Fidelity (House)
Encyclopedia
"Fidelity" is the seventh episode of the first season of House
, which premiered on the Fox
network on December 28, 2004. A female patient shows signs of African sleeping sickness, but in order to find out what is wrong the team has to ask some uncomfortable questions.
After being unable to immediately diagnose her condition, House orders new blood work and another MRI. After more testing, she goes into seizures and aspirates
.
House and Wilson start to suspect breast cancer
. He also inquires about Elise's relationship with her husband. Cameron sets up a mammogram
, and Elise 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 Elise's workplace at a restaurant. The chef is adamant that the kitchen is perfectly clean, but Foreman notices that the restaurant serves rabbit, causing him to later suggest the possibility of Tularemia
despite symptoms not being a perfect fit.
Cameron is talking to Elise when she complains that her arm itches
, then hallucinates
her arm bursting open and hundreds of ant
s crawling out. Tests are still inconclusive and House believes that all of her symptoms fit in with human African trypanosomiasis, despite having never been to Africa
or ever having had a transfusion.
Cameron, Foreman and Chase consider amongst themselves to start treatments anyway, but each of those treatments would cause more problems. House then has a brainstorm: anything that's in the blood can be transmitted through sex. To prove his point to his staff, he cites an article from a Portuguese journal of medicine describing a Portuguese man who contracted sleeping sickness from sex with a girlfriend who had served with the military in Angola - thereby establishing that House can read Portuguese. He dispatches Foreman and Chase to ask Ed and Elise about their fidelity. They both adamantly deny any affairs.
Cameron begins the first course of the tularemia treatment, Chloramphenicol
, but Elise drops into a coma
almost immediately, prompting the team to realize that the only way for that to happen is if she doesn't in fact have tularemia. Again, Ed claims he has not had an affair. House concludes that it must be sleeping sickness and 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 Elise was unfaithful, then they need to start treatment immediately. After realizing that he is not 100% certain that his wife was completely faithful, House orders the treatment, and Foreman and Chase inject her with the medicine melarsoprol
.
While waiting for the melarsoprol to take effect, Ed tells Cameron that Elise getting better would prove she had an affair, and that part of him couldn't live with that and didn't want her to recover. He asks her if that makes him a "terrible person." Cameron tells him "yes" and leaves the room in silent shock and disgust. House finds her in the lab re-calibrating the centrifuge
, and the tone in her voice makes it obvious she was crying. We learn that Cameron fell in love during college but her husband died of thyroid cancer
that had metastasized
to his brain
. House deduces that the cancer would have been diagnosed well before the marriage, which only lasted 6 months, and realizes that Cameron knew he had cancer but married him anyway. This theme of Cameron falling for "damaged people" is a recurring theme throughout the series.
Elise's fever rises to 104 °F (40 °C). Just as House is telling Ed that they should have seen an improvement, Elise comes out of her coma.
Cameron witnesses Ed at Elise's bedside. The two converse for some time, then Ed leaves the room, while Elise is left crying. Cameron infers that Ed has decided he cannot live with Elise's infidelity and has declared his intention to separate to Elise. Cameron tries to persuade Ed that Elise loves him deeply despite her error of judgement, but Ed is not sufficiently moved.
House tells Elise that he must know who she had an affair with so that the man can be alerted and given treatment. Cameron tracks down Elise's former lover, who has a young son; it turns out to be Ed's best friend that he was jogging with in the beginning of the episode.
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
, which premiered on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network on December 28, 2004. A female patient shows signs of African sleeping sickness, but in order to find out what is wrong the team has to ask some uncomfortable questions.
Plot
On a Saturday afternoon, a man named Ed returns home from a jog with his best friend to find his wife, Elise, sick in bed. She has remained there for days. When she tells Ed to call her boss to tell her she's not going to work (without realizing it's the weekend), she becomes violent and slaps him when he tries to wake her, and, after coming to her senses, discerns something terribly wrong with her. At the hospital, Cameron tells House that the patient has been sleeping 18 hours a day, but the tests don't reveal anything.After being unable to immediately diagnose her condition, House orders new blood work and another MRI. After more testing, she goes into seizures and aspirates
Pulmonary aspiration
Pulmonary aspiration is the entry of material from the oropharynx or gastrointestinal tract into the larynx and lower respiratory tract...
.
House and Wilson start to suspect breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. He also inquires about Elise's relationship with her husband. Cameron sets up a mammogram
Mammography
Mammography is the process of using low-energy-X-rays to examine the human breast and is used as a diagnostic and a screening tool....
, and Elise reveals that her mother was about the same age when she died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. 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
Tumor
A tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
until it gets bigger. House sends Foreman to Elise's workplace at a restaurant. The chef is adamant that the kitchen is perfectly clean, but Foreman notices that the restaurant serves rabbit, causing him to later suggest the possibility of Tularemia
Tularemia
Tularemia is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. A Gram-negative, nonmotile coccobacillus, the bacterium has several subspecies with varying degrees of virulence. The most important of those is F...
despite symptoms not being a perfect fit.
Cameron is talking to Elise when she complains that her arm itches
Formication
Formication is the medical term for a sensation that resembles that of insects crawling on the skin. It is one specific form of a set of sensations known as paresthesia, which also include the more common prickling, tingling sensation of "pins and needles"...
, then hallucinates
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
her arm bursting open and hundreds of ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s crawling out. Tests are still inconclusive and House believes that all of her symptoms fit in with human African trypanosomiasis, despite having never been to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
or ever having had a transfusion.
Cameron, Foreman and Chase consider amongst themselves to start treatments anyway, but each of those treatments would cause more problems. House then has a brainstorm: anything that's in the blood can be transmitted through sex. To prove his point to his staff, he cites an article from a Portuguese journal of medicine describing a Portuguese man who contracted sleeping sickness from sex with a girlfriend who had served with the military in Angola - thereby establishing that House can read Portuguese. He dispatches Foreman and Chase to ask Ed and Elise about their fidelity. They both adamantly deny any affairs.
Cameron begins the first course of the tularemia treatment, Chloramphenicol
Chloramphenicol
Chloramphenicol is a bacteriostatic antimicrobial that became available in 1949. It is considered a prototypical broad-spectrum antibiotic, alongside the tetracyclines, and as it is both cheap and easy to manufacture it is frequently found as a drug of choice in the third world.Chloramphenicol is...
, but Elise drops into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
almost immediately, prompting the team to realize that the only way for that to happen is if she doesn't in fact have tularemia. Again, Ed claims he has not had an affair. House concludes that it must be sleeping sickness and 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 Elise was unfaithful, then they need to start treatment immediately. After realizing that he is not 100% certain that his wife was completely faithful, House orders the treatment, and Foreman and Chase inject her with the medicine melarsoprol
Melarsoprol
Melarsoprol is a medicinal drug used in the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis. It is also sold under the trade names “Mel B” and “Melarsen Oxide-BAL.”...
.
While waiting for the melarsoprol to take effect, Ed tells Cameron that Elise getting better would prove she had an affair, and that part of him couldn't live with that and didn't want her to recover. He asks her if that makes him a "terrible person." Cameron tells him "yes" and leaves the room in silent shock and disgust. House finds her in the lab re-calibrating the centrifuge
Centrifuge
A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by an electric motor , that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis...
, and the tone in her voice makes it obvious she was crying. We learn that Cameron fell in love during college but her husband died of thyroid cancer
Thyroid cancer
Thyroid neoplasm is a neoplasm or tumor of the thyroid. It can be a benign tumor such as thyroid adenoma, or it can be a malignant neoplasm , such as papillary, follicular, medullary or anaplastic thyroid cancer. Most patients are 25 to 65 years of age when first diagnosed; women are more affected...
that had metastasized
Metastasis
Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...
to his brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
. House deduces that the cancer would have been diagnosed well before the marriage, which only lasted 6 months, and realizes that Cameron knew he had cancer but married him anyway. This theme of Cameron falling for "damaged people" is a recurring theme throughout the series.
Elise's fever rises to 104 °F (40 °C). Just as House is telling Ed that they should have seen an improvement, Elise comes out of her coma.
Cameron witnesses Ed at Elise's bedside. The two converse for some time, then Ed leaves the room, while Elise is left crying. Cameron infers that Ed has decided he cannot live with Elise's infidelity and has declared his intention to separate to Elise. Cameron tries to persuade Ed that Elise loves him deeply despite her error of judgement, but Ed is not sufficiently moved.
House tells Elise that he must know who she had an affair with so that the man can be alerted and given treatment. Cameron tracks down Elise's former lover, who has a young son; it turns out to be Ed's best friend that he was jogging with in the beginning of the episode.
External links
- "Fidelity" at Fox.com