House sleeping dogs lie

11-05-2006 23:01

Thursday May 18th 9pm

House takes the case of a woman whose life is threatened by chronic insomnia.

Hannah Ward hasn't slept in ten days, which should have killed her as the brain shuts down without REM sleep – the longest anybody has ever survived without sleep is 11 days.

Hannah has even downed an entire bottle of sleeping pills with no effect. An intrigued House calls his team together, interrupting Cameron and Foreman’s argument about one of Cameron's cases that they are both writing up for a medical journal.

House calls them to order and dispatches them to perform a battery of tests on their new patient. Hannah falls asleep during the tests, but wakes up seconds later. The team's challenge is to determine why she cannot remain asleep.

House figures that Hannah is not sick enough to present symptoms, and orders the team to keep her awake. Depriving her of the few minutes she does sleep will stress her body and help them find what's afflicting her. Cameron and Foreman take the first shift, waking up Hannah when she drifts off.

Each time, she denies falling asleep. Then they notice a pool of blood on the bed sheets. House thinks the rectal bleeding is could be the result of a colon tumour, so Chase heads off to perform a colonoscopy. House makes it clear that Hannah needs to be kept awake through the procedure.

More about House sleeping dogs lie on page 2