Eddie Novack

Eddie Novack is the seemingly terminal patient in the episode "Simple Explanation". He is the husband of Charlotte Novack. He was portrayed by actor/singer Meat Loaf.
==Medical History==
Eddie was in the last stages of heart failure due to lung cancer when his wife took ill. He was bedridden and had difficulty moving. He was diagnosed six months previously.
==Case History==
Charlotte had claimed Eddie had gotten better when she started getting sick, as he was able to sit up in bed to call for help. However, Dr. House put this down to an adrenaline surge. Because Charlotte was demanding to be released to see her husband, Dr. Taub arranged for Eddie to be admitted so he could share the same room.
When Charlotte improved, Eddie started to deteriorate again. However, when she went into distress again, Dr. Taub found that Eddie was able to get out of bed on his own and stand. Tests showed that his kidney function had improved. Taub ran a hormone panel on him which indicated his prolactin was above normal, showing that the improvement was real.
Dr. House allowed Dr. Taub to run an echocardiogram to see if Eddie's heart was improving. Eddie asked if he might have gone into spontaneous remission, but Dr. Taub said it was unlikely, although it was possible. The echocardiogram also showed that the chamber walls of his heart were barely moving, meaning he was unlikely to fully recover.
However, Charlotte started getting worse and talked to Dr. Taub about donating her heart to Eddie for transplant. She then attempted suicide. as a result, she herself required a new liver and, as they didn't know the diagnosis, she would never quality with the transplant committee. Eddie was the only available donor. However, a lobe transplant wouldn't help and Eddie would never survive the transplant procedure in any event. As such, Dr. House planned to get Eddie to agree to the lobe transplant, then take the entire organ when he died during surgery. He got Dr. Cameron to speak to Eddie. She told him that he had no more than two days in any case and the transplant could buy them time. He agreed to the procedure and agreed not to tell Charlotte it would result in his death.
However, Dr. Cameron noted that Eddie had nodules on his fingers. She believed this contraindicated cancer and that Eddie might have been misdiagnosed. She didn't want to proceed with the transplant as the nodules could indicate a treatable condition. She reminded Dr. House that a combination of obesity and lung issues lead the previous doctors to a quick diagnosis. Dr. House wasn't interested, although he finally agreed to run more tests.
Dr. Cameron was right - Eddie had cardiac blastomycosis, a fungus which caused the heart problems, nodules, and mimicked lung cancer. Although it is rare, it is curable, but would require three months of treatment. His improvement was from his heightened emotional state, which increased his catecholamines and his prolactins, suppressing the fungus. However, Eddie didn't want treatment - he still wanted to go through with the transplant. He refused treatment, asked to be discharged, and threatened suicide if Dr. House didn't proceed with the treatment.
Dr. Hadley refused to go through with the transplant, but Dr. Taub agreed to help. However, he went to Charlotte and told him that Eddie would live with treatment. She refused to goth through with the transplant. Dr. House admonished Dr. Taub, but Dr. Taub pointed out that Dr. House had also tried to convince Eddie not to go through with the transplant.
However, Dr. House soon figured out that Charlotte had contracted visceral leishmaniasis on a trip to Rio de Janeiro with another man. He told both Charlotte and Eddie. With a diagnosis, Charlotte was eligible for a transplant from the committee. However, she didn't respond to treatment and they had to turn down the liver transplant. However, Eddie continued to improve with treatment and stayed with Charlotte until she passed away.
Category:Patients
Category:Males
Category:Characters
Category:Season 5
Category:Obesity