A Case for House

The Home pages of The Straits Times, Singapore's main daily, reports of a 10 year old twin girl dying from a flesh eating disease. Apparently, she grew a lump on her arm and was brought to the hospital. She was given medicine for the lump which did not subside.

On her third admission to the hospital, the fingers on her right hand had turned black. Doctors ran an xray and suspected there was pus on her arm. Upon surgery, it was discovered the lump was caused by a blood clot. However, Noni was already too weak and had irregular heartbeat. She was suffering from blood poisoning. She passed away on Thursday. Her twin sister Nona is now left to play alone by herself, and misses her sister badly.

Reading this article in the news reminds me of the popular cable television series, House. It was ironic that last week's episode was about a man who was dying from a flesh eating disease and had his right arm amputated to prevent the bacteria from infecting the rest of his body. It seems so surreal to read about the same flesh eating disease claiming the life of a 10 year old girl. After all, its a television program is just a program, is it not?