Paternity (House episode)
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| House episode | |
| "Paternity" | |
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| Episode No | HOU-102 |
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| Airdate | November 23, 2004 |
| Writer(s) | Lawrence Kaplow |
| Director(s) | Peter O'Fallon |
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| All House episodes | |
Contents |
[edit] Plot Overview
When a clinic patient walks in to Princeton Plainsboro complaining of double vision and night terrors, House is skeptical because they have a "letter" that they say was written by him. House realizes that it was written by Cameron, but still listens to the patient. The patient, named Dan, is a 16 year old lacrosse player who recently got hit in the head in a game. House dismisses the symptoms as a concussion and bad vision and is about to send him home when he notices Dan's foot is twitching, something uncommon in awake people. House immediately admits Dan and begins to run tests.
House tries to bother Dan's parents by claiming that Dan's father isn't his true biological father. His father vehemently denies it, but House still makes a bet with Foreman about it. Soon after, Dan has another night terror. None of the tests show why the night terror occurred, but House finds a large blockage in one of Dan's blood vessels. House and his team relieved the pressure as fast as they could, but they find that the blockage isn't what is causing the other symptoms. It is, in fact, a symptom itself.
During the night, Dan suddenly disappears from his bed. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman search frantically to find him, and they finally find him on the roof. Foreman tackles him just before he steps over the edge of the building. Dan is confused and disoriented, and Foreman's report to House about the incident thrills House. House believes that because of the event in the night, Dan's night terrors are gone. When House and his team are injecting penicillin into Dan's brain, he has an auditory hallucination and rules out the neurosyphilis that Foreman believed was the problem. House, after convicing Dan's parents to go to Dan who is hearing voices, steals their cups to run paternity and maternity tests. The tests show that neither are Dan's parents (winning him his bet with Foreman, Wilson, and everyone else who joined), and a new idea hits him. He remembers a baby he treated earlier whose mother did not want to vaccinate the child.
House thinks that infant Dan caught the basic measles virus from his biological mother, who had never been vaccinated supposedly, that laid latent for 16 years and reappeared in his brain. After a dangerous brain biopsy, House's theory is confirmed, and Dan gets well and goes back to playing lacrosse. House is later shown watching Dan play lacrosse, and seems to be dreaming about days before, and clutches his cane like a lacrosse stick.
[edit] Diagnoses
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was slated to air as the 5th episode in the series originally, but was moved later. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ Fox.com recap of Paternity, retrieved November 24, 2006.
