Patch Adams
{{Short description|American physician, activist (born 1945)}}
{{For|the 1998 film|Patch Adams (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Patch Adams.jpg
| caption = Adams in 2009
| image_size =
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1945|05|28}}
| birth_name = Hunter Doherty Adams
| birth_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| education = Virginia Commonwealth University (MD)
| employer =
| occupation = {{hlist|Physician|comedian|social activist|clown|author}}
| years_active =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
- {{marriage|Linda Edquist|1975|1998|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Susan Parenti
|2010}}
}}
| children = 2
| relations =
| awards =
| signature =
| website =
}}
Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945) is an American physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute as a not-for-profit in 1989. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other people.{{cite news|title=Doctor in a Clown Suit Battles Ills of His Profession |newspaper=New York Times |date=December 15, 1998 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/19981215tuesday.html}}
Adams is currently based in Urbana, Illinois. In collaboration with the institute, he promotes an alternative health care model not funded by insurance policies.
Early life and education
Adams was born on May 28, 1945, in Washington, D.C., the son of Anna Campbell Stewart (née Hunter) and Robert Loughridge Adams.{{cite web|url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/r/a/Kenneth-A-Graybeal-Bellevue/GENE4-0035.html|title=Kenneth-A-Graybeal-Bellevue - User Trees - Genealogy.com}}{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19390626&id=w-5NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4892,2964100|title=The Free Lance-Star - Google News Archive Search}} His maternal grandfather, Thomas Lomax Hunter, was a Poet Laureate of Virginia. His father, a United States Army officer who fought in the Korean War, died while stationed in West Germany when Adams was only 16. 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 racism and segregation amongst his peers against which he stood up, and this made him a target for bullies at school. As a result, Adams was unhappy and became actively suicidal. After a third hospitalization in one year he decided "you don't kill yourself, stupid; you make revolution."Hunter Patch Adams https://www.omgviralfacts.com/2020/01/05/hunter-patch-adams/
He attended Wakefield High School, where he graduated in 1963,
{{cite web |url=http://www.wakefieldalumni.org/efnewsletters/AlumniNews2008.pdf |page=5 |title=Alumni News Wakefield High School |access-date=September 12, 2009 |year=2008 }} and then completed pre-med coursework at George Washington University. He began medical school without an undergraduate degree, and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at the Medical College of Virginia in the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1971. In the late 1960s, one of his closest friends (a man, not a woman as depicted in the film) was murdered by a deranged patient. 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.
=Gesundheit! Institute=
{{Infobox organization
| name = Gesundheit! Institute
| image =
| caption =
| purpose =
| tax_id = 52-1573251
| registration_id =
| founded_date = 1989
| founder = Hunter "Patch" Adams
| type = Not-for-profit health care
| dissolved =
| location = Hillsboro, West Virginia, U.S.
| coordinates =
| origins =
| key_people = Chair, Cari Brackett, Pharm.D
John T. Glick, MD
Susan R. Parenti, DMA{{cite web |url=http://patchadams.org/board |title=Leadership Team: Board |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911023639/http://patchadams.org/board |archive-date=September 11, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 15, 2020}}
| area_served =
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| services = Integrative medicine
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| homepage = {{URL|http://www.patchadams.org/}}
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}}
Soon after graduation, Patch, his wife Linda, and friends started to develop the ideas that eventually led to The Gesundheit! Institute. Originally as the Zanies, they ran as a communal "home" from 1971 to 1984. In 1989 Gesundheit! Institute was founded as a not-for-profit, and has continued to develop to this day. Based in Adams' rural West Virginia property, the institute has since been devoted to fundraising. The latest plan is for a 44-bed community hospital building that will offer free holistic care to "anyone who wants it", along with a teaching facility that can accommodate "120 staff, all living together in the communal ecovillage".{{cite web | url=https://www.ic.org/the-gesundheit-institute-a-45-year-old-communal-hospital-experiment/ | title=The Gesundheit! Institute: A 45 Year-Old Communal Hospital Experiment | date=September 2016 }}
Fees from the 1998 movie "made it possible to build three beautiful buildings... in preparation for the big buildings we want for the hospital". These are a farmhouse, workshop and dacha that accommodate the workshops and courses offered by the institute. The educational philosophy is contained in their "School for Designing a Society (SDaS) – for people who want to change society by means of desire, design, and composition..." and includes courses on caring and workshops on clowning.{{cite web | url=https://www.patchadams.org/education/ | title=Education }}
Adams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award on January 29, 1997.{{cite web|url=http://www.peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html|title=The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Recipients List|access-date=July 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214172308/http://peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html|archive-date=February 14, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}
In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" or IAACM. MindFreedom International, a nonprofit coalition that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support "creative maladjustment" and social change.{{cite web|url=http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride/events/2008-events/patch-adams-iaacm|title=MindFreedom International launches IAACM|date=January 21, 2008 |access-date=July 17, 2009}}
Since the 1990s Adams has supported the Ithaca Health Alliance (IHA) in Ithaca, New York,{{cite web |url=http://www.patchadams.org/links/ |title=G! Links |access-date=December 16, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210043633/http://www.patchadams.org/links/ |archive-date=December 10, 2006 |url-status=dead |quote=* Ithaca Health Fund * Member-owned Non-profit Mutual Health Security * www.ithacahealth.org}} 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's vision. Adams has also given strong praise to Health Democracy, Glover's book written and published the same year.
As of 2016, Adams claims to "lecture 300 days out of the year, and have done so for over 30 years in 81 countries, spreading seeds of a love revolution of enlivening community and a call to end capitalism".
In media
File:Patch Adams with Nechama Rivlin.jpg in Award Ceremony of the Danielle Prize Healing with a Heart in April 2017]]
The 1998 film Patch Adams was based on Adams's life and his views on medicine. Adams has heavily 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/patchadams.php|title=Real Patch Adams – Movie True Story|work=Chasingthefrog.com|date=January 2, 2012}} 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.Told to Lucy Robinson, May 2002, at Hilton Head Island, SC. 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."Riccardi, Katia. [http://www.repubblica.it/persone/2010/05/04/news/patch-adams-3804546/ "Il sorriso serio di Patch Adams 'Non chiamatela clownterapia'"]. la Repubblica May 4, 2010
In another interview, Adams clarified that he did not dislike Williams, saying, "I think Robin himself is compassionate, generous and funny. I like to think that that's who I am, and so I think he was the only actor I wanted to play me, and I think he did a fabulous job." Williams also had actively supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for several years.{{cite web|url=http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=fcd4fa2454e70110VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD&vgnextchannel=12d113c016118010VgnVCM1000000e2015acRCRD|title=Get Involved with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital}}
Upon hearing of Williams' suicide, Adams released a statement that praised Williams' comedic and improvisational skills on set; noted his compassionate and caring nature; remarked upon his introverted demeanour in private, and his desire for solitude; and thanked him for "his wonderful performance".{{cite magazine| url=https://time.com/3105119/robin-williams-dead-patch-adams-remembers/ | magazine=Time | first=Patch | last=Adams | title=Patch Adams: 'Thank You for All You've Given This World Robin, Thank You My Friend' | date=August 12, 2014}}
As a speaker, Adams travels around the globe lecturing about his medicine methods.{{cite web|url=http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/patch-adams|title=Patch Adams - Book for Speaking, Events and Appearances|date=November 11, 2015}}
Personal life
While working in an adolescent clinic at VCU School of Medicine, in his final year of med school, he met Linda Edquist, a fellow VCU student who volunteered in the clinic. Adams and Edquist married in 1975, and had two sons, Atomic Zagnut "Zag" Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams; they divorced in 1998.
In March 2021, Adams announced that his left foot had been amputated in a below-the-knee amputation due to persistent problems from an MRSA infection.{{cite news| url=https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/patch-adams-amputated-foot-message/|work=Good News Network| title=Dr. Patch Adams Known For Wearing a Clown Nose Has a Foot Amputated—And He Says He's Thrilled—Watch| access-date= 9 December 2021}}
Publications
- {{Cite book |first=Patch |last=Adams |author-link=Patch Adams |author2=Maureen Mylander |title=Gesundheit!: Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy |year=1998 |publisher=Healing Arts Press |location=Rochester, Vermont |isbn=978-0-89281-781-8 |lccn=99187488 }}
- {{Cite book |first=Patch |last=Adams |author-link=Patch Adams |others=Cartoons by Jerry Van Amerongen |title=House calls |year=1998 |publisher=Robert D. Reed Publishers |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-1-885003-18-8 |lccn=98034266 }}
- Patch Adams wrote forewords for books by Pamela Wible (2012), Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind {{ISBN|978-0985710309}} and by Diana Leafe Christian (2003), Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities {{ISBN|0-86571-471-1}}.
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |first=Patch |last=Adams |author-link=Patch Adams |author2=Maureen Mylander |title=Gesundheit! [sound recording] |year=1998 |publisher=NewStar Media |location=Los Angeles |isbn=978-0-7871-1828-0 |lccn=00717433 }} 4 sound cassettes (ca. 6 hr.) : digitally mastered, Dolby processed.
- {{Cite book |first=Patch |last=Adams |author-link=Patch Adams |others=cartoons by Jerry Van Amerongen |title=House calls |year=1998 |publisher=Robert D. Reed Publishers |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-1-885003-18-8 |lccn=98034266 }}
- {{Cite book |first=Judith |last=Bourque |title=The real Patch Adams (videorecording) / a film by Judith Bourque |year=1999
|publisher=Bullfrog Films |location=Oley, PA |isbn=978-1-56029-811-3 |lccn=2003389123 }} 1 videocassette (53 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.
- {{Cite book |author=John Graham for the Giraffe Heroes Program |others=foreword by Patch Adams |title=It's up to us |year=1999 |publisher=Giraffe Project |location=Langley, Washington |isbn=978-1-893805-00-2 |lccn= 99097193}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Patch Adams}}
{{Wikiquote|Patch Adams}}
- {{official website}}
- {{IMDb name}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiW48WlXuDw&t=0s/ 13-minute video interview: "Patch Adams Presents: His Clown Character"]
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Category:American health activists
Category:Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Medical College of Virginia alumni
Category:People from Arlington County, Virginia
Category:Physicians from Illinois
Category:Physicians from Washington, D.C.
Category:American male comedians
Category:American writers with disabilities
Category:American activists with disabilities
Category:Physicians with disabilities