Patch Adams offers humor, philosophy in talk

Thirteen years after the UNC campus featured prominently in the motion picture “Patch Adams,” the real thing arrived at the Student Union and the Medical Biomolecular Research Building.

On Thursday, Hunter “Patch” Adams spoke about his unconventional approach to patient care, one that uses laughter and friendship to transform the institution of medicine and inspired the 1998 movie starring Robin Williams.

“The richness of life is the richness of human intimacy,” Adams said Thursday morning at the Medical Biomolecular Research Building. Donning a shirt and tie resembling a Jackson Pollock painting, he later spoke at the Student Union.

Adams, whose gray ponytail was dyed dark blue on the right side, offered a stark contrast to his cinematic portrayal.

Since 1971, when he established his “Funny Hospital” in West Virginia, Adams said he has wanted to change the duties of doctors by fostering relationships with patients to tackle illness and suffering.

“Love is the most important thing in life, and not one hour of it is taught in public school or medical school,” he said.

Adams said he discourages doctors’ apathy toward patients whose suffering is often rooted in loneliness, citing how doctors spend an average of 7.8 minutes with each patient while he spends no less than four hours. At his six-bedroom home, Adams operated a free hospital that, for 12 years, did not carry insurance and usually housed 40 patients.

He did it without regret.

“It was an ecstatic experience to love patients and engage with their humanity,” he said. “One day, I just hugged and talked with a patient for 12 hours straight.”

Sophomore Ana Cabello said she left the lecture a changed woman.

“It’s so inspiring to focus on the blessing of what it is to be a human being and have compassion,” she said.

Adams has also expanded his philosophy outside the examining room. In recent years, he began a new initiative where he and 40 other people dress up as clowns and travel to areas in need of happiness and laughter.

In more than 150 “clown trips,” the group has been to Russian orphanages, earthquake-stricken Haiti and post-tsunami Indonesia.

They even began taking soldiers on trips after their tours overseas in order to help them reconnect with themselves following the devastation of war, Adams said.

Adams advocated for a move away from what he called a “disease greed system” to a less profit-driven ideology that instead emphasizes wellness education.

Although the movie about him was partially filmed at UNC, Adams was on campus at the behest of a student who had travelled on the clown trips with him.

Senior Rivers Woodward said Adams encourages people not to be bound by the capitalistic system Adams denounced.

“This belief proves that students don’t have to compromise their passion and idealism to help people just because of how the medical system works,” Woodward said.

Adams said that relationships, whether with a friend, with God or even with nature are the true keys to alleviate suffering.

“Deep friendship and aggressive, overwhelming affection is the most potent force of healing,” he said.

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