House Divided

"House Divided" is the twenty-second episode of the fifth season of House. It aired on April 27, 2009.

House lies in his bed, unable to sleep and being haunted by hallucinations of Amber. His pager goes off, and he heads to the hospital where his team is reviewing Seth Miller's case. Seth is a student who became deaf from meningitis at age four. During a high school wrestling match, Seth "hears" an explosion before collapsing (exploding head syndrome). House hallucinates about Amber in his office, where she comments about "the limp leading the blind". Amber, representing House's subconscious, tells him hints that he would not otherwise notice to help him "put things together". Amber tells House the patient's C-reactive protein was slightly elevated and that the stress of the seizure lab triggered the blindness. Amber then advises House to play music - Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" - for Seth, which helps him uncover a new symptom, neuropathy.

House tosses out his bottle of sleeping pills because he needs Amber's help. The team quizzes House about how he diagnosed the neuropathy. House claims he assumed that Seth's losing match record meant his balance was off due to diminished sensation. House wonders if the deafness was caused by NF2 cancer so he orders a brain MRI. Taub speaks to Seth's mother about the NF2 cancer and the possibility of him regaining his hearing. Seth, however, insists on remaining deaf.

Taub shows House the MRI results and says there is no tumor in the brain, so Thirteen suggests a biopsy. Amber tells House to do a comparison of slides from when Seth broke his nose years ago. House goes into Wilson's office while Wilson's talking to Chase about the bachelor party House is planning for him. House has the two MRIs with him, and shows them to Wilson, who confirms that there is evidence of NF2 in the scans and that a brain biopsy is needed. House and Amber watch the biopsy from the gallery. Chase tells House that the biopsy shows nerve inflammation, not cancer. Amber pushes House to have Chase insert a cochlear implant into Seth, which causes him to freak out once he discovers it. His mother demands the removal of the implant. As a result, Foreman now leads the group, and the team discusses Seth's post-operation fever. Taub wonders if Seth's (deaf) girlfriend gave him the Epstein-Barr virus. Foreman has the team treat the virus with ribavirin.