Sanders, Lisa

Relates stories of medical mysteries and very rare diseases and conditions that the author, Yale School of Medicine physician Lisa Sanders, used to inspire and advise on the hit TV show "House, M.D." Collects some of Sanders' favorite and most outlandish medical stories--including the story of a twenty-eight-year-old man who collapsed on a dance floor after eating barracuda; an elephant trainer in a traveling circus who is set on with terrible headaches after being head-butted by a zebra; and a woman who began with just a mild rash on her hands who, two days later, had whiplike rash streaks all over her body.

Describes the process by which physicians make difficult diagnoses, drawing from what they know from their studies and applying that knowledge to real-life people, and shares the stories of several seemingly impossible diagnoses.