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I have never seen the show but I had a real life "House" moment yesterday.
Family brings in this guy who lives in Arkansas. He has been losing weight and is becoming progressively weaker. Docs in Arkansas have run tests but can't figure it out. So, family brings him in to the DFW area (where they live) and bring him to our ER where he gets admitted to me.
I come in and start to see the guy, he has neck muscle weakness, jaw muscle weakness, his eyelids are drooping to the point of almost being closed and he says that after he swallows a few bites of a meal he can't seem to get the muscles to work anymore to get the rest of the food down.
Answer???
Myasthenia Gravis.
I asked the family about 5 minutes into the interview if anyone had worked him up for myasthenia gravis and they said no. It was an absolute textbook presentation. I called in the neurologist and he agreed with the diagnosis, we sent off the labs to confirm but that will take 4-5 days. Meanwhile we are treating him for myasthenia.
It feels good to make a diagnosis based solely on clinical presentation like that, it wasn't any great feat though, any 3rd year med student could have made that diagnosis it was so obvious. I was honestly shocked the docs in Arkansas didn't figure it out.
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Rick
1984 911 coupe
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