Also known as: Meningitis
A judge at a campus pool center collapsed from bacterial meningitis, creating a quarantine situation at the hospital with hundreds of potentially exposed people being screened. This drives the episode's setting but is not the central diagnostic mystery.
Also known as: TTP
A 12-year-old competitive diver presents with fever, rash, neck pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, and seizures. House ultimately diagnoses TTP triggered by pregnancy, requiring plasmapheresis and termination of pregnancy to save her life. This is the central diagnostic mystery of the episode.
Also known as: Unplanned pregnancy
The underlying cause of Mary's TTP is revealed to be pregnancy, an extremely rare trigger in a 12-year-old. The pregnancy must be terminated as part of her treatment, creating ethical tension around parental notification.
Also known as: Brain bleed
Mary develops bleeding in her temporal lobe as a complication of TTP, requiring emergency neurosurgery to relieve intracranial pressure before the underlying cause can be treated.
Also known as: Seizure
Mary experiences frequent absence seizures (up to five in half an hour) as a manifestation of her TTP and intracranial bleeding, helping to localize the problem to her brain.
Also known as: GI bleed
Mary presents with blood in her GI tract, identified via lavage and endoscopy. A Dieulafoy lesion is found, which is part of the constellation of bleeding complications from TTP.