From the comfort of the @PatientWorthy couch, we caught another RARE feature on TV!
Chicago Fire Fans Won’t See Otis Fighting Fires Until His Platelets are Balanced
A few episodes earlier, Otis had these really strange red rashes on his mid section. They appeared after he had a brief hot-n-heavy hookup with a Russian girl in the kitchen of Molly’s Bar during the celebration party for Lt. Casey’s big political win!
Otis asked Sophie about them and she advised him to go to Chicago Med (ugh, we just love when shows cross each other) and get checked out. The doctor told him he needed to run some tests and sent Otis to the blood lab- but Otis never went. Yes, really.
Otis begins to seriously worry, thinks that he has cancer, and decides that he would rather not know. He internalizes all of his feelings and falls into a state of denial and ignorance.
He tells everyone that he is fine, the rashes were nothing and he immaturely begins to plan a squad trip to Las Vegas. So begins Otis’ small mid-life crisis- and he hasn’t even gotten a diagnosis yet! Sophie confronts Otis about not getting his blood work done, tells Cruz and they decided they to call his babushka to knock some sense into him. That did it! Otis’ grandmother convinced him to go get blood work done in a matter of minutes!
The clip below recaps Otis’ official diagnosis at Chicago Medical with Sophie and Cruz at his side. Turns out that Otis has a platelet disorder, called Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura, or ITP. ITP may show no signs or symptoms, and its cause is of unknown origin, but if left untreated can have fatal effects.
Otis’ reaction …
“Never heard of it… So how serious could it be… Right? Ha?”
Wrong! Patient with ITP have very low platelet counts, so their blood doesn’t clot properly…
… hence the weird rashes; they were actually bruises. Although rare, a serious complication of ITP is bleeding into the brain, which can be fatal. There are treatment options, corticosteroids and IV infusions of immune globulin. Otis won’t be back on the job until his platelet count is normalized, but once it is he can begin to manage his disorder.
Home made clip from Chicago Fire 2016: Episode 21 – Kind of a Crazy Idea
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