1) Naegleria symptoms in real life vs. symptoms in the show. Euphoria, anton’s blindness, and hyperalgesia…the three major symptoms presented in the show are not symptoms of naegleria or PAM as indicated by any of the sources regarding this infection. The only symptom that they got right, as far as I can tell, is that the infection reaches the brain stem and shuts down the body (which is why Foreman can’t revive Joe) Please, if anyone has found any sources that show that these symptoms are actually connected to naegleria or PAM, I would love to see it, I am really interested.

2) Given the late diagnosis of Foreman, he should have died. In real life, the mortality rates for the infection are well over 90%.

What bugged me a lot the first time I watched and now: why is it allowed to do a brain biopsy on Foreman, even though he is infected with an unknown disease, but they can’t touch the dead guy to do an authopsy? Wouldn’t the risks of exposure be pretty much the same? Couldn’t they do the authopsy in an isolation room just like the one the patients were in?

I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that it was just a writer’s resource to intensify the drama, to make everyone blame Cuddy and make her feel guilty.

It worked great for the drama, and the scene where Cameron loses her temper and tells Cuddy she was a “hero” was awesome. But I’m still very curious if it makes any sense, medically and legally.

Excrutiating pain, like euphoria, is not a common symptom for Naegleria either. I don’t know where they got the symptoms for Naegleria meningitis from, but they did not show in any way how the disease typically presents.

I see where they might have gotten the idea to treat Naegleria and Legionella from, as both organisms are found in nature in water and there Legionella can actually feed on Naegleria. BUT, as mentioned above, inside the body, the two organisms are in two completely different locations and the show forgets that there’s something called an incubation period for any infection and Foreman would have died before showing any signs of Legionaire’s disease.

Every Naegleria patient thus far has had a history of submerging his or her head in water, and I just don’t think the cop or Foreman could’ve been infected from their minor exposure.

Naegleria does not as a rule cause euphoria or giddiness. This may have been a symptom in an unique case, but in general the disease has an initial presentation identical to bacterial meningitis.

Legionella is not a treatment for Naegleria! This is by far the dumbest part of the show, medically. Legionella’s home is the lungs and wouldn’t even bump into a Naegleria parasite, which is in the brain. Besides, Legionella would have to take like 3 days to establish an infection and by that time Foreman would have been dead.

White matter biopsy is not used to diagnose Naegleria and I’m not sure would have found anything. A wet mount of CSF from a lumbar puncture would have worked here. The very few successful treatments of Naegleria had one thing in common: Early diagnosis by CSF examination and treatment with amphotericin B and some other drugs.

Foreman should have died. There is no one way to save someone with amebic meningitis that is already almost dead. His frickin’ O2 stats was already dropping!

These reviews are really interesting and they do sometimes make the medi-babble clearer. Thanks!