Patch Adams - Gesundheit!: Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy

GESUNDHEIT!

Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy

PATCH ADAMS, M.D.

with Maureen Mylander

Healing Arts Press

Rochester, Vermont

Dedication

To Anna Hunter, my mom, who gave me the foundation for everything I like in myself.

To Linda, who was there from the beginning, working hard for the dream and who had the tenacity to cope with me for twenty-six years, and to J.J., Gareth, Kathy, Blair, and Heidi, without whose devotion and help this dream would never have happened.

Authors Acknowledgments

I had wanted to defer writing this book until after our new hospital in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, had been open for two years. I envisioned a do-it-yourself book on how to take a huge dream from its initial spark to its final reality: a dream-weavers manual. The high demand for our ideas and plans, sparked by my lectures and correspondence, has brought this book out early. We are also hoping that the book will help trigger the financial thrust necessary to complete our dream hospital.

Let me pour out precious thanks to:

My coauthor, Maureen Mylander, without whom this book would not have happened. She took the raw material from interviews and many essays and has created a cohesive book. Her solid belief in its value has sustained me.

Ehud Sperling of Inner Traditions for believing in our work and for being persistent.

My mom and my brother, Wildman, who were my major sidekicks in life well into my medical career.

Mary Ann Kernecklian, who, for several years before I wrote the initial paper about Gesundheit in March 1971, spent many evenings with me helping me find myself and define my values, encouraging my idealism, and believing in my abilities.

Clare Shumway, who now looms as the doctor at Medical College of Virginia and who, by his example, most strongly influenced my becoming the kind of doctor I wanted to be.

Gareth Branwyn, who for ten years has been my right hand in creating the ultimate dream hospital. Living with you, in thousands of sizzling hours of dialogue, has been ecstatic. So much of our direction has come from your intelligent, creative suggestions.

J. J., probably the single strongest influence on my sustained commitment to Gesundheit. Your friendship and devotion to our crazy dream is intoxicating. I am so glad you and Eva Bear came together. Her devotion to the dream and willingness to be the assistant director have taken a tremendous administrative burden off me.

And the zanies, that amorphous mass of silly humanity that became the pilot experiment where we tested our ideas and ideals for Gesundheit. You are my inspiration to continue. I salute you, especially those of you who lived with me and gave up your privacy to be in so many peoples lives. We had a glorious adventure together. This new hospital will thrive because of what you taught me.

And finally, Linda, Zag, and Lars, my family, my anchors: wherever I have gone these twenty-plus years, you have been there. Thank you for your love and fun, for you are the most intense and amazing experiment of all!

Patch Adams, M.D.

Contents

Foreword

I nauthenticity is our modern form of plague: it kills life.

The human essence of fundamental relationships is obscured by procedures, technology, and regulations. Eight-second sound bites drive political processes; our families become the focus of justice as the right of children to divorce their parents is affirmed; a Norwegian M.I.T. student is punched out to death by a trio of high school students seeking excitement. We are out of touch with the historic roots that give our lives meaning.

So, too, in health care we are out of touch with what gives us meaning. At a time when the power of our technology makes possible undreamed-of interventions in the diseases of mankind, the very relationship between doctor and patient has become a battleground. Distrust and disrespect prevail where alliance and intimacy are most needed. What we as physicians have lost in this process is almost too much to acknowledge: the dreams that guided us into a profession combining Hippocratic diligence with Samaritan obligation.

Patch Adams is an unlikely wake-up call for us. Soon after meeting him, I realized that this Clown was deadly serious. His Clowning has the power of all good humor: to reveal to us what we have become and to do so in a mood of good humor that allows us to see.

In this book, Patch returns us to what we have forgotten:

That all of us are humans and as such inhabit our own stories the historic traditions that make each of us unique, not just a case. In fact, each patients traditions not only are contained in the uniqueness of this moment, to be listened to and savored, but are integral to the generation of the suffering and healing of this particular human. Listening, not just hearing, is central. The Clown says, when we gave up house calls, we gave up the gold.

That we, the doctor and patient, stand a better chance of making it through lifes darkest moments as intimate and respecting partners, not in hierarchical roles. Enough of the white coats, and the teams of house staff swooping to the bedside to talk of the gall bladder that was admitted last night. The Clown introduces himself to his patient while riding a unicycle.

That life itself is bigger than illness, diagnosis, treatment, or disease mechanism. A moment of laughter, a walk in the country, simple touching, or tears can reorganize biology in a way that drugs cannot. The Clown builds a hospital with a farm and a drama theater.

That humility is essential. He reminds us that we are mortal, that death is always in the background, and that if we take ourselves in passionatebut not ponderoussignificance, we can have more fun than we have now and be at least as effective. For the Clown, humor, celebration, gratitude, and invention are all crucial elements.

So, readers, both professionals and patients (in the end, we are all patients), ready yourself for a joyful shock as you read these pages. Let yourself dream about how life could be, and be inspired into action by someone who has the courage to live his dreams.

Matthew A. Budd, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Harvard Medical School

Director of Behavioral Medicine Programs

Harvard Community Health Plan

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Publishers Preface

W hen Universal Studios expressed interest in making a movie about Patch Adams and Gesundheit! we at Healing Arts Press couldnt have been more delighted. From the time the Gesundheit! manuscript first arrived in our office we have been avid fans of Patch and his band of healer-clowns, and of the true spirit of life and love they bring to their work. Their inspiring vision of a different sort of medicine and their unflagging belief in a dream that too many shortsightedly called impossible has won respect and admiration, not only from us but from people the world over. It is a testament to Patchs conviction and tenacious determination that he has never abandoned his quest, and that he continues to help and to heal people, as well as to believe that his dream for a new paradigm of medical treatmenta free hospitalwill soon become a reality.