Haven't worked out how to do this yet, but something involving the game Operation, themed around Grey's Anatomy or House.
It can be House and it can work like Cluedo. Every day they get a patient with a number of possible diagnoses (assign each one to a helper - 13, Taub, Chase, Foreman) and something that could eliminate it. They have to find something in the patient's home, or do a test, or perform a surgery that eliminates one of the possible diagnoses until they know what the problem is and can assign the correct treatment.
I get how finding something at the home would work, but how would doing a test work. Maybe a cheap chemistry set for the lab? What about surgeries, how would they get the results?
This chemistry set might help with the tests? https://shop.sciencemuseum.org.uk/products/chemistry-set
So for each day need a line that is like “here's a list of medical symptoms and four possible diagnoses. Need to do the one test or surgery that will rule eliminate the other possibilities and confirm the diagnosis.” One a day feels right, each driven by one of the House characters.
- Day one - find the person.
- Day two - search their home.
- Day three - they've regained consciousness, go find the person who's passed out where they were found.
- Day four - do some surgery, have you fixed them?
| Condition | Symptoms | Caused by |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy metal poisoning | Fatigue; brain fog; nausea; migraine; numbness tingling paralysis | Exposure |
| Lupus | Joint and muscle pain; extreme tiredness; rashes; high temperature; hair loss; weight loss; headaches | Genetic? |
| Rabies | Hyperactivity; excitable behaviour; hallucinations; lack of coordination; fear of water | Contact with infected animal |
| Liver disease | Feeling tired or weak; loss of appetite leading to weight loss; itchy skin; yellow skin | Substance abuse |
Some more detailed thoughts on what each day might contain.
First find the person with some initial symptoms - what's the excuse for that? House is being held up by a confused person in a coffee shop (the kitchen) go find it. They get a text message from him. Where did I put that dummy phone?
One day of thinking it might be rabies - go and find a bat in their house and test “bat blood” for rabies using the chemistry set.
One day of thinking it's some environmental contaminant (heavy metal?) and finding the substance in their fridge and testing it with the chemistry set.
One day of thinking it's something internal - not cancer, but something associated with eg. the liver - and needing to do a biopsy using the Operation game.
One day of him regaining consciousness and explaining that his girlfriend was there too and hasn't been found. Go and find her unconscious with some significant (rash?) marks on her body.
What's the eventual solution? Is it physical requiring surgery or something that requires medication? Perhaps it's progressed liver disease and now he needs a transplant. How is the patient originally found?
So maybeee they have a grid of symptoms and illnesses it could be. And then each day someone from House's team reports in with new symptoms. So it's more like Cluedo and the team can tick them off to confirm the diagnosis.
Things I will need:
- Chemistry set with liquid tests.
- Some sort of medical clothing.
- Operation game.
- Toy bats.
- A male barbie type toy as the original patient.
- A female barbie type toys as the girlfriend found later.
- A whiteboard on which to write the possible diagnoses and symptoms.
OK. 1. Find the person with House. Text message from him, go and find the doll being loopy. Maybe it's Cuddy who tells them to go find him.
2. Rabies: search the house for a bat. Need bats.
3. Heavy metal poisoning: search the house and do a chemical test. Need chemistry set
4. Lupus: take a sample and do a test. Go to the lab and find the sample that the nurse took. This is urgent! Chemistry set.
5. Find the girlfriend. Girl doll. Blood test for drugs
6. Everybody lies, it's drugs. The girlfriend confesses, find the drugs and test them. Treat for drug overdose.
Need a final message from House that says he doesn't care how they get better, refer to rehab maybe? But the case is solved.
Add something about needing to do clinic duty - from Cuddy. Do the medical mysteries game.
Stuff to order: Chemistry set