Bethune studied in Toronto, then practised in Detroit, where he contracted tuberculosis. Confined to a sanitorium, he learned of a little-known method of treating tuberculosis by collapsing a lung and insisted that this operation be performed on him. The operation was successful. Between 1928 and 1936, he worked as a chest surgeon in Montreal but then went to China and worked alongside the Chinese Communists fighting the Japanese. The surgeon organized a medical service for the Chinese army, but died of blood poisoning late in 1939. Fame in his own country stemmed from Bethune's status as a hero to the Chinese.