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“I’ve got a case that might interest you.”
Dr Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine and the hospital administrator of
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, told her most awkward and irritating practitioner
of medicine, passing him a case file as he headed out of his office door.
“Asian teenager, sixteen years old, came in by ambulance an hour ago.”
“So?” The Doctor she was talking to didn’t
seem amused as he leant on his cane and flicked through the file. “Coma? Why
would that interest me?”
“No trauma, no drugs, he just collapsed
after playing a card game and didn’t get back up.”
“Family history?”
“Father’s a drunkard with a shot liver, but
the rest of his family’s clear, the mother’s side have a clean bill of health
too. The little sister nearly went blind around two years ago, the kid’s
adopted brother won the prize money that paid for the operation to save her
sight.”
“And the brother?”
“World famous.” Cuddy warned. “The King of
Games.”
“Medical history.” The Doctor rolled his
eyes, “Not life story.”
“Brother looks malnourished and is
certainly smaller then is normal for his age.” Cuddy replied without missing a
beat, well versed in the Doctor’s ways, “Other then that, he has a completely
clean medical history. No recent illnesses other then a cold.”
“And the patient slipped into a coma for no
apparent reason?”
“None at all.”
“Insurance?”
“The medical bills are being footed by
Kaiba Corp.”
“Who?”
“The second largest games company in the
world,” Cuddy glared at him, “Don’t screw this one up, House, the CEO of the
company used to hire hit men. I do not want to have to replace the carpet
because you irritated the wrong person.”
Gregory House snorted, “Then you picked the
wrong Doctor.” He said, going to hand back the file. “I enjoy irritating my patients.
Haven’t you heard? It’s a hobby.”
“Just take the case.”
“Why?”
“Because I told Kaiba Corp that I’d get my
best Doctor on it.”
House waited.
“And I’ll let you off four hours of clinic
duty this week.”
“Let’s go see Sleeping Beauty.” House replied,
shutting the file and staggering off down the corridor, carefully.
Cuddy rolled her eyes and sighed. There’d
be complaints by the end of the day, she could guarantee it.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
“You can’t be serious.” Dr Robert Chase, a
specialist in Intensive Care and Cardiology, was protesting, “You’re telling me
a child can win more then we make in a year, just by playing a card game?”
“It’s not just a card game to those who
play it.” Dr Allison Cameron, the team’s specialist in Immunology and Internal
Medicine, protested, “And it’s not only kids who play.”
“I’m not surprised with that sort of money
on the table.” Dr Eric Foreman, the Neurology specialist, snorted, as he waited
for the coffee maker to finish.
“I played for a while.” Cameron said
indignantly, “For fun, not for money.”
“Doesn’t mean that there aren’t some adults
out there who wouldn’t like an easy way to get two million dollars.” Foreman
pointed out, as Dr House, the team’s leader, the Head of the Department of
Diagnostic Medicine and a specialist in Infectious Diseases and Nephrology,
walked in, leaning heavily on his cane, came over to the coffee maker, took
Foreman’s coffee, wrote Sleeping Beauty along the top of the white board that
took up quite a sizeable part of the room, and settled at the table with the
cup.
“I just can’t believe that the World
Champion is sixteen years old.” Chase grumbled.
“I bet he has more then the one million
dollar prize on his mind at the moment.” House said, tossing the marker to
Foreman, “His adopted brother’s in a coma.” There was silence for a moment,
“Differential diagnosis people, sixteen year old Asian male, 62 kg, roughly
five foot ten, fell into a coma for no good reason about an hour and a half
ago.”
“Drugs?” Chase offered quickly.
“Kid doesn’t touch them apparently.” House
answered just as fast.
“And you believe him?” Chase sounded
surprised.
“Patient’s not saying much.”
“You believe whoever you spoke to?” Foreman
looked sceptical.
“No, but I’m giving you what I know.”
“We should run a toxscreen.” Chase decided.
“Because it’s impossible for there to be a
sixteen year old male who doesn’t take drugs?” Cameron demanded, “There could
be any number of reasons he’s in a coma.”
“Drugs are the most likely cause…”
House watched the two banter as Foreman
wrote down the one symptom they had and then wrote down possible causes
underneath.
“Trauma.” Foreman spoke over Cameron and
Chase’s discussion, interrupting them and causing them to look at him, “Head
injuries might explain…”
“The only kind of fighting he’s been doing
recently is with a Duel Disk.” House disagreed.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be obvious,
or even that recent.” Foreman pointed out, “If there was an older injury that
was left untreated, the effects from that could be causing the coma now.”
“Virus or bacteria?” Cameron offered,
thinking.
“Patient wasn’t sick, right up until the
time he collapsed.”
“So it’s not drugs, he wasn’t in a fight
and it could be some obscure virus that has no symptoms at all except a coma?”
Chase sounded justifiably irritated.
“Chase, run a toxscreen, I bet you twenty that
it comes up negative for drugs. Cameron, MRI, if it’s something in his brain, I
want to see it. Foreman, talk to the children he came in with. See if they can
think of any symptoms he was showing.”
“Why can’t I talk to the kids?” Cameron
demanded.
“Because one of them is small enough for
you to take home and you get attached far too easily.”
They waited for a moment.
“What are you waiting for? Marching
orders?” House demanded, “Fine, hup two three four…”
Cameron, Chase and Foreman left.
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