In response to Foreman's concern, Elion handled the situation with remarkable calm and intelligence: "I stayed up late studying, sorry for arriving a little late."
Foreman raised his eyebrows, a little surprised that someone as well-prepared as Elion still stayed up late studying.
Perhaps that was the secret that made him someone so talented.
But quite the opposite of what Foreman thought, Elion believed he was far from being someone important. His only good quality was knowing the type of disease in all of House's cases; that alone was what made him better.
Elion thought he still had a long way to go to become a good doctor, without stopping to look at his entire path so far and what he had accomplished without asking for help.
"You should sleep more; you won't be of any use to us if you're not at your best." Foreman knew something was happening to Elion, but he couldn't identify what it was.
Elion smiled and told everyone that he was fine.
Then he entered the conference room.
Everyone's worries were a minor issue; what they needed to focus on most now was the patient's condition.
House, who had entered the meeting room first, had already taken out a whiteboard and was rapidly writing something on it with a marker.
Elion looked at him from a distance; there on the board were described the symptoms currently presented by the patient who had been brought to the emergency room.
"Cough, abdominal pain, rash, nausea, fever, renal failure, low blood pressure."
After finishing writing, House turned around and asked the people seated in the room: "What do you think about this case?"
Cameron looked at the group of thoughtful people and spoke first: "Could it be an allergy? Allergies can explain symptoms such as abdominal pain, rash, nausea, and fever."
After Cameron took the initiative to speak, Chase followed her example and expressed his point of view: "Yersinia infection?"
That diagnosis was immediately refuted by Foreman, who said: "That would be ideal if the patient didn't present with cough and rash. I think it could be arthritis, with nerve damage caused by complications such as vasculitis."
Foreman's words were met with opposition from Cameron.
"No, that wouldn't cause blood pressure problems. Maybe parasites? Diseases caused by parasites can also present with four or more of the symptoms above."
Seeing Chase refute Foreman, he thought about it for a moment and said: "It's not impossible, but…"
"Stop for a moment."
Before Foreman could finish speaking, House interrupted him, impatiently throwing a thick book in front of him and opening it:
"Foreman, if you want to list all the diseases that don't meet the criteria, I suggest you do it in alphabetical order. It'll be faster."
Foreman took a deep breath, suppressing his dissatisfaction with House. Then he closed the open book in front of him and looked at Elion, who had remained silent: "Do you have anything, anything at all matters."
Seeing that Foreman had asked the silent Elion, he, of course, had always thought to be much calmer in the cases that were presented.
"Well, we shouldn't depend on Elion to solve all the cases either. We struggle to imagine a disease that has all seven characteristics at once, and he could have the same problem." Chase relieved some of the pressure on Elion, who still had a severe headache.
"Who knows, maybe this time he's right too." Foreman mocked the fact that, ironically, an intern had lately been making better diagnoses than they had.
Chase shook his head upon hearing Foreman's sarcastic comments and remained silent.
"To be honest, I know what kind of phenomenon can cause this to happen." Elion, who thought that if he gained a few extra hours of life his pain might disappear, decided to help with the diagnosis.
Upon hearing this, even House looked at Elion in disbelief.
The purpose of the diagnostic department is to gather collective wisdom, eliminate impossible options one by one through suggestions from multiple people, and thus find the correct diagnosis.
That is why House asked everyone to express their opinions, hoping to find a way to understand the underlying problem and identify the correct symptom.
But so far, he couldn't think of any related symptom.
Elion said he knew it? How outrageous!
Although House often says unreliable things, he actually has incredible confidence.
Even he struggled to discern the truth, and Elion certainly didn't have the capacity to do so either!
Then House looked him in the eyes and asked: "You've got it?"
"I know that among the seven symptoms, the cough must be considered separately. The other six symptoms, however, are related to a single thing: colchicine!"
Upon hearing the word "chocolate," Chase immediately burst out laughing, interrupting Elion's words.
"Come on, the drug with the most colchicine is used to treat gout! Does he have uric acid crystals in his joints? Does he feel pain, swelling, redness, or stiffness in his limbs? Why can't I see any of those symptoms?"
Chase's voice trailed off when he saw that House seemed thoughtful.
This meant that Elion wasn't simply talking nonsense; there really was a possibility that colchicine had some effect!
Seeing that everyone had fallen silent, Elion continued along the same line of thought: "Yes, the patient didn't have gout, but it's possible that he accidentally took medication for gout."
"Following the progression of those events, his first symptom was the cough, and he probably went to the doctor because of it. It's possible that the pharmacist prescribed the wrong medication or that there was an issue with the doctor's prescription."
"In any case, the probability of either one going wrong is roughly the same. Eventually, his cough didn't heal; instead, the improper use of colchicine obstructed mitosis and stopped cell division."
"This causes the body's cells to continuously die without being replaced, which triggers various symptoms. The symptoms include, but are not limited to, abdominal pain, rash, nausea, fever, renal failure, and low blood pressure.
Does that sound familiar? These are the six symptoms that appear on the board."
"Then problems in the bone marrow will probably appear, followed by neuropathy, tingling in the fingers and toes, hair loss, and finally, death."
"All we need to do is give him fragments of immunoglobulins that bind to antigens and neutralize colchicine, and some Tylenol tablets to reduce the fever and relieve the pain; that way, we'll finish this quickly."
After hearing Elion's analysis and diagnosis, the meeting room fell silent.
Everyone here has extensive medical knowledge, and they all understand that what Elion said makes a lot of sense.
As for verifying whether Elion's statement is correct or incorrect, it's very simple: just ask the patient what cough medicine he is taking and have it analyzed.
So, after a brief moment of surprise, House suppressed his astonishment and gave the order: "Then, Elion, the task of obtaining the patient's cough medicine is in your hands."
Elion nodded and left the conference room.
After Elion left, Chase spoke approvingly: "How did he arrive at that diagnosis?"
"I don't know, but it was as if he had a supercomputer in his brain, quickly retrieving the correct option." Foreman had long since resigned himself to questioning where the young doctor's qualities in this department came from.
Cameron laughed softly: "This intern is truly exceptional; he's the best intern I've ever seen."
"Haha, he's probably also the most attractive of them all." Chase, who wasn't the ideal person to talk about appearance, joked a little.
"That was strange…" Foreman murmured, somewhat confused.
House slammed his hand on the table: "Gentlemen, let's reserve our opinions until we see a sample of the cough syrup."
"Even the diagnosis closest to the truth still needs to be supported by empirical evidence."