Patch Adams
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Hunter Doherty "Patch"
Adams
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 |
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Born
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May
28, 1945 (age 68)
Washington, D.C., U.S. |
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Nationality
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United
States
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Education
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Home
town
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Spouse(s)
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Linda
Edquist (1975–98; divorced)
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Children
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Atomic
Zagnut Adams
Lars Zig Edquist Adams |
Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945, in Washington,
D.C.) is an American physician, social activist, clown and author. He founded
the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he organizes a group
of volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they
dress as clowns in an effort to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other
people.[1]
Adams is currently based in Urbana, Illinois.
In collaboration with the institute, he promotes an alternative health care
model, not funded by insurance
policies.[1]
Adams had a difficult childhood. His father, an officer
in the United States Army, had fought in Korea, and died
while stationed in Germany when Adams was still a teenager.[1] After his father's death, Adams
returned to the United States with his mother and brother. Adams has stated
that, upon his return, he encountered institutional injustice which made him a
target for bullies at school. As a result, Adams was unhappy and became
actively suicidal. After being hospitalized three times in one year for wanting
to end his life, he decided "you don't kill yourself, stupid; you make
revolution."[2]
After graduating (1963) from Wakefield High School,[3] Adams completed pre-med coursework at
the George Washington University. He began medical
school without an undergraduate degree, and earned his Doctor
of Medicine degree at Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia) in 1971. In the late
1960s one of his closest friends (a man, not a woman as depicted in thePatch
Adams film) was murdered. Convinced of the powerful connection
between environment and wellness, he believes the health of an individual
cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world.
While working in an adolescent clinic atMCV, in his final year of med school, he met Linda
Edquist, a fellow VCU student who volunteered in the clinic. Soon after
graduation, Patch, Linda, and friends founded the Gesundheit! Institute (originally known to many as the
Zanies), which ran as a free community hospital for 12 years.
Adams and Edquist married in 1975 and had two sons,
Atomic Zagnut "Zag" Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams. The couple
divorced in 1998.[4]
A revamped Gesundheit! Institute, envisioned as a free,
full-scale hospital and health care eco-community, is
planned on 316 acres (128 ha) in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Its goal is to
integrate a traditional hospital with alternative
medicine, with the organization developing educational programs in
sustainable systems
design targeted to medical students and the general public.
Since the 1990s Adams has supported the Ithaca Health Alliance (IHA),[5] founded as the Ithaca Health Fund (IHF)
by Paul
Glover. In January 2006 IHA launched the Ithaca Free Clinic,
bringing to life key aspects of Adams' vision. Adams has also given strong
praise to Health Democracy,
Glover's book written and published the same year.
In October 2007, Adams and the Gesundheit Board unveiled
its campaign to raise $1 million towards building a Teaching Center and Clinic
on its land in West
Virginia. The Center and Clinic will enable Gesundheit to see
patients and teach health care design.
Adams urges medical students to develop compassionate
connections with their patients. His prescription for this kind of care relies
on humor and play, which he sees as essential to physical and emotional health.
Ultimately, Adams wants the Gesundheit! Institute to open a 40-bed hospital in rural West
Virginia that offers free, holistic care to anyone who wants it.[6]
Adams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience
Award on January 29, 1997.[7]
In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the
"International Association for the Advancement of Creative
Maladjustment" or IAACM. In a number of his speeches and essays, Martin
Luther King, Jr. had called for such an IAACM, but none was ever created. MindFreedom International, a nonprofit coalition
that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support
"creative maladjustment" and social change.[8]
Adam's still leads trips to cheer kids up all over the
world and also teaches at one session of Wavy Gravy's circus camp Camp Winnarainbow.
The 1998 film Patch
Adams was based on Adams' life and views on medicine. Adams has
criticized the film, saying it eschewed an accurate representation of his
beliefs in favor of commercial viability. He said that out of all aspects of
his life and activism, the film portrayed him merely as a funny doctor.[9] Patch Adams also said of Robin Williams
in an interview, "He made $21 million for four months of pretending to be
me, in a very simplistic version, and did not give $10 to my free hospital.
Patch Adams, the person, would have, if I had Robin's money, given all $21 million to a free hospital in a
country where 80 million cannot get care."[10]
However, in another interview, Adams did clarify that he
did not dislike Williams,[9] and Williams has actively supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for several years.[11]
As a speaker, Dr. Adams travels around the globe
lecturing about his medicine methods.[12]
·
Adams, Patch; Maureen
Mylander (1998). Gesundheit! : bringing good health to you, the
medical system, and society through physician service, complementary therapies,
humor, and joy. Rochester, Vermont:
Healing Arts Press. ISBN 978-0-89281-781-8.
Retrieved 2008-12-16.
·
Adams, Patch; Maureen
Mylander (1993). Gesundheit! : bringing good health to you, the
medical system, and society through physician service, complementary therapies,
humor, and joy. Rochester, Vermont:
Healing Arts Press. ISBN 978-0-89281-442-8.
Retrieved 2008-12-16.
·
Adams, Patch; Maureen
Mylander (1998). Gesundheit! [sound recording]. Los
Angeles: NewStar Media. ISBN 978-0-7871-1828-0.
Retrieved 2008-12-16. 4 sound cassettes (ca. 6 hr.) : digitally mastered,
Dolby processed.
·
Adams, Patch (1998). House
calls. cartoons by Jerry Van Amerongen.
San Francisco: Robert D. Reed Publishers. ISBN 978-1-885003-18-8.
Retrieved 2008-12-16.
·
Bourque, Judith (1999). The
real Patch Adams (videorecording) / a film by Judith Bourque. Oley, PA:
Bullfrog Films. ISBN 978-1-56029-811-3.
Retrieved 2008-12-16. 1 videocassette (53 min.) : sd., col. ;
1/2 in.
·
John Graham for the Giraffe Heroes Program (1999). It's up
to us. foreword by Patch Adams. Langley, Washington:
Giraffe Project. ISBN 978-1-893805-00-2.
Retrieved 2008-12-16.