Fetal Position (House)

"Fetal Position" is the seventeenth episode of the third season of House and the sixty-third episode overall.

Pregnant photographer Emma Sloan (Anne Ramsay) arrives at a photo shoot for singer Tyson Ritter, but she quickly realizes there is something wrong when she cannot read the writing on a chalk board on the set. She quickly checks if her smile is crooked, which it is; whether she can hold her arms straight, which she cannot; and whether her speech is slurred, which it is. Realizing what is happening, she tells the stunned people watching her that she is having a stroke before collapsing.

House comes in to visit Emma, who is checked in at the hospital. She reveals that she learned the way to self-diagnose a stroke from her baby's gay father which interests House. He runs some tests and determines her kidneys have shut down, and resolves to find the underlying cause of the stroke. Emma is interested in taking photos of House, and the staff is interested in House's photo. House has the staff run tests to determine if she has a blood clot in her heart, while he discusses his vacation plans. Cameron wonders why House did not say anything about seeing her and Chase together. They confirm House's diagnoses and prepare to put in a balloon to clear the clot.

Cameron finds House relaxing in a hyperbaric chamber in an attempt to build up his tolerance for high altitude (by reducing the pressure in the chamber instead of the usual increase, effectively making it into a hypobaric chamber), for his upcoming vacation. Cameron confronts him about telling Cuddy about her and Chase. He ducks the matter while Cuddy tells Emma about the treatment they have planned to relieve the pressure on the fetus's urinary bladder. Cuddy then finds House in her office where he questions her diagnosis of urinary bladder blockage, warning the first two tests will be inconclusive. He suggests that Cuddy is sympathizing with Emma as they are both older women having a baby through artificial insemination. Cuddy decides to hand the case back to House.

The third test proves positive and Chase gives the results to Emma, who is thankful things will turn out okay. Emma notices that Chase is in love with Cameron when he looks at a picture that Emma took of Cameron that makes him smile, and Emma takes a picture of Chase. The doctors prepare to treat the fetus but discover that Emma is jaundiced and her liver is shutting down. House believes the fetus "lied" and the urinary tract obstruction is just a sign of something else. With time running out, House suggests there is only one sure cure: to abort the fetus at 21 weeks. House breaks the news to Emma and she wants to wait two weeks until the fetus is viable, but House warns she will not last two days. She refuses to have an abortion and demands House fix it so they can both live.