House Season 1 Episode 7: Fidelity

Full Recap

After a morning jog with his friend, a man named Ed returns home to find his spouse sick in bed. Elyce has remained there for days. At the hospital, Cameron tells House that the patient has been sleeping 18 hours a day, but the tests don't reveal anything.

House and his team go through the possibilities -- Depression? Parasites? House orders new blood work and another MRI. After more testing, Elyce is told that there is no answer to her neurological problems. She goes into seizures.

House starts to suspect breast cancer. He also inquires about Elyce's relationship with her husband. Cameron sets up a mammogram, and Elyce reveals that her mother was about the same age when she died of cancer. The new tests show no tumors. Wilson thinks it's a small cell tumor, which is hard to locate. House wants to ignore the tumor until it gets bigger. House sends Foreman to Elyce's workplace at a restaurant. The chef is adamant that the kitchen is perfectly clean.

Cameron is talking to Elyce when she complains that her arm itches. The patient then sees her arm burst open and hundreds of bugs crawl out. She screeches for the doctors to get them off her, yet she is only hallucinating. Tests are still inconclusive. House believes that all of Elyce's symptoms fit in with an African sleeping sickness. However, she has never been to Africa and never had a blood transfusion.

Cameron, Foreman and Chase consider amongst themselves starting treatments anyway, but each treatment is highly risky. House then has a brainstorm. Anything that's in the blood can be transmitted through sex. He dispatches Foreman and Chase to ask Ed and Elyce about their fidelity. Aware that lying about the matter could cost the patient her life, they both adamantly deny any affairs.

Elyce drops into a coma. The doctors still have no explanation. Again, Ed claims he has not had an affair. House tells Ed that he is going to give her a potentially fatal medicine and needs his consent. If Ed suspects there might have even been one time Elyce was unfaithful, then they need to start treatment immediately. Foreman and Chase inject the dangerous medicine.

Elyce's fever rises to 104. Just as House is telling Ed that they should have seen an improvement, Elyce comes out of her coma. House tells her that he must know who she had an affair with so that the man can be alerted and given treatment. She cries, knowing that Ed has left her. Cameron tracks down Elyce's former lover, who has a young son. The lover is also Ed's jogging buddy--and best friend--from the beginning of the episode.

Not written by me. Credit to Tv.com