7Feb
55-year-old German patient with severe heart failure and a mix of accompanying symptoms was correctly diagnosed by a fan of the U.S. television medical drama, “House.”
“After five minutes, I knew what was wrong,” said Dr Juergen Schaefer who works at the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases in Marburg, north of Frankfurt. The heart failure, combined with fever, blindness, deafness and enlarged lymph nodes matched up the symptoms of cobalt poisoning identified in an episode by the fictional Dr. Gregory House, played by British actor Hugh Laurie.
Schaefer regularly uses the television series to prepare lectures to his medical students. Before the patient with heart failure was referred to him in May 2012, he had already prepared a lecture on the cobalt poisoning case, where House’s future mother-in-law falls ill after receiving a faulty metal hip.
Schaefer and colleagues tested the cobalt levels of the man after he started to complain following his last operation to replace a broken ceramic hip. According to Schaefer, some small remaining parts of the ceramic hip were grinding into the metal replacement, leaking cobalt and chromium into the patient’s bloodstream. Schaefer and colleagues published their report in an online issue of the journal, Lancet.
Dr Schaffer claims that “We would have diagnosed this even without Dr. House. You could have also typed his symptoms into Google and gotten the diagnosis.”
“After five minutes, I knew what was wrong,” said Dr Juergen Schaefer who works at the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases in Marburg, north of Frankfurt. The heart failure, combined with fever, blindness, deafness and enlarged lymph nodes matched up the symptoms of cobalt poisoning identified in an episode by the fictional Dr. Gregory House, played by British actor Hugh Laurie.
Schaefer regularly uses the television series to prepare lectures to his medical students. Before the patient with heart failure was referred to him in May 2012, he had already prepared a lecture on the cobalt poisoning case, where House’s future mother-in-law falls ill after receiving a faulty metal hip.
Schaefer and colleagues tested the cobalt levels of the man after he started to complain following his last operation to replace a broken ceramic hip. According to Schaefer, some small remaining parts of the ceramic hip were grinding into the metal replacement, leaking cobalt and chromium into the patient’s bloodstream. Schaefer and colleagues published their report in an online issue of the journal, Lancet.
Dr Schaffer claims that “We would have diagnosed this even without Dr. House. You could have also typed his symptoms into Google and gotten the diagnosis.”
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