The Jerk

"The Jerk" is the twenty-third episode of the third season of House and the sixty-ninth episode overall. Nate, an obnoxious sixteen-year-old chess prodigy (Nick Lane) collapses after suddenly losing control and beating up a fellow teen (Ben Bledsoe) he had just beaten at chess. He first complains about head pain, but other symptoms, hypogonadism, organ failure, and chemical imbalance which may explain Nate's rude personality, arise. Chase finds H... more

"The Jerk" is the twenty-third episode of the third season of House and the sixty-ninth episode overall. Nate, an obnoxious sixteen-year-old chess prodigy (Nick Lane) collapses after suddenly losing control and beating up a fellow teen (Ben Bledsoe) he had just beaten at chess. He first complains about head pain, but other symptoms, hypogonadism, organ failure, and chemical imbalance which may explain Nate's rude personality, arise. Chase finds HPRT enzyme deficiency, which could mean Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome. Cameron says Kelley-Seegmiller victims self-mutilate, chew their lips, and bang their heads against the wall. [This is incorrect; what Cameron describes is actually the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, which is total HPRT deficiency. Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome means partial HPRT deficiency which does not produce the neurologic and psychotic symptoms of the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.] The Kelley-Seegmiller syndrome matches -- except for the personality problem, so House suggests that his... less