TV & Medical : Monsters Inside Me x House M.D.

Image from blogspot

Have been re-rewatching House these days in order to train up my analytical skills. I picked up Season 2 episode 20 and 21 (Euphoria part 1 and 2) as the point of sharing today.

House and Foreman's dad in Cuddy's office
Image from blogspot

In these two episodes, a police officer Joe was admitted to the hospital with the symptoms of euphoria, fever, lost of vision (Anton's Syndrome) and eventually, he suffered from hyperalgesia before he died. Before he died, he was diagnosed with a disease which we have previously discussed, Legionnaire's Disease.

Foreman was infected by Joe and isolated
Image from blogspot

Foreman also showed Joe's symptoms and had to be isolated and it was then a race to save his life. After overcoming many difficulties, House discovered that it was due to an amoeba that thrives in contaminated water, which attacked Joe and Foreman's brain, called Naegleria fowleri. 

That lead us to the TV program recommendation today!

Interesting thing about this show is the number of parasites they introduce and how many of them are we exposed to. All cases discussed are in the form of ex-patients' recount and some of them appeared as the final diagnoses in House M.D.

If you have missed the shows, the above videos offer you short preview, and DVDs are available. Definitely a great resource for learning English!


Vocabulary:
euphoria -- (n) [U] simply put it, happiness. Euphoria can also be the result of a psychological disorder.
hyperalgesia -- (n) is an increased sensitivity to pain, which may be caused by damage to nociceptors or peripheral nerves. Temporary increased sensitivity to pain also occurs as part of sickness behavior, the evolved response to infection.
Legionnaire's Disease -- see Medical: Legionnaires' Disease @ QE
Naegleria fowleri -- see the video above. A free-living excavate form of protist typically found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs. It is also found in soil, near warm water discharges of industrial plants, and minimally chlorinated swimming pools (there is no evidence of this organism living in ocean water) in an amoeboid or temporary flagellate stage. Not a true amoeba, the organism is often referred to as an amoeba for convenience.
expose sb to sth -- phrasal verb [usually passive] to make it likely that someone will experience something harmful or unpleasant
recount -- (vb) [T] formal to describe how something happened; to tell a story


Resources:
House MD Episode Guide
http://www.housemd-guide.com/season2/221euphoria2.php

Polite Dissent
http://www.politedissent.com/archives/1220

Hyperalgesia @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperalgesia

Discovery Channel Official Website
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/monsters-inside-me-the-brain-eating-amoeba.html

Euphoria @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoria


Hyperalgesia  @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperalgesia

Medical: Legionnaires' Disease @ QE @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/04/medical-legionnaires-disease-qe.html

Naegleria fowleri @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri#Lifecycle

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/expose-sb-to-sth#expose-sb-to-sth__2

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/recount_1?q=recount