A real hospital experience for ‘House’ cast at Tel Hashomer
By JOSHUA HAMERMAN
LAST UPDATED: 05/13/2011 01:21
Actors, producers from hit medical TV series test robotic tools used in cutting-edge medical procedures at Sheba Medical Center.
Lisa Edelstein, who plays Dr. Cuddy on ‘House' Photo: Courtesy
Life is imitating art for the cast members of the FOX television series House
during their stay in Israel.
On Wednesday, actors Omar Epps, Lisa
Edelstein, Jesse Spencer and Amber Tamblyn, along with House creator, executive
producer and lead writer David Shore, visited the medical simulation ward in
Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
After playing clips from the last
episode of their show’s sixth season, which featured a patient who required a
limb amputation following a building collapse, the famous visitors took turns
using robotic surgery tools to simulate the procedure.
“The simulations
they do there are just remarkable, and I can’t help but believe that this is the
future of medical training,” Shore told The Jerusalem Post. “It’s one of those
things you see and ask, ‘Why isn’t everyone doing this?’”
Later that day, the
group stopped by Wolfson Medical Center in Holon to learn about the Save a
Child’s Heart program, which brings youngsters from all over the world to Wolfson for heart
surgeries.
Shore and the cast members met with patients from countries
such as Romania and Tanzania.
“I just love coming to Israel – it’s such a
diverse place, and it’s filled with so much spiritualism,” said Shore, whose two
brothers, including documentary film producer Raphael Shore, made
aliya.
Hugh Laurie, who stars as Dr. Gregory House in the American
series, was unable to accompany his co-stars to Israel due to other commitments.
Shore said, though, “He’d love to come here.”
The House delegation
arrived in Israel on Monday, and celebrated Independence Day in Tel
Aviv.
On Tuesday evening, they had dinner with local musician Idan
Raichel. After their hospital visits on Wednesday, they traveled to Safed and
stayed at a spa.
Shore and the actors visited Nazareth and swam in Lake
Kinneret on Thursday, and plan to tour the capital’s Western Wall tunnels,
Mahaneh Yehuda market and Yad Vashem on Friday, before Shabbat.
On Saturday,
they will participate in a walking tour of Jewish and Christian holy sites in
Jerusalem.
The group will then visit the Dead Sea and Masada on Sunday,
and head to Ben-Gurion Airport to catch their return flight to the US that
evening.
The tour was organized by America’s Voices in Israel, along with
the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the
Tourism and Foreign ministries.
Irwin Katsof, director of America’s
Voices in Israel, said his organization will bring cast members from another
American TV series revolving around doctors, Grey’s Anatomy, to Israel in June.