House, M.D.

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Factual error: There are several episodes where doctors continue to defibrillate a patient even after s/he flatlines. A flatline (asystole, where there is no electrical activity in the heart) cannot be corrected by defibrillation, which stops a heart that's in an abnormal rhythm and gives it a chance to start in a normal one (the heart has already stopped when there is a flatline).

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Factual error: In an episode with a severely overweight patient who is thought to have diabetes, it is discovered he instead has Chagas disease. Cameron then informs the patient that he acquired this illness from his food when, in fact, Chagas disease is a protozoan that is spread through the bite of the triatomine bug.

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Suggested correction: While the main vector for the infection is through the triatomine bug, Trypanosoma cruzi (the parasitic organism that causes the disease) can be transmitted through food, and thus Chagas was caused by the food the patient ate. It should also be noted that Trypanosoma cruzi is not transmitted by the bite of the triatomine bug, but rather through its feces, and it's only spreads once the feces enters the blood stream (which it can do through a bite site or scratching an open wound).

Bishop73

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Factual error: Every time there is a patient given a non-rebreather O2 mask, the bag is uninflated. The correct way of administering O2 through a NRB is to inflate the bag first, which would be the reservoir for the O2; a common mistake in many Hollywood medical shows.

Role Model - S1-E17

Factual error: House and Foreman tell the Senator that he has toxoplasmosis, which is caused by a fungus. Toxoplasmosis is actually caused by a protozoan parasite.

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Joy to the World - S5-E11

Trivia: This episode contains another reference to Sherlock Holmes. Wilson tells the (fictional) story of who had sent House a present. Wilson says it was one of House's first patients called Irena Adler. He then explains that House had feelings for the patient, but did not take it any further and therefore regards her as the 'woman who got away'. Irene Adler was an adversary who bettered Sherlock Holmes - the woman who got away. As it happens, the fist patient House treats in the pilot episode is called Rebecca Adler.

Jeff Walker

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Whatever It Takes - S4-E6

Question: In this episode, Cuddy gives House crap about lying that he was working for the CIA. Exactly how did a CIA helicopter land on the hospital roof, and the hospital's dean not notice it?

Answer: She would have No Reason to know it belonged to the CIA. If she did know he went off in the helicopter, all she would know is that it wasn't an ambulance helicopter.

Greg Dwyer

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