Patch Adams and the Gesundheit! Institute
but who is the ‘real’ Patch Adams?
For many, PATCH ADAMS is the name of a movie that came out ten years ago about a funny, loving doctor, starring robin Williams. But who is the ‘real’ Patch Adams? And what has he been doing for the ten years since the movie came out?
Let us tell you a story, a love story, about the ‘real’ Patch Adams—and the generation of Americans he represents. Patch was born Hunter Doherty Adams in 1945, the second son of a school teacher mom and a US army major dad—and was of the generation who later would be called the Baby Boomers, the Alternative Generation, the Hippies and Yippies and Love Children. Pros and cons about that generation are still being argued, but no one denies the generation has made a mark.
EARLY YEARS: FROM “HAPPY KID” to “SENSITIVE TEEN”Patch grew up on military bases overseas, and was a happy funny kid who loved science and math, kittens and jokes. But when Patch’s father died as a result of the Korean war, the family returned home to Virginia, and Patch was thrown into the social chaos around racism and war that marked the beginning of the 1960’s. a sensitive teenager, he became disillusioned with a world where injustice and power-over seemed to have more value than love and compassion. Patch didn’t want to live in that world, and after three attempted suicides, he was hospitalized on a locked ward of a mental asylum. the movie of Patch’s life starts off with this dark time period in Patch’s life.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT: THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY In the hospital, visited by loving family and friends, Patch took stock: was there another way to respond to an unloving world than trying to leave it? This question was not only Patch’s question: it was the question of a generation of young people trying to answer that and other questions, such as “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”. Such questions and their answers initiated the Peace Corps, Project Head Start, Medicare and Medicaid. A welfare state? no—a state of mind where the welfare of all is valued.
In the mental hospital, Patch made two decisions: to serve humanity through medicine, and to never have another bad day!
OUR HOME, USA…Graduating from medical school with a loving heart full of play, Patch Adams began the Gesundheit Institute with a group of twenty friends, including three doctors, who moved into a six-bedroom home in West Virginia and opened it as a free hospital. The hospital was open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for all manner of medical problems, from birth to death. 500–1000 patients were seen each month, with 5–50 overnight guests a night. Over its 12-year history, 15,000 patients were seen. Dances, home made plays, humor, gardening—these were the social glue that held the medical project together.
…AND OUR ‘HOME’, THE WORLD. But Patch’s heart, and the heart of his generation, considered ‘home’ to be two places: home USA, and home the world. While the young medical team in West Virginia saw that they needed to make US health care a more humane and fun interaction, they also saw the huge need overseas for medical care, love and humor. Patch and his friends, young idealistic doctors, wanted to walk towards suffering where the need was greatest: to be involved in changing the situations of poverty, illness, and suffering faced by millions across the globe. Thus the involvement of many young Americans in programs to bring aid across the globe.
THE LOVE STORY: PART TWO! And so began the second part of Patch’s journey—Global Outreach. The movie “PATCH ADAMS” ends right where Patch’s Global Outreach, begins! For the past 20 years, our Global Outreach teams have worked with Patch to not only deliver medical aid and supplies to the door—but we walk inside! Wearing our ‘red badge of courage’ (THE NOSE!) we export compassion and humor from the US, as well as medicine and supplies. “Clowning, “ says Patch, “is a trick to bring love close!”
PATCH AND HIS GENERATION: COME HOME! People have been calling Patch and asking him to bring his message of compassionate service home to the United States! There’s no question that medicine in the United States is among the best in terms of cure—we are leaders in technology. But in terms of care? As Patch says, “ We can’t promise to cure, but we can promise to care!” In the past year, Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute have made a commitment to build a Clinic and Teaching Center devoted to compassionate service on our land in West Virginia.
PLEASE DONATE SO THAT HIS HOSPITAL CAN BE BUILT: http://www.patchadams.org/
