The story behind the movie “Patch Adams” and the doctor who brings joy to patients in the worst of times

Universal Pictures released the film in 1998 Patch Adams — Love is Contagious, which chronicles the life of Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams, a doctor who completely transformed his approach to patients. Adams worked (and works) in a very peculiar way: bringing people in medical treatment a little humor. He also dreamed of having a free clinic open to the community, and although that work was short-lived, Adams, now 74, still struggles tirelessly to reopen his doors and heal people using his unorthodox but very effective technique.

O awesome.club invites you to get to know this story better, which shows that laughter and love can be the best medicine.

Born in Washington (USA), Adams created the so-called laughter therapy, a psychotherapeutic technique that tries to reassure patients using humor. The doctor discovered his fate when he was admitted, still very young, to a psychiatric hospital, shortly after losing his father. There, he met Rudy, a patient with psychiatric disorders, who helped him reverse his condition with playfulness and companionship. It was then that he decided to study Medicine, to use it as an instrument of social change, helping the sick in a more humane way.

Adams studied at Virginia Commonwealth University (USA) volunteering at a hospital, where he began to use humor to try to alleviate the suffering of patients. In the film, it is possible to see the reaction of both the patients themselves, who show immense affection for the doctor (played by the unforgettable Robin Williams), and their co-workers, who react with perplexity. Because of the reaction of his colleagues, Adams decided to found his own free clinic.

Along with 20 other people — three of them doctors — he moved into a six-bedroom house, with the idea of ​​opening a 24/7 hospital. Thus, he laid the foundations for what would become what we now know as the Gesundheit Institute! At the clinic, the doctor and his team treated patients who did not have health insurance using techniques of common medicine, but also using holistic therapies, whose main “ingredient” was affection.

The Gesundheit Institute! was created with the aim of changing the concept of hospital, not only treating the most needy patients with “laughter therapy”, but also creating a bond with the local community, using Medicine to generate social change.

Unfortunately, the institute stopped working in 1984, due to lack of resources, but that was no reason for the doctor to abandon the cause he had always fought for. Since then, Patch Adams has lectured and lectured around the world to raise funds to build a hospital capable of accommodating 40 beds.

He points out, however, that the Gesundheit! it is also that of a hospital “without walls”, since since 1971 it has sought to transmit this form of treatment to both the medical community and lay people. Adams visits hospitals, orphanages, war zones, refugee camps and places affected by natural disasters, seeking to bring joy to people using the “clown technique”, a methodology he created and available on the website of the Gesundheit Global Outreach initiative, linked to the Institute.

The film shows the life of Adams, his hospitalization, his studies and his work. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture Comedy” and “Best Actor” for the performance of Robin Williams. Although the film received both good and bad reviews, it helped many people to get to know and become familiar with the life and work of the real Adams. This is still the story of a dreamer, who knows how to transform reality itself and bring some joy to people in difficult times.

Adams continues to work with Gesundheit Global Outreach, along with thousands of volunteers around the world, not only to build a hospital, but to take their message of love and solidarity everywhere and to make medicine more humane.

Have you already watched the movie? Did you know the real Patch Adams? What do you think of his work? Tell us in the comments section.