Changes: Cursed

Revision as of 15:32, 4 June 2008

Cursed is a first season episode of House which first aired on March 1, 2005.

Recap

A young boy uses a Ouija board, which predicts he will die in the coming year. Over the next week, he starts developing a cough and fever. His mother takes him to the hospital after he collapses on the floor.

The boy is taken to Princeton-Plainsboro. House thinks it is pneumonia, but Cuddy is pressing him to take the case because the patient's father is a big donor. Cuddy argues against pneumonia because of a rash on the patient's arm. House agrees to take the case.

The team does a differential. The best possibilities are legionellosis, chlamydia and Lyme disease. House orders a biopsy of the rash.

The team finds the patient's parents, who are separated, arguing. They check for tick bites and whether he is sexually active. The patient denies being sexually active. They take the boy for a CT scan to get him away from the parents. The boy admits he is cursed from the Ouija board. He also admits being in an abandoned house and got the rash after he fell there.

All of a sudden, Chase's father Rowan shows up. Chase excuses himself. House doesn't know who he is, but he surmises that he is Chase's father.

House goes to see Wilson about Chase not wanting to talk to his father. House figures Chase and his father won't tell him what the problem is. Wilson is too busy to help.

Chase goes to the abandoned house and finds the boys playing there. He asks them if they've been sick, and they haven't been. All of a sudden, the kids bug out when they see a police officer coming. Chase follows them out the window. Chase does find some felt insulation in the abandoned house where the patient fell. It is made up of animal hair. They look at the patient's CT Scan and suspect anthrax.

They treat the patient for anthrax. The patient's father is skeptical and suggests another couple of diagnoses. However, the patient goes into respiratory distress. Chase takes a look inside his lungs and decides to intubate him. The patient starts turning blue from lack of air. Cuddy is there and is about to perform a tracheotomy when Foreman finally intubates the patient.

Cameron doesn't think it is an allergy to the treatment. House suggests they talk to Chase's father. Rowan agrees that is probably isn't an allergy. House thinks this rules out anthrax. Rowan thinks it might be sarcoidosis. This would explain the swelling in the patient's throat. However, the rash turns black, showing that it is anthrax. Rowan argues that it is anthrax and sarcoidosis. House argues that anthrax set off the sarcoidosis.

The patient's father confronts House. He tells him that he couldn't be diagnosed for his wrist pain until he gave lots of money to the hospital, then they determined it was carpal tunnel syndrome and got him surgery. At that moment, the patient goes into distress and they find a rash has broken out on his back. The lesions on the patient's back mean he will get sepsis within the next few days.

Chase is hiding from his father in the clinic. The team goes to the clinic. They start to think about autoimmune diseases. House orders steroids.

House confronts Chase about his father. He wants to know why Chase doesn't care about his father. Chase avoids the topic.

The patient starts to improve and feel better. Chase is convinced that the steroids are merely masking what is actually wrong with the patient. Chase then asks Rowan why he is in town. Rowan says he is there for a conference and wanted to say hello. They fight about Rowan abandoning his wife.

Chase talks to House, who is satisfied that the patient is getting better. Chase is not convinced that they have the right diagnosis.

House goes to Rowan to confront him about lying to Chase - he knows that Rowan didn't go to the conference. He figures Rowan has cancer from a radiation treatment tattoo and his diet and is there to see Wilson. Rowan admits to having cancer. He has three months to live and doesn't want Chase to know.

Chase keeps up the testing to see what autoimmune disorder the patient has. The patient starts coughing again. Chase hands him a glass, but he drops it because his hand is paralysed.

The paralysis starts to spread. Rowan agrees that Chase was probably right. House orders a CT Scan of the patient's brain.

House goes to Wilson to ask why he didn't tell him about Rowan. Wilson notes that he was bound by confidentiality. House wants to tell Chase.

Cameron asks Chase about his father and why Chase is being so hard on him. Cameron starts guessing, and Chase asks her to drop it.

The CT Scan shows that Chase's diagnosis was wrong. They start to discuss what can cause the nerve damage they are seeing. They start talking about the father's diagnosis. House wonders if anything else could have set off the anthrax.

House goes to see the father. The father's wrist still hurts, so it wasn't carpal tunnel syndrome. He tells the father that he has to tell the truth or his son will die - he wants to know how long he was in Asia. The father admits he was there for two years and lied about it because he was taken for a lot of money by a fake guru. He was never a test pilot like he told his son.

House goes back to the team. Chase guesses right - leprosy. House points out that the father had it but it's progressing slower. The anthrax was the result of the son's immune system being suppressed. When they treated him with antibiotics, the immune system started attacking most of his body's cells. House orders thalidomide, which will treat the leprosy directly without waking up the immune system.

House talks to Chase about his father. Chase denies hating his father - he just doesn't care because caring would lead to disappointment.

They treat the patient and his father. They both improve. The patient is upset that his father lied to him and he doesn't love his father. Chase says that no matter what a father does, you have no choice but to love him.

Chase goes to his father and invites him for a drink. However, Rowan has to leave. Chase promises to call his father the next time he is in Australia. They hug each other.

Clinic Patient

The patient has numbness in his hand and is being examined by Chase. House comes in and notices the patient's watch band is too tight.

Starring

Jesse Spencer as Dr. Robert Chase
Jennifer Morrison as Dr. Allyson Cameron
Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. James Wilson
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House
Omar Epps as Dr. Eric Foreman
Lisa Edelstein as Dr. Lisa Cuddy

Guest Stars

Patrick Bauchau as Dr. Rowan Chase

Previous episode:
Sports Medicine

Cursed

Next episode:
Control

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 Chase goes to the abandoned house and finds the boys playing there.  He asks them if they've been sick, and they haven't been.  All of a sudden, the kids bug out when they see a police officer coming.  Chase follows them out the window.  Chase does find some felt insulation in the abandoned house where the patient fell.  It is made up of animal hair.  They look at the patient's CT Scan and suspect [[anthrax]].
-They treat the patient for anthrax.  The patient's father is skeptical and suggests another couple of [[diagnosis|diagnoses]].  However, the patient goes into respiratory distress.  Chase takes a look inside his lungs and decides to [[intubate]] him.  The patient starts turning blue from lack of air.  Cuddy is there and is about to perform a [[tracheotomy]] when [[Eric Foreman|Foreman]] finally intubates the patient.
+They treat the patient for anthrax.  The patient's father is skeptical and suggests another couple of [[diagnosis|diagnoses]].  However, the patient goes into respiratory distress.  Chase takes a look inside his lungs and decides to [[intubation|intubate]] him.  The patient starts turning blue from lack of air.  Cuddy is there and is about to perform a [[tracheotomy]] when [[Eric Foreman|Foreman]] finally intubates the patient.
 [[Allison Cameron|Cameron]] doesn't think it is an [[allergy]] to the treatment.  House suggests they talk to Chase's father.  Rowan agrees that is probably isn't an allergy.  House thinks this rules out anthrax.  Rowan thinks it might be [[sarcoidosis]].  This would explain the swelling in the patient's throat.  However, the rash turns black, showing that it is anthrax.  Rowan argues that it is anthrax and sarcoidosis.  House argues that anthrax set off the sarcoidosis.