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MAY 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
Erdheim-
Chester disease
Season 2, Episode 17
A little boy with stomach
problems is brought to
the hospital. Although
House’s team suspects a
simple viral infection, the
boy is discovered to have
Erdheim-Chester disease,
an extremely rare white
blood cell disorder.
The disease is House’s
white whale. As the
episode reveals, a
previous patient
named Ester had
the same malady
in a similar
presentation,
but House didn’t
diagnose it in
time to save her.
Strongyloidiasis
Season 4, Episode 3
Some on House’s team
correctly suspect that
the patient picked up
Strongyloides
parasites in
Thailand. But they aren’t
proven right until after the
patient
and
his dog die (the
pooch, an English shepherd,
ate the medicine that would
have cured its master).
The coincidence, since
the doctors aren’t sure
of their diagnosis until
learning the patient’s
dog is also dead. “It
only takes one pill to
cure that parasite,”
says Sotos, “and
that’s enough to
be poisonous to
certain breeds of dog,
including English
shepherds.”
Experimental
drug poisoning
Season 5, Episode 3
An artist who has been par-
ticipating in pharmaceutical
drug tests begins having
distorted perceptions
and hallucinations. The
symptoms turn out to be
the result of experimental
drugs being slowly released
from a ball of undigested
food in his stomach.
No restrictions. “Our
general rule is, if it hap-
pened once, it’s fair game,”
says Sotos. “But here, we
weren’t constrained by
precedents. We could
basically make stuff up
because these were
drugs that no one had ever
taken before. We had a
license to kill.”
culture
||
TheMonth Ahead
The Doctor Is Out
Dr. Gregory House will make his grand exit with the May 21 series finale of
Fox’s “House M.D.,” ending an eight-year run of cantankerously diagnosing
bizarre afflictions. We asked Dr. John Sotos, a longtime medical consultant
for “House,” about some of the show’s more extreme maladies.
Inside Track
Known today as an
actor (
Seabiscuit
) and
racing analyst, Gary
Stevens in his jockey
days notched 4,800-plus
wins and a Hall of Fame
berth. With the Ken-
tucky Derby arriving
May 5, we’re reminded
that few in the horse
racing world can walk
the walk like this guy.
But as for talking the
talk
—well, he was nice
enough to give us a few
insider phrases to drop.
Don’t get caught in a blind
switch.
“This is the kind of
thing a trainer may warn
a jockey about, meaning
don’t go into an opening
in the pack if you don’t see
an exit. It’s basically a trap
that older jockeys set for
younger jockeys—and yes,
I fell for it too, early on!”
He was walking the dog.
“Say I was in a race out
in front, going easy and
well within the scope
of the horse’s abilities,
and someone asks me
afterward, ‘How was the
ride?’ I’d say, ‘Heck, I was
just walking the dog.’”
That one’s a real morning
glory.
“This means a horse
that’s been working out
tremendously in the a.m.
but wilts come afternoon
race time. It’s the opposite
of, say, Silver Charm,
who didn’t impress in the
morning at all” and yet
won the Derby and the
Preakness in 1997, with
Stevens aboard.
NE IN THEWORLD
TWICE AS GOOD AT PLAY-
BALL … ALBERT PUJOLS
TILL BE A BASEBALL SUPER-
YOU. HEWOULD JUST BE
GOOD AS HE IS NOW.”
From
10½ Things No Commencement Speaker Has
Ever Said
, a collection of unconventional gradua-
tion advice by Dartmouth College commencement
speaker and economist Charles Wheelan.
out may 7
“IF EVERYO
BECAME
ING BASE
WOULD S
STAR, NOT
TWICE AS
DISEASE
EPISODE
PLOT
WHAT
MAKES IT
EXTREME