A real hospital experience for ‘House’ cast at Tel Hashomer

Actors, producers from hit medical TV series test robotic tools used in cutting-edge medical procedures at Sheba Medical Center.

By JOSHUA HAMERMAN
Lisa Edelstein 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Lisa Edelstein 311
(photo credit: 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.