Idea to stop immunosuppressant drugs, diagnosis for bubonic plague Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: House deduced that the patient was planning on leaving her girlfriend, leading to an ethical dilemma when she volunteered to donate part of her liver to the patient, but medically this information wasn't required to diagnose the patient so no credit is awarded.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with bloody diarrhea + ataxia Diagnosis: Erdheim-Chester Disease (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for Erdheim-Chester Disease Chase (1): Suggests histiocytosis, of which Erdheim-Chester disease is a form Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Contributions by Team House (1): Finds tick in patient's vagina Chase (1): Suggests patient's boyfriend brought an allergen to her Cameron (1): Diagnosis for tick paralysis Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Man with respiratory distress + swollen tongue Diagnosis: Gold poisoning (House) by his wife (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for gold toxicity, diagnosis for poisoning, idea to use stannis chloride to test for gold Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
To cure a living patient the team had to diagnose a dead woman! I've divided this episode into two as a result.
Living Patient Initial Symptoms: Man with absence seizure Diagnosis: Brucellosis (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Spots microabscess in brain scan, diagnosis for brucellosis, idea to use gonorrhea patient as heart donor Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Appeals transplant committee's decision Foreman (0): None
Notes: Cameron gets credit for fighting further to get their patient a heart transplant because I decided it was above and beyond her physician's duty at that point.
Dead Patient Initial Symptoms: Woman with fever + stomach pain + elevated liver enzymes before she died Diagnosis: Gonorrhea (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for gonorrhea Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Girl with cataplectic attack Diagnosis: Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) (House) + testicular cancer (House) + paraneoplastic syndrome (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Diagnosis for testicular cancer, diagnosis for paraneoplastic syndrome, idea to rule out placebo effect, diagnosis for AIS Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Suggests problem is neurological instead of caused by heroin Foreman (0): None
Notes: Cameron (and Wilson) should have detected the patient's AIS during their examinations of her reproductive system, but because this was not pointed out as an error on the show it's assumed here that it was a mistake by the writers. House was correct in his suspicion that the patient was using heroin, and used a risky procedure to detox her. The heroin use turned out to be unrelated to her symptoms and final diagnosis, however, so House received no credit for it or the treatment. House also didn't receive credit for the incest discovery because it, too, proved medically irrelevant.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with severe burns + tachycardia + low potassium Diagnosis: Antidepressants (serotonin syndrome?) (House) taken to stop smoking (House)
Contributions by Team House (6): Idea to use galvanometer, idea to use transcranial doppler sonography, idea to use maggots to clean wounds, idea to perform lumbar puncture on neck, diagnosis for antidepressant use, diagnosis for smoking cessation Chase (1): Suggests brain is misinterpreting pain Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Woman with fertility treatments + movement disorder Diagnosis: Ritalin (House) + birth control pills (House) + vascular liver tumor (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Idea to paralyze patient during MRI, diagnosis for Ritalin, diagnosis for birth control pills, diagnosis for liver tumor Chase (1): Found liver tumor on ultrasound Cameron (1): Suggests estrogen may explain movement disorder Foreman (0): None
Notes: House suspected endometrial cancer and told the Housepets to perform a biopsy. Chase found the liver tumor when the patient started bleeding during the procedure. Since House was the one to suspect cancer and who ordered the procedure that lead to the discovery, House gets the diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Man with aphasia Diagnosis: Bipolar disorder (House) + cerebral malaria (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Suggests way to get patient to tell the truth, diagnosis for bipolar disorder, realizes that patient had brain surgery, diagnosis for cerebral malaria Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Realizes that patient only tells the truth when his wife is absent Foreman (0): None
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for C. perfringens infection Chase (1): Suggests a tumor, leading to discovery of pancreatic scarring Cameron (2): Tricks patient for diagnosis, diagnosis for Munchausen's syndrome Foreman (0): None
Notes: A lot went wrong while Foreman was in command. Cameron gave the patient antibiotics to diagnose Munchausen's syndrome, but this interfered with diagnosis of her infection so Cameron receives an error. It doesn't seem fair to do that, but Cameron could have found another method to diagnose the Munchausen's. House received an error in giving patient colchicine to lower her white blood cell count, a dangerous move that also interfered with her diagnosis. If the team had gone ahead with the radiation treatment there would have been another error assigned. Foreman was assigned an error for discharging the patient while she was still sick.
This episode is divided into two parts because the team had to diagnose the patient two times.
The First Time Initial Symptoms: Woman with abdominal pain + joint pain + uveitis Diagnosis: Behcet's disease (Chase) + stomach ulcer
Contributions by Team House (0): None Chase (1): Diagnosis for Behcet's disease Cameron (1): Suggests illness affects blood vessels Foreman (1): Suggests illness affects arteries
Notes: A paramedic diagnoses the bleeding stomach ulcer. Chase received an error for failing to diagnose the stomach ulcer. As far as I can tell Chase's only mistake was in being brusque with a patient, which is hardly new for any of the characters, but a great deal was made of it on the show so I must count it.
The Second Time Initial Symptoms: Woman with Behcet's disease + liver transplant + fever Diagnosis: Hepatitis C (House) + liver cancer from transplant (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for hepatitis C, diagnosis for liver cancer Chase (1): Realizes that patient has infection Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Man with AIDS + anaphylactic shock Diagnosis:Echinococcus infection (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Suggests parasite, realizes that patient and his father have the same illness, diagnosis for Echinococcus infection Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Realizes the patient has a mass in his heart
Initial Symptoms: Man with respiratory arrest + performance enhancing drugs Diagnosis: Air embolus (Foreman) + thymoma (House) + myasthenia gravis (House) + pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) (Wilson+House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for thymoma, diagnosis for myasthenia gravis, diagnosis for chronic PRCA Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Diagnosis for air embolus
Notes: Wilson diagnosed the PRCA, House the type and how the patient had developed it. It's about time Wilson contributed something, seeing that he keeps failing to find all these tumors.
Initial Symptoms: Man with intermittent shock-like pains + low white blood cell count Diagnosis: Radiation poisoning (House) + cavernous angioma (House) + infection (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for infection that developed during hospitalization, diagnosis for radiation poisoning, diagnosis for cavernous angioma Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Man with abnormal heart rhythm + fainting Diagnosis: Tuberculosis (TB) (Patient+Cameron) + nesidioblastoma (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Idea to induce cardiac arrest with hot lights, diagnosis for nesidioblastoma, idea to diagnose tumor by injecting calcium Chase (3): Notices abnormal heart rhythm, suggests "something metabolic", suggests high insulin levels Cameron (1): Diagnosis for TB Foreman (0): None
Notes: Technically, the patient diagnosed his own TB. I awarded the credit to Cameron because she was the only one who tested for it, and because she successfully argued to House that they needed to eliminate TB from the differential diagnosis to identify his second illness. House received an error for initially refusing to consider TB as part of the patient's diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Man with asthma + respiratory distress + fingers turning black Diagnosis: Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) (House) caused by psittacosis (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for DIC, diagnosis for psittacosis, realizes that patient works at cock fights Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: If I'd included Cuddy in this analysis, she would receive an error for not telling House that the patient had asthma.
Initial Symptoms: Girl with alveolar rhabdomyosacrcoma + hallucinations Diagnosis: Benign heart tumor (House) + blood clot in the brain (Chase)
Contributions by Team House (4): Confirms tumor by listening to heart valves, diagnosis for heart tumor, suggests tumor threw clot, idea to find blood clot by autopsy Chase (1): Diagnosis for blood clot Cameron (0): None Foreman (3): Suggests clot caused hallucinations, idea to bolt patient to table for autopsy procedure, finds blood clot in brain
Notes: Cameron was the only Housepet to hear the "extra flap" in the patient's heart when House played it for them.
Initial Symptoms: Man with hallucinations + tachycardia + pulmonary edema Diagnosis: Methanol poisoning (House) + pheochromocytoma (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for copier fluid poisoning, realizes that patient's behaviour is a symptom, diagnosis for pheochromocytoma Chase (2): Lists methanol as cause of symptoms, suggests adrenaline Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Foreman received an error for refusing to save the patient when he went into cardiac arrest. That's blatant negligence. Cameron refused to admit that her clinic patient was terminal. It doesn't count as an error because she wasn't the team's case, I'm simply noting it. Foreman planned to testify in defense of their patient, stating that his illness contributed to his crimes. It's debatable whether this is part of his physician's duty or should be counted as care; I've decided it isn't and am not giving him a credit for it as a result, but again it's worthy of note.
In the first season there were 22 episodes, two of which Cameron was absent for. We saw the team handle 21 cases, 23 if you include Three Stories (which I am here). Here's what the team had to show for it:
Patients treated: 27 Lives saved: 24 Maternity had four patients, Poison two patients and Three Stories two patients as well. The deaths occurred in Maternity, Histories and Babies and Bathwater; in the latter two cases the team diagnosed the patients before they died but the illness was incurable.
My conclusions: They're pretty equal overall. Chase delivered less final diagnoses but contributed more towards other people's diagnoses, a pattern that you'll see continue as I go into season two. He's a background character. Foreman, despite being lauded as the smartest, isn't significantly better than the others. Cameron has less total points but again, you'll see her improve in season two as well.
Initial Symptoms: Man with abdominal pain + mood changes Diagnosis: Acute Intermittent Porphyria (AIP) (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Spots abdominal epilepsy, diagnosis for AIP, idea to trigger AIP attack to confirm diagnosis Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
We're told that the Housepets treated two of the cases presented in this episode, the volleyball player and the farmer. The nature of the storytelling makes it impossible to properly evaluate the diagnostic process involved, so it will not be included in this analysis. I'm listing the diagnoses here purely for interest's sake.
The Farmer Initial Symptoms: Man with leg pain Diagnoses: Dog bite + Group-A Streptococcus necrotizing fasciitis
Notes: The impression from the episode is that House diagnosed this patient.
The Volleyball Player Initial Symptoms: Girl with leg pain Diagnosis: Thyroid disorder + osteosarcoma in leg (the thyroid disorder wasn't specified, but it sounds like hypothyroidism)
Notes: It appeared that Cameron diagnosed this patient.
Initial Symptoms: Man with teeth grinding + stroke Diagnosis: Osteomyelitis (infection of the jaw bone) (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Notices metal plate in jaw on CT scan, realizes that patient is lying about parents being dead, diagnosis for osteomyelitis Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Knows that MRI cannot be done because of metal plate in jaw Foreman (0): None
Notes: Chase gets an error for not telling the team that the patient was into BSDM. It's certainly understandable that he wouldn't want to admit knowing that, but it was medically relevant because it was the source of his patient's injury and ultimately of his infection. House gets credit for locating the patient's parents because he needed their consent for surgery.
Initial Symptoms: Girl with fever + neck pain + rash Diagnosis: Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) from pregnancy (House) Contributions by Team House (2): Realizes that patient may be pregnant, diagnosis for TTP Chase (1): Idea to do transcranial ultrasound Cameron (N/A): Not in this episode Foreman (1): Idea to treat patient in morgue
Initial Symptoms: Pregnant woman with altered mental status + loss of coordination Diagnosis: Lung cancer (House) + paraneoplastic syndrome (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for paraneoplastic syndrome, diagnosis for lung cancer Chase (1): Suggests autoimmune problem Cameron (N/A): Not in this episode Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Man with nausea + headache + mental confusion Diagnosis: Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID) from seizure medication (House) + Epstein-Barr virus (House)
Contributions by Team House (5): Realizes that first AIDS test was a false positive, idea to test for hairy cell leukemia by looking for viruses, realizes that patient had childhood epilepsy, diagnosis for CVID, diagnosis for Epstein-Barr virus Chase (1): Suggests immunoglobulin deficiency Cameron (1): Suggests idiopathic T-cell deficiency Foreman (0): None
Notes: Wilson diagnoses the patient's toxoplasmosis, which contributes to the CVID diagnosis.
Initial Symptoms: Girl with heart attack Diagnosis: Cushing's Disease (House)
Contributions by Team House (1): Diagnosis for Cushing's disease Chase (1): Suggests that obesity is a symptom Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: House's suspicion that the patient used diet pills proved correct, but he doesn't receive credit for it because it proved irrelevant to her condition.
Initial Symptoms: Man in intermittent coma Diagnosis: Hepatitis C (House) + estrogen supplements (House) + ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTD) (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Diagnosis for hepatitis C, idea to use pig's liver for treatment, diagnosis for OTD, diagnosis for estrogen supplements Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Suggests metabolic problem
Initial Symptoms: Woman with leg pain + paralysis Diagnosis: Bulimia (House) + congestive heart failure (House) from ipecac poisoning (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for bulimia, diagnosis for congestive heart failure, diagnosis for ipecac poisoning Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Chase messed up an angiogram on the patient's leg while checking for blood clots. The problem in the end was muscle damage from ipecac poisoning, so under the criteria I use it usually wouldn't count because the diagnosis wasn't related to a blood clot. In this case I am calling it an error because 1) House caught it after the fact without Chase realizing his mistake, meaning that if the patient did have a blood clot Chase wouldn't have found it; 2) it was regarded as a serious error by the other characters, while errors in treatments are usually glossed over.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with fever + respiratory problems + rash Diagnosis: Anthrax (House) + leprosy (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for anthrax, realizes that patient's father was in Asia thus exposing patient to Asian diseases, diagnosis for leprosy Chase (1): Biopsies skin lesions to rule out autoimmune disease Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Man with osteopenia (thinning of bones) Diagnosis: Cadmium poisoning (House) from marijuana (Chase)
Contributions by Team House (2): Realizes illness is environmental because the wife has it too, diagnosis for cadmium poisoning Chase (1): Diagnosed source of cadmium Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Suggests metal toxicity from environment
Notes: From the scene it appears that House was the first to realize the patient had cadmium poisoning and was leading the Housepets to the same diagnosis, so House was awarded the diagnosis even though Chase said the actual words. Chase received credit for realizing where the cadmium exposure had come from. Wilson diagnosed the digitalis overdose, which would have been considered a symptom otherwise. House made an error in administering Lupron to treat steroids after the patient had tested negative for steroids, causing respiratory system damage.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with hemolytic anemia Diagnosis: Naphthalene poisoning from termite nests (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Idea to autopsy cat, diagnosis for naphthalene toxicity Chase (1): Idea for procedure to remove clot from eye Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Woman with arm twitch + seizures Diagnosis: Abdominal tuberculoma (House) + insulin overdose (Foreman) + rabies (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Idea to ID patient from surgical pin, diagnosis for tuberculoma, realized patient was tasered by cop, diagnosis for rabies Chase (1): Suggested ice bath to treat fever Cameron (0): None Foreman (1): Diagnosis for insulin overdose
Notes: Foreman gets an error for initially refusing to treat the patient. Putting the patient in an ice bath doesn't seem particularly exceptional to me, but no other character suggested it so it counts as a creative treatment. House gets credit for realizing why the patient collapsed in the park because otherwise it would have been considered a symptom.
Initial Symptoms: Man with paralysis + pneumonia Diagnosis: Stroke (Cameron) + arteriovenous malformation (AVM) (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Insisted patient didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease, diagnosis for AVM Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Diagnosis for stroke Foreman (1): Idea for embolectomy to treat blood clot
Notes: The AVM was found on the MRI, without House knowing it would be there. He was the one who ordered the team to redo the MRI, however, so he gets credit for it.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with severe bradycardia + nausea Diagnosis: Organophosphate poisoning (Cameron) from stolen pants (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Suggests pesticide was organophosphate, idea that poison came from pants Chase (0): None Cameron (1): Diagnosis for pesticide poisoning Foreman (1): Idea to use experimental Army treatment
Notes: A second boy succumbed to the same illness later in the episode. The focus of this episode was finding where the patients had been exposed to the pesticide, not diagnosing the poisoning.
Initial Symptoms: Woman sleeping 18 hours a day Diagnosis: African sleeping sickness transmitted by sex (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for African trypanosomiasis, realizes that illness was sexually transmitted Chase (1): Suggests a parasite Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Initial Symptoms: Woman with schizophrenia diagnosis + blood clot Diagnosis: Wilson's disease (Cameron) + liver cancer (Chase) + vitamin K deficiency (House)
Contributions by Team House (3): Diagnosis for Vitamin K deficiency, idea to shrink tumor for surgery, realizes original schizophrenia diagnosis is wrong Chase (1): Diagnosis for liver cancer Cameron (1): Diagnosis for Wilson's disease Foreman (0): None
Notes: If Chase hadn't ultrasounded the patient's liver to look for cirrhosis, the liver cancer wouldn't have been found. Chase therefore gets credit for the diagnosis even though he didn't expect to find cancer; he was the one who suspected a liver problem.
Initial Symptoms: Woman with skin rash + reaction to epinephrine Diagnoses: Allergy to copper IUD (Cameron) + tea/epinephrine interaction (House) + herpetic encephalitis (Foreman)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for tea/epinephrine interaction, idea to do full body scan for diagnosis Chase (1): Tells House to talk to Mother Superior to learn more about patient Cameron (2): Diagnosis for systemic allergy, idea to put patient in clean room to diagnose her Foreman (1): Diagnosis for herpetic encephalitis
Notes: The herpetic encephalitis diagnosis got lost in the middle of the episode somewhere. Telling House to talk to a patient's supervisor isn't much of a contribution, but without it House probably wouldn't have diagnosed the tea/epinephrine interaction.
Initial Symptoms: Two newborns with fevers Diagnosis: Epidemic (House) caused by Enterovirus infection (Foreman) spread by a hospital volunteer
Contributions by Team House (5): Diagnosis for the epidemic, idea to give different antibiotics to different babies, recognizes illness is viral, idea to test mothers too, tracks down source of virus Chase (1): Suggests a virus Cameron (1): Idea to let parents hold baby (part of patient treatment) Foreman (1): Diagnosis for Enterovirus because he was the first to suggest it
Notes: The number of babies that fell sick wasn't very clear, but twice it's said that there were four confirmed cases. Cameron received an error for failing to tell the parents that their baby had died. It's not part of the diagnostic process, it's true, but it is part of treating patients.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with rash + cough + low blood pressure Diagnosis: Cold (House) + wrongly prescribed colchicine (House)
Contributions by Team House (4): Realizes patient has two conditions at once, diagnosis for gout medication, diagnosis for cough, tracks down gout medication to find out how patient was given it Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (0): None
Notes: Foreman screwed up a heart catherization for a surgery the patient ended up not needing. This was counted as an error because although the procedure was irrelevant to the final diagnosis, it was a lapse in patient care.
Initial Symptoms: Boy with double vision + night terrors Diagnosis: Subacute sclerosis panencephalitis (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Spots blockage on MRI, diagnosis for measles virus in brain Chase (0): None Cameron (0): None Foreman (2): Tests CSF, idea to biopsy retina to confirm diagnosis
Notes: It wasn't clear which Housepet had the idea to test the patient's spinal fluid, but it wasn't House's. I'm saying it was Foreman because he was the one to tell House that they did it. House doesn't get credit for deducing that the parents were lying about their son's parentage because the lie wasn't relevant to getting the diagnosis. House would dispute this, but the parents did not give him false information. He didn't ask them about his mother's vaccination history.
Initial Symptoms: Woman with seizures + inability to speak Diagnosis: Tapeworm in the brain (House)
Contributions by Team House (2): Diagnosis for tapeworm, idea to use x-ray on leg instead of brain Chase (1): Idea to use x-ray for diagnosis Cameron (1): Recognizes allergic reaction to MRI dye Foreman (1): Catches Wilson's lie about his "cousin" that lead to revelation that patient ate ham
Notes: Chase contributed a creative diagnostic method and Cameron knowledge about allergies. Foreman's contribution isn't much compared to that, but House wouldn't have made the diagnosis without it so it counts.
This blog is an analysis of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, designed to examine the performance of House and his team: doctors Chase, Cameron and Foreman from Seasons 1-3, the Season 4 fellowship applicants, and doctors Foreman, Taub, Thirteen and Kutner in Season 5. Only patients treated by the entire team are considered. With a few exceptions, this made for one patient a week.
Only the performances of House and his team (the Housepets) are evaluated here. When another character made a diagnosis s/he is given credit, and I have noted some occasions when Wilson or Cuddy contributed to the diagnosis simply for interest's sake. The performances of Wilson and Cuddy are not reviewed here, however.
Each episode was broken down by working backwards, that is, from the correct diagnosis. Each character's actions were considered in hindsight. Wrong diagnoses are excluded as a result. This simplified things greatly, but left out a lot too. Essentially, what was considered was how the case in question was solved.
Credit was awarded for a diagnosis when the malady was specified enough to be treated. For example it's not enough to say "an infection", the character had to say where the infection was in the body and what bacteria, fungi or virus was causing it.
Errors by a team member, such as Cameron failing to spot the patient's lack of a cervix during a pelvic exam in Skin Deep, were not noted because most seemed to be due to errors by the writers, not the characters. Errors were noted only when 1) the error was pointed out by another character and 2) the error delayed diagnosis. This included refusals to treat ill patients, which would have resulted in the patient not being diagnosed if the other characters did not intervene, and in some cases other failures to properly perform their duties as a physician.
The correct diagnosis was awarded to the first character to suggest it. Many times House would come up with the final solution, but would present it to his fellows in such a way that one of them would be the first to say the words. In these cases, credit was still awarded to House.
Suggestions by the characters that contributed to getting the correct diagnosis and/or later proved correct were given credit. Demonstration of obscure knowledge and suggestions for creative treatments and diagnostic methods were also given credit. These were included only if it appeared that no one else was going to think of it; because I am not a medical expert, I may be wrong in some of my interpretations.
Credit was given when a character spotted something on a test that other characters couldn't see. Again, House would sometimes spot something and point it out; credit here was given to House. These occasions were noted only when the others (or most of them) looked at the same test and failed to see the significant result.
Initial Symptoms are the symptoms the patient had when the case was assigned to the team, and does not include symptoms developed later. They may not fully tally with the final diagnosis as a result, but were listed just for record-keeping purposes so it doesn't matter.
Final Diagnoses are the final diagnoses relevant to the patient's condition. For example, the patient in Heavy admitted to using diet pills, but in the end her condition (and symptoms) had nothing to do with diet pills. Diet pills were therefore not considered a final diagnosis.
Analyses for season one are found here, season two here, season three here, season 4 here, and season 5 here. Summaries for each season are here. A list of the diseases featured on the show and the episodes in which they appeared is here; over time I plan to include links on that list for more information.
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
