醫師靠電視影集「怪醫豪斯」幫忙診斷病人 Doctor diagnoses man with help from TV’s ’House’

If you’re unlucky enough to be stricken with a rare medical condition, you’d better hope your doctor watches the right television show.

假如你不幸罹患了罕見疾病，你最好希望你的醫生看對了電視節目。

That was the lesson for one German man with severe heart failure and a puzzling mix of symptoms including fever, blindness, deafness and enlarged lymph nodes, which baffled doctors for months.

德國一名出現嚴重心臟衰竭，以及包括發燒、失明、失聰和淋巴結腫大等連串費解症狀的男子就學到了這個教訓，醫師們數月來對他的病情都束手無策。

The 55-year-old man was diagnosed only when he was referred to Dr. Juergen Schaefer, a fan of the U.S. television medical drama, "House.""After five minutes, I knew what was wrong," said Schaefer, who works at the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases in Marburg, north of Frankfurt.

這名55歲的男子直到被轉診給謝佛醫生後才被診斷出病因。謝佛是美國電視醫學戲劇影集「怪醫豪斯」的忠實影迷。「我5分鐘內就知道哪裡有問題，」謝佛說，他是法蘭克福北方馬堡市「疑難疾病中心」的醫師。

He said the man’s symptoms matched up almost perfectly with a patient on an episode in which the fictional Dr. Gregory House identified cobalt poisoning as the cause.

他說這名男子的症狀和其中一集影集裡的病人幾乎完全一致，影集中的豪斯醫生認出鈷中毒為病因。

Schaefer regularly uses the television series to teach medical students. When he saw the patient with heart failure in May 2012, he had recently prepared a lecture on the show’s cobalt poisoning case, where House’s future mother-in-law falls ill after receiving a faulty metal hip.

謝佛經常使用這部影集來為醫學院學生上課。當他在2012年5月為這名患者進行診療時，他才剛剛用影集裡的鈷中毒病例準備課堂演講內容，在這一集中，豪斯未來的岳母是在換上有瑕疵的金屬髖關節後才生病。

While Schaefer said he is sometimes referred to as the German Dr. House, he isn’t sure the nickname is a compliment. The television doctor was known as much for his rude, abrasive manner as for his expertise in diagnosing rare ailments.

雖然謝佛說他有時會被稱為德國豪斯醫生，但他不確定這個綽號是讚美。電視裡的豪斯醫生素以態度粗魯無禮，以及擅長診斷罕見疾病著稱。

"I would have fired this guy after the first three episodes," Schaefer said. Still, he said the fictional doctor’s appalling bedside manner was ultimately outweighed by his unparalleled diagnostic skills. "It’s important to be nice, but you don’t get patients healthy just by being nice."

「在3集後我就會開除他，」謝佛說。不過他也說，這位虛構的醫師對病人的態度雖然差勁，他卓越的診斷技巧終究更為重要。「待人親切很要緊，但光靠親和力是沒法讓病人恢復健康的。」
新聞辭典

stricken：形容詞，正式用語，指受到疾病、困難或不幸所打擊，受災的、罹病的、受苦的，如She had been stricken with polio as a child.（她自幼就罹患小兒麻痺症。）

match up：指一致、符合，如 His story doesn’t match up with the facts.（他的說法與事實不符。）

bedside manner：名詞，指醫生或護士對待病人的態度，如A number of patients have complained about the doctor’s impersonal bedside manner.（好些患者都抱怨這位醫生對病人態度冷淡。）