17.777, 1111T065!
- -

Yl

>
o

a'
Ff

-9)

Shown at Sheba Medical Center are, fiorff left, "House" creator David Shore,
Amber Tamblyn (next season's Dr. Martha Masters), Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa

Cuddy), Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase), and Omar Epps (Dr. Eric Foreman).

House cast gets taste of Israeli medicine.

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Ramat Gan, Israel

0

n television, Lisa Edelstein, a star
of the hit Fox show House, and
her fellow actors work medical
miracles every episode. But at an Israeli
hospital she stumbled trying her hand at
simulated arthroscopic surgery.
"I'm so glad this is not a living person;'
she said last week, shifting the controls
over a robotic dummy, eyes fixed on a
computer screen that revealed her would-
be patient's internal organs. "I think I just
mangled its liver."
Edelstein and three other members of
the House cast, along with David Shore,
the show's creator, were on a weeklong
tour of Israel as part of a public relations
effort to bring high-profile Americans on
visits.
Among their stops were two Tel Aviv-
area hospitals — the first at the Israel
Center for Medical Simulation at the
Sheba Medical Center, the only simulation
center of its scope internationally, where
medical staff, students, army medics and
physicians from around the world undergo
extensive training.
The cast members looked on as medi-
cal students re-enacted a particularly

106

May 19 s 2011

dramatic scene from the show in which
a patient who was crushed under a fall-
ing building has his leg amputated and is
rushed to the operating room.
Among the team of medical students
was Yuval Lotan, an avowed fan of the
Emmy Award-winning House, which stars
Hugh Laurie (who was not available to
come to Israel as he was touring else-
where) as a curmudgeonly genius doctor
who leads a team of young physicians in
investigating mysterious infectious dis-
eases and other ailments at a New Jersey
hospital.
"The show is good entertainment, but
at medical school we learn what not to
do from it," Lotan said. "After all, this is
Hollywood we are talking about."
The visiting cast — which also included
Omar Epps, who plays Dr. Eric Foreman;
Jesse Spencer, who plays Dr. Robert Chase;
and Amber Tamblyn, who will play Dr.
Martha Masters in the upcoming sev-
enth season — also visited the Wolfson
Medical Center in Holon.
At Wolfson, they visited the pediatric
cardiology intensive care unit and met
with children from the West Bank, Iraq,
Africa and Romania. All of the children
were brought to the hospital by an Israel-
based humanitarian project called Save a
Child's Heart to receive life-saving treat-
ment.

Save a Child's Heart, also known as
SACH, brings children with heart disease
from the developing world for cardiac
care in Israel while also working to
improve cardiac care centers in their
native countries, on average saving some
200 children's lives a year.
"The work that Save a Child's Heart is
doing is an important reality check," said
Shore, who is Jewish and has two broth-
ers living in Israel. "It's good for the Jews,
it's good for Israel, but really it's good for
humanity."
At the hospital, Edelstein played with
two young girls from Zanzibar who had
undergone surgery recently and spent
time trying to connect with a girl from
Iraq. Nearby, Tamblyn gave her sun-
glasses to a young Palestinian boy from
the West Bank.
The trip was organized as part of a
combined effort of America's Voices
in Israel, an arm of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, and Israel's foreign and
tourism ministries.
Irwin Katsof, director of America's
Voices in Israel, said the project's purpose
in bringing celebrities on such trips was
to make them goodwill ambassadors
when they go home.
"We want them to talk to their friends,
perhaps do an interview to let people

know Israel is more than just wars:'
Katsof said. "These people have an
impact. The amount of free publicity we
get from them going back and speaking
on a news show is phenomenal."
The visit coincided with Israel's som-
ber marking of Memorial Day, and the
cast members described watching as
Israelis came to a halt at the sound of a
siren to stand in silence for those killed
in the country's wars.
"It was very emotional:' said Edelstein,
who is Jewish and has relatives in Israel,
including descendants of a great aunt
who was a founder of Kibbutz Dafna on
the border with Lebanon.
Memorial Day was followed by
the abrupt shift into celebrations for
Independence Day.
"You guys know how to party:' said
Tamblyn, laughing in an exchange with
reporters.
The group had stayed out late the night
before exploring Tel Aviv's club scene.
Also on the touring list were the
Galilee (stopping off in a spa), Jerusalem
and the ancient desert fortress of
Masada.
And more actors who play doctors
on TV are on their way. Katsof said the
next delegation he is bringing is due in
Israel next month: members of the Grey's
Anatomy cast. II