Factual error: There are several episodes where doctors continue to defibrillate a patient even after s/he flatlines. A flatline (asystole, where there is no electrical activity in the heart) cannot be corrected by defibrillation, which stops a heart that's in an abnormal rhythm and gives it a chance to start in a normal one (the heart has already stopped when there is a flatline).
Factual error: Every time there is a patient given a non-rebreather O2 mask, the bag is uninflated. The correct way of administering O2 through a NRB is to inflate the bag first, which would be the reservoir for the O2; a common mistake in many Hollywood medical shows.
Factual error: During one of his clinic patients' houses, he gets 36 Vicodin from the pharmacy. A free clinic would never give out narcotics.
Factual error: House is playing 'Metroid: Zero Mission' on his Gameboy at various times. The Metroid series does not feature space monkeys, nor are there distinct levels. The sounds coming from the game in the show do not match it in real life, and Samus morphing into a ball is most definitely not a failure state.
Factual error: The whole episode is caused by medications being mistaken for one another. But the reason why is actually impossible. The patient states that the pills he took (in error due to a switch) had no letter or marking on them. With few exceptions - none of which apply to the medication the patient took - the US FDA law states that all solid medications must have a letter and/or number on each pill which allows them to be identified. No pharmacist would ever give out blank pills.
Factual error: House's team listed the potential offending organisms of the infection as "MRSA, H. Flu, VRE, and pseudomonas." House then suggests Vancomycin and Aztreonam. Vancomycin only covers gram (+) organisms and Aztreonam only covers gram (-) organisms. VRE is a gram (+) organism, thus it would not be covered by Aztreonam. VRE stands for vancomycin resistant enterococcus, thus it would not be covered by Vancomycin either. House's team therefore failed to cover for an offending organism that could have caused the infection during their initial differential. (00:09:10)
Fidelity (aka: Truth or Consequences) - S1-E7
Factual error: House rules out Lyme disease from being the cause of the sickness, since he says Lyme disease presents with a rash, which the husband would have noticed. However, although a rash is a common symptom of Lyme disease, it is by no means universal. Estimates suggest that around one-third of people with the disease don't exhibit that symptom. Doctors wouldn't therefore rule out Lyme disease solely in the absence of a rash. (00:10:25)
Factual error: When going into anaphylactic shock, the patient is given epinephrine in her forearm. Epi would be given into her lateral thigh, or deltoid muscle. The forearm would be the least ideal place for an IM injection.
Factual error: The rabies foreman was experiencing is advanced enough that there is complete numbness to the bite area. As such, it would almost certainly have been untreatable in real life - by the time symptoms actually show, cases are almost always fatal.
Factual error: The scene where Wilson gives Foreman his rabies jabs was outdated even by the early 2000s when the episode is set. Rabies shots haven't been administered to the abdomen since the 1980s - particularly not in the First World.
Role Model - S1-E17
Factual error: House and Foreman tell the Senator that he has toxoplasmosis, which is caused by a fungus. Toxoplasmosis is actually caused by a protozoan parasite.
Factual error: When House is looking over his whiteboard of symptoms for the swimming patient, the symptom "Intercranial Hemorrhage" is shown on the board. However, this is an error. The correct term is "Intracranial Hemorrhage." Anything inside the head is referred to as "intra" not "inter." This is a common mistake for laypeople, however the highly trained and knowledgeable Dr. House should not have made that error. (00:31:25)
Factual error: When Andie is going in for her MRI, Chase starts the machine with Andie's steel IV pole in the room. No doctor would ever do that considering the damage that would be done to machine and patient. (00:05:45)
Factual error: The patient is diagnosed with legionnaire's disease, caught from the AC unit above their desk. The legionella bacteria causing the disease is found in warm water (commonly dehumidifiers, industrial AC cooling towers, hot water tanks) - the key point being that a water source is required. The problem with this is that the AC unit above the patient's desk is a window unit. These sorts of AC units don't use water as a coolant - you can't catch legionnaire's from them.
Factual error: Cameron forces House (against his wishes) to do the biopsy on Foreman because Foreman has made her his medical proxy. This is completely incorrect; Cameron may be Foreman's proxy, but that doesn't mean she can overrule the attending doctor. Having the right of medical proxy allows her to *refuse* a test in Foreman's name (or refuse consent to any number of medical activities on Foreman), but absolutely not to order a test or operation contrary to the attending doctor's views. (00:34:45)
Factual error: Naegleriasis is a rare disease, and all the known cases involved people who had submerged their nostrils in contaminated water (commonly while swimming or diving). Foreman's exposure was just that he walked past a mister spraying contaminated water: nowhere near enough exposure to get infected. It's also highly unlikely Foreman would have survived Naegleriasis (which has an extremely high death rate) and without lasting brain damage - particularly given the length of time before diagnosis.
Factual error: The show is suppose to take place in New Jersey but when detective Triter pulls House over and shows his badge, it's an LAPD badge. (00:57:00 - 00:59:00)
Factual error: Given Gabriel has been in a coma for a decade, it is astonishing that once he wakes up he has no trouble speaking, and his muscles haven't atrophied at all— in fact, his muscles are remarkably toned.
Factual error: It is debatable whether Tritter has enough evidence for a court to grant civil forfeiture against House. However, the evidence absolutely wouldn't warrant (even with a sympathetic court) freezing the bank accounts of four other doctors and seizing Wilson's car. Tritter's evidence is that the doctors have prescribed House Vicodin. There's no evidence of a broader conspiracy to traffic. No court would grant this, and any lawyer (including the hospital's own lawyers) could easily challenge it.
Factual error: House makes a person have a seizure by switching the light on and off. This would not cause a person to have seizure as it takes more flickering than that to trigger a seizure in people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Suggested correction: They don't use water as a coolant, but they can collect water that condensed from the cold inside the unit.
LorgSkyegon
Which still doesn't allow for legionella to breed, not least the limited amount of collected water drains away (i.e. not like in water tanks and cooling towers). Healthcare professionals have consistently confirmed that window AC units aren't legionella risks for this reason. If you check the CDC website, it explicitly states that window AC units aren't potential legionella sources.