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he was acknowledged with Canada and
Britain’s highest honours.
The most valuable lesson that Tilley’s legacy
offers this generation of medical students
and physicians, can be gleaned from his
first encounters at East Grinstead. Standing
at the bedside of his patient and assessing
the medicines he had at his disposal, Tilley
shook his head and resolved to do better;
he refused to surrender to the limitations
dictated by existing medical practice.
Tilley tossed aside the contemporaneous
treatment of coagulation therapy, the merits
of which were being espoused by experts
in the field. With a steadfast conviction
that his patients deserved a higher level
of treatment, Tilley worked tirelessly with
McIndoe and hospital staff to produce
a revolutionary regimen that ultimately
saved the hands, faces, and livelihoods of
hundreds of men. Tilley’s actions at Queen
Victoria Hospital serve as a reminder
to modern day practitioners of their
responsibility to address deficient aspects
of patient care, and to innovate, when
necessary, in order to provide patients with
the best possible medicine.
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank
Dr. Gordon Wilkes of the University of
Alberta, and Dr. Steven Morris of Dalhousie
University for their generous guidance in the
production of this article.
References:
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The Question of the Supply of 100-Octane
Fuel in the Battle of Britain. English
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8. Jackson DM. Burns: McIndoe’s
contribution and subsequent advances.
Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England. 1979;61:335-40.
9. McIndoe AH. Total reconstruction of the
burned face. Br J Plast Surg. 1983;36:410-
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C. “The Maestro”: A Pioneering Plastic
Surgeon—Sir Archibald McIndoe and His
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Injury During World War II. J Burn Care
Res. 2011;32(3):363-68.
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RV, Colebrook L, Kilner TP. Treatment of
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The House of God still worth a read for today’s medical trainees
Alby Richard, BSc
Medical Student (2013), Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada,
PhD Candidate (Neuroscience), Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Correspondence to Alby Richard: Email: alby.richard@mcgill.ca
THE HOUSE OF GOD
By Samuel Shem
New York, NY, Dell, 2003 (first published:
New York, NY, Richard Marek, 1978).
ISBN 978-0385337380
Medical training has changed a great deal
over the past thirty years, along with the
way medicine is practiced in general. This
is interesting to consider in the context
of the American medical system, which
has the dubious honor of boasting the
most sophisticated yet unevenly accessible
medical system. In light of this, it is perhaps
not surprising that at some point along
the way voices of dissent would emerge,
even from within the ranks of the medical
establishment itself.
Samuel Shem’s (the pen name of Dr.
Stephen Bergman) House of God was
first published in 1978, as a semiautobiographical
account of Dr. Roy Basch’s
internship year in the eponymous hospital.
With the ripples of the civil rights movement
still being felt, and the Watergate scandal
showcasing the moral ambiguity of the
nation’s highest offices, Shem’s honest
and at times disturbing portrayal of one
of America’s most prestigious teaching
hospitals was a timely contribution to the
changing social and political landscape.
Now, over three decades later, even a
sophomore medical student on the brink
of entering clerkship may be struck by Dr.
Bergman’s candid observations concerning
the challenges of medical education. This
book offers a compelling caricature of some
University of Alberta Health Sciences Journal • April 2012 • Volume 7 • Issue 1 35
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