Airborne (House)

Airborne is the eighteenth episode of the third season of House and the sixty-fourth episode overall.

Plot overview

Template:Spoiler House is returning from a pandemics symposium in Singapore with Dr. Lisa Cuddy. During the flight, the man sitting next to House (Peng) begins vomiting. He also presents with fever, headache, abdominal pain and petechial rashes on his lower back. Cuddy notes that these are classic symptoms of Meningococcus and that an outbreak of the disease is imminent. She suggests they make the plane turn back so they can seek treatment before more passengers become ill. However, House believes that it is not as serious and they can continue, and convinces the flight stewardess so.

Soon another passenger becomes ill with the same symptoms. House instructs three passengers on the plane to act like his diagnostic team: a blond boy as Chase who agrees with everything House says, a man who does not understand English as Foreman who disagrees with everything House says, and a brunette woman as Cameron who gets morally outraged at everything House says. After a discussion with his "team", House is convinced that both passengers are sick with Ciguatera poisoning as both passengers ate seafood. He announces that the rest of the passengers who ate seafood should go to the restroom and vomit.

This theory is contradicted by Cuddy, who has not eaten the sea bass, showing similar symptoms. House tells the stewardess to tell the plane not to worry, but three more people apparently succumb to the same illness. Without any medicine, House goes around the plane asking for antibiotics from the passengers. Cuddy then persuades House to do a lumbar puncture to find out whether the illness is meningitis. House convinces the plane that it is, after finding out it isn't, and diagnoses the whole plane, excluding the first victim, as having hysteria. House is about to operate on the first man, based on the assumption that he was smuggling condoms full of cocaine, and orders his "team" to hold him down. When the small boy fails to hold him down due to difference in strength and presses down on him again, House notices the patient ceases breathing heavily when the boy presses down on him. House and Cuddy searches through the man's belongings and finds a scuba card dated very recently. House diagnoses that the man has decompression sickness and boarded an airplane the next day, worsening the situation.

At the hospital, Dr. Wilson is leading House's team in the diagnosis of a 58 year old woman, Fran, with unexplained seizures and vision loss. Wilson asks a stranger (outcall prostitute) who just met Fran that day to stay and care for her because Fran does not have any relatives. However, the stranger leaves and asks Wilson to give her a call when Fran gets better. Also, Foreman questions Cameron and Chase's relationship and tells them that it is affecting their jobs. When Cameron and Chase are sent to search Fran's house for any clues, they are tempted with an empty house and an open bed. Chase still manages to make the right diagnosis, methyl bromide toxicity, before a wrong operation is done on Fran. Near the end of the episode, Chase suggests to make their relationship more than sex to which Cameron declines and ends their relationship.

Diagnosis

• Fran - Methyl Bromide toxicity from neighbor's insecticide that came through pipes
  
• Peng - Decompression sickness (the bends) from scuba diving and then taking a flight
  
• Unnamed female passenger- Pregnancy (Not definitive)
• Other passengers on the plane (including Lisa Cuddy) - Mass hysteria/Conversion disorder

Medical Terms

• Meningococcal disease
• Ciguatera fish poisoning
• Breast cancer
• Isolation
• Quarantine
• Mass hysteria
• Methyl Bromide
• Diving disorders

Clinic Patients

None

Arc advancement

Characters

• Cameron and Chase - Cameron and Chase's relationship comes to a close at the end of this episode, when Chase suggests that they should progress with their relationship which Cameron declines.

Trivia

• In the beggining of the episode House is seen requesting wine, however in the episode All In(House Episode) he states that he doesn't drink.

Behind the Scenes

• The layout of the plane depicted in the episode resembled a Boeing 767 interior, which is unable to fly non-stop from Singapore to the United States. At the time the episode is aired, Airbus A340-500 and Boeing 777-200LR are the only type capable of flying Singapore - U.S. non-stop and Singapore Airlines is the only airline flying from Singapore to U.S. non-stop with daily non-stop flights from Singapore to both Los Angeles and New York using Airbus A340-500 aircraft.
• Though they were on a Malaysian flight, the flight attendant spoke in Tagalog when she addressed Peng.

Quotes

• House: [to crying baby's mother] "Give her 20 milligrams of antihistamine, it may save her life; 'cause if she doesn't shut up, I'll kill her."

• House on airplane intercom: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a passenger with a confirmed case of bacterial meningitis..." People start to worry "...If we land as soon as possible the passenger will not survive. It's very likely that you have been infected as well." People start to look sick "As soon as you start feeling symptoms we need to isolate you into First Class cabin..." People start to cough "...fever, rash..." People start to scratch and look for a rash "...nausea. And in the late stages...tremor in the left hand." People start to shake their left hands franticly including the female patient already with full blown symptoms and panic begins to erupt
  

Flight Attendant: "What do we do?"
House: "Break out the bubbly. To passengers: YO, LISTEN UP! Bad news is you have an illness. The good news is it's not meningitis. It's not fatal, it's just embarrassing. It's conversion disorder, more commonly known as mass hysteria. It happens often in high anxiety situations, especially to women. I know it sounds sexist, but science says you're weak and soft, what can I do?" Cuddy: "House, you're wrong."
Patient: "Look at my hand!" Shaking her left hand franctically.
House: "Yeah, look at her hand. Shaking left hand. What is that a symptom of? Not meningitis. It's basically a symptom of nothing. Put the idea into their heads and watched what happened. Same thing that Peng did with puking and the rash." Peng still shaking.
Patient: "The rash is in my head?"

House: "Your mind controls your body. It thinks you're sick, it makes you sick.... (on intercom) If you all just calm down, your symptoms will soon go away. And to facilitate this process your flight crew will move through the cabin with complimentary bar service. Thank you, and as always have a pleasant flight."

• House: "You're mean."
  Cuddy: "It's how I compensate for being weak, and soft."

• Flight Attendant: "I'm in New York every Monday."
  House: "Are you handicap accessible?"

• House: "Look that way (points to the left)
  Patient: (looks to the left) Why?
  House: Because you're gonna throw up, and I don't want it on me.
  Patient throws up.

External links

• FOX.com - House official site
• Television Without Pity - House recaps
• House Episode Guide at epguides.com
• TVGuide's Page: Full list of House Episodes
• House M.D. Guide