The Jerk (House)

House (TV series) episode
episode_name = The Jerk
episode_no = HOU-323
airdate = May 15, 2007
writer = Leonard Dick
director = Daniel Sackheim [http://www.tv-now.com/stars/robsean.html Found on May 2, 2007] ]
guest_star = Nick Lane


season = 3
diagnosis = Haemochromatosis

The Jerk is the twenty-third episode of the third season of "House" and the sixty-ninth episode overall.

Plot

16-year-old Nathan Harrison (Nick Lane) collapses after suddenly losing control and beating up a fellow teen (Ben Bledsoe) he had just beaten at chess. He first complains about head pain, but other symptoms, organ failure and chemical imbalance, which may explain Nathan's rude personality, arise. Chase finds HPRT enzyme deficiency, which could mean Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome. Cameron says Kelley-Seegmiller victims self mutilate, chewing lips and banging heads against the wall. (In fact this is a mistake because what Cameron describes as the Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome is the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome which is total HPRT deficiency. The Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome means partial HPRT deficiency which does not produce the neurologic and psychotic symptoms of the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome).

The Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome matches except for the personality problem, so House suggests that his personality is not a result of the disease. While engaging in a chess match with Nathan, House realizes that Nathan holds his chess pieces in a peculiar way because he cannot bend his thumb, meaning that his bones have formed abnormally. The patient is diagnosed with haemochromatosis.

A large subplot revolves around figuring out who sabotaged Foreman's interview at a prestigious New York hospital. When House denies that he sabotaged the interview, others (Cuddy, Wilson, Cameron, & even Chase) are suspects. Chase eventually realizes that House sabotaged the interview after all, realizing that everyone was chasing ghosts. House confirms this, and says that the hospital Foreman applied to is "a place where you treat boils and cysts and build your 401(k)."

References

[Fox.com official house site] [House M.D. guide]

External links

* [http://www.housemd-guide.com/ House M.D. Guide]
* [http://www.fox.com/house/ FOX.com - "House" official site]
* [http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/house/ Television Without Pity - "House" recaps]
* [http://epguides.com/House/ House Episode Guide at epguides.com]
* [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/house/100213/ TVGuide's Page: Full list of House Episodes]
* [http://politedissent.com/archives/1652 Medical review of "The Jerk"]