Doctor Diagnoses Man With Help From TV's 'House'

[jakeXT]

If you're unlucky enough to be stricken with a rare medical condition, you'd better hope your doctor watches the right television show.

That was the lesson for one German man with severe heart failure and a puzzling mix of symptoms including fever, blindness, deafness and enlarged lymph nodes, which baffled doctors for months.

The 55-year-old man was diagnosed only when he was referred to Dr. Juergen Schaefer, a fan of the U.S. television medical drama, "House."

"After five minutes, I knew what was wrong," said Schaefer, who works at the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases in Marburg, north of Frankfurt.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/doctor-diagnoses-man-tvs-house-22400984

[Ian David]

1. It's not Lupus! n/t

[mucifer]

2. On the show House they always seem to resusitate people several times

and by the end of the episode they often walk out of the hospital with no lingering effects at all from all the trauma and organ failure they had the day before. Also, as a hospice nurse I can tell you they have terrible misinformation regarding pain management. Oh and doctors can never tell you someone will die by the next day or the next week. The human body is amazing and the dying process is very unpredictable. I have seen people in rare instances look like they are taking final moments snap out of it and hang on for weeks.

I know it's a tv show and most people understand that. But, the misinformation they send out over the airwaves sometimes affects the care we give because people think these shows have real information. FYI morphine 5 mg orally is equivalent to tylenol with codeine in strength but it works much better. People often get very frightened by the word morphine.

That said, I am glad that the show did help that German doctor. That was cool.

[newfie11]

3. I loved that show

Always tried to diagnose before House and I was always wrong

[unblock]

4. "You could have also typed his symptoms into Google and gotten the diagnosis"

"We would have diagnosed this even without Dr. House," Schaefer said. "You could have also typed his symptoms into Google and gotten the diagnosis."

kinda makes this a non-story, doesn't it?