German Doctor Saves Man’s Life Thanks to Fox’s Dr. House

Hugh Laurie may only play a doctor on TV, but he's being credited for helping save a man's life -- in real life.

Dr. Juergen Schaefer works at the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases in Marburg and he's a fan of the show 'House' that aired on FOX for 8 seasons. Though the show ended in 2012, Schaefer still refers to the show when he teaches medical students,  and much to the good fortune of one 55 year old patient, Schaefer had recently watched an episode of the show about a patient who, coincidentally, suffered the same hard-to-diagnose illness as he did.

The unidentified man was sent to Dr. Schaefer after visiting numerous other doctors and hospitals that were unable to figure out what was causing him to go blind, deaf and suffer heart failure.

Schaefer knew immediately; cobalt poisoning that turned out to be caused by fragments from a previously broken ceramic hip that were grinding against the patient's newer metal hip --- just like on the episode of 'House.'

The full story was recently featured in the medical journal, The Lancet.