House Schmouse

I don't usually go in for medical shows - except Scrubs, love that. I watched the first ep of Channel 10's much-hyped new medical drama 'House' tonight. Dr House is an irascible, abrasive doctor and diagnostic genius.

The main plot for the first ep involved Rebecca, a young woman who had a seizure in front of her classroom. Never fear, by the end of the show her case was solved. She lay bathed in sunlight on her hospital bed while her students jumped all over her with glee because she hadn’t died of a brain tumour.

There were the usual side stories, which is what brings me saddle up my high horse. One scene opened with Dr House responding to a patient's concern that he may have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The patient listed some symptoms. House dismissed the symptoms as irrelevant, part of normal life, all in the patient's mind; then made derogatory remarks about the patient's illness being the result of too much medical research on the internet. (The dreaded cyberchondria!)

The patient then suggested that if it wasn’t CFS, perhaps he had Fibromyalgia. House brightened up, and responded sarcastically, "That's a great diagnosis, I can get you something for that!" He then trotted to a lolly-vending machine (I guess it was a candy-vending machine, since they’re in the USA), filled a pharmaceutical container, and left them for the patient. At the end of the show, the patient was shown returning for more 'medication'.

Rebecca was cured of her condition due to the persistence of House in finding an accurate diagnosis. In the face of scepticism from colleagues he came up with several creative diagnoses before finding the final, correct one. Rebecca was a real patient with a real illness. The man with ME/CFS, not dignified with a name, had no real medical condition - he was just a nuisance. Dr House’s medical genius was nowhere to be seen when it came to this diagnosis. He was dismissive, rude and insulting.

The frequent media portrayal of ME/CFS as the illness of hypochrondriacs is belittling and insulting. I find it irksome to see ME/CFS consistently portrayed in this manner. ME/CFS is easy for a cheap laugh because it exploits the commonly-held view that ME/CFS is not a medical condition - just an excuse for shirkers and lazy people to lay around the house reading magazines, doing the odd bit of internet research on their imaginary malady, and collecting a pension from the government.

People with this condition experience this kind of discrimination all the time. It's only a TV show, but it mirrors the treatment dished out to sufferers. Irresponsible depictions of people with ME/CFS and the illness itself by the media play a role in further promulgating misconceptions about its severity. It would be nice to see people with ME/CFS depicted accurately in the media, rather than the same-old stereotypes. A television show dealing with medical issues should do better research. I guess it’s only the first ep.

I comfort myself with the fact that whoever is responsible for verifying the medical info on the show is generally dim-witted. A scalpel was shown being used in the MRI room. MRI machines are giant magnets - that scalpel would have been flying around decapitating people like something out of Harry Potter.

Anyway, next time I'm up for some light entertainment, I’ll give House a miss. Neigh, my high horse and I will find something else.