Teamwork (House)

"Teamwork" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of House. It aired on November 16, 2009. This episode marks the departure of Jennifer Morrison from the series, since it was stated by Fox that Cameron's character would be written out of the series by the middle of season six.

After House's medical license is reinstated, he reclaims his role as Head of Diagnostics in time to treat Hank Hardwick (guest star Troy Garity), an adult film star admitted to Princeton Plainsboro for pulsating eye pain. Cameron and Chase decide to leave Princeton Plainsboro in order to save their relationship after Dibala's death. Throughout the episode, House tries to reassemble his old team of Foreman, Cameron, Chase, Thirteen, and Taub. Taub and Thirteen initially ignore House's attempts to get them to come back. The patient's and his wife's jobs in porn make the team confront him about how dedicated they really are to each other.

House orders an STD panel, a tox screen, an ANA to look for autoimmune, a patient history, a lumbar puncture to rule out viral encephalitis, and asks to have a c-reactive protein sent to the lab to look for inflammation. Foreman has to do all this himself. During the lumbar puncture, the patient has tetany - his arm muscles contract. House goes to Taub, who says the only link between the eye and muscle is the brain, and suggests a tumor or a seizure. House then asks Thirteen who states she has an interview with a community health clinic and doesn't give an opinion. House takes her comment on her trip to Thailand as a suggestion that the patient's condition is multifocal. Foreman says cerebral vasculitis would explain the eye and arms, so House tells him to start the patient on steroids, to do a brain angiogram to confirm, and to get an EMG and nerve biopsy as well. When Foreman convinces Chase to remain on the team for the remainder of the case by telling him "you owe me this", he and Cameron agree to finish the case. Foreman gets Chase to do the brain angio.

Cameron thinks it could be a severe vitamin D deficiency, since the patient has a restrictive diet and works long hours indoors. This would explain all the patient's symptoms. Chase decides to take Hank to the phototherapy suite, blast him with ultra-violet light and give him IV vitamins as well as do the brain angio. During the UV light session, the patient gets a nosebleed and petechial hemorrhages - bleeds in his leg. This new symptom rules out both Cameron and Foreman's diagnoses. The patient's blood won't clot. Foreman notes that the UV rays made his capillaries more fragile, which sped up the onset of DIC. Cameron thinks a widespread petechial rash and nervous system involvement indicates a blood infection. She suggests meningococcemia. The team starts him on heparin for the DIC and broad-spectrum antibiotics for the infection. However, the patient soon gets a fever, meaning the antibiotics aren't working.