House Euphoria (part one)
02 June 2006
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Thursday June 1st 9pmWhen a cop named Joe Luria is brought in with bullet fragment lodged in his brain, the doctors soon become concerned that he is laughing uncontrollably. Chase thinks the bullet is to blame for his hysterics, but House points out that it is in the wrong area of the brain to cause euphoria – and Joe also has a cough and cloudy lungs. He orders a round of tests, and dispatches Foreman to check Joe’s home for gas leaks. It soon emerges that Joe has low-level carbon monoxide poisoning, but before the team can begin treatment, he abruptly loses his motor functions. Meanwhile, Foreman searches Joe’s incredibly filthy apartment for clues. He swabs samples from the kitchen, and discovers a marijuana farm on the roof. He is convinced that marijuana is the explanation, but House, who has since examined the police precinct’s elderly air-conditioning unit, believes that Legionnaire’s disease is more likely.However, both their theories are blown out of the water when the team realise Joe is now blind. Foreman diagnoses Anton’s Blindness, where patients can physically see but the brain cannot process the information. House suspects a brain clot, but an MRI scan is impossible because the bullet fragments will move and shred Joe’s brain. An alternate scanning method shows some clotting, but not enough to be decisive. House again suggests an MRI, and when Foreman says that it’s still out of the question, pulls out a gun and shoots a dead body. They can now run a test MRI on the corpse to see how the bullet will react.Cameron and Chase are both shocked by the sudden gunshot, but Foreman seems merely amused. Although this reaction rings alarm bells for Cameron, House continues with the experiment. Unfortunately, the MRI pulls the bullets out of the corpse and into the machine – breaking it and ruling out the procedure for Joe. Joe’s heart then begins beating dangerously quickly, and Chase and Cameron rush to save him, while Foreman stands back, unable to stop laughing. The team realise he has somehow contracted Joe’s illness, and seal them both in a bio-safety room. Foreman insists that he is fine, but House is more interested in the fact that they finally have a chance to use an MRI to locate the problem. They will use it on Foreman.However, the scan shows nothing of note, so Cameron turns to the samples Foreman brought back from Joe’s home. She can’t find anything conclusive and suggest she should take a look at the apartment for herself, but House refuses to allow it. He orders her to suit up and monitor Foreman for Anton’s Blindness to establish how far his illness is behind Joe’s. Foreman is now beginning to worry about his condition, and asks her to return to the apartment to find the thing that infected him. When she says she can’t because of the danger, he becomes angry. Picking up a syringe he used to draw his own blood, he jabs Cameron in the leg, telling her that she can either tell House that he’s infected her as well, or go to Joe’s home to try to save all three of them.Later, Foreman is brainstorming with House and Chase, when Joe begins screaming in pain. Foreman injects him with morphine, which has no effect – the infection has spread to the pain centre of his brain. No amount of medicine can soothe it. House tells Chase to suit up and induce Joe into a coma. Foreman continues to suggest possible diagnoses, and House wonders why he isn’t concerned that Cameron is missing. Realising what must have happened, House heads to Joe’s apartment and tells Cameron off for endangering herself. On their return to the hospital, Joe suddenly goes into cardiac arrest, and despite Foreman’s best efforts to resuscitate him, he dies. Can they determine what happened – or will Foreman be next?0Comments | Be the first to comment!
