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Founder of the Gesundheit! Institute in West Virginia, Hunter D. "Patch" Adams, general practitioner, came to the attention of the general public when comedian and actor Robin Williams played him in the 1998 movie "Patch Adams." The film version emphasized his health and humor philosophies; however, there is a lot more to the doctor with the red nose. As a teen he was institutionalized for attempting to take his own life. As an adult he is dedicated to an ideal of health care, peace, love, compassion and justice for all mankind. His 1998 book "Gesundheit!: Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy" explains his point of view. Dr. Adams, 64, will be honored at St. Barnabas Charities Founder's Day Celebration April 29 at the Omni William Penn. For tickets, call 724-444-5530.
Since your epiphany in the mental hospital, your life has been dedicated to health care. Has the Internet helped the mission?
You know I've never used a computer. I don't know how to even get to our website. How's that for a shocker! I'm part of a community, so I don't actually have to know how to use one because members in our community do. I also take 120 monthly magazines and have a library of 30,000 books, so I'm my own Google. That sounds strange, but I read 150 to 200 books a year. I also write and answer all my mail, so I write 400 to 600 longhand letters a month.
See the What are your thoughts on the short attention span of today's generation?
The worst invention of the 20th century was the television -- that combined with no educational system. I mean "No Child Left Behind," that has nothing to do with education. Tests have nothing to do with education. I lecture at 40 or 50 universities a year and I find the students unable to form an argument. It's scary. I mean the purpose of the education system at the beginning of the 19th century was to train people to work in jobs they don't like for a long period of time.
It can train you for jobs you do enjoy like medicine or journalism.
I don't think our educational system teaches delight in one's work. I wish. We're a nightmare. We have a horrible educational system. It shows in the math and science statistics and it really shows when I try to have conversations with young people. I relate these horrible terms ADD, ADHD to the electronic world and the kids aren't playing outside. There are people now diagnosing nature deficit disorder. Our political system, I mean Bush could probably barely sign his name. I'm sorry, but clearly he, himself couldn't formulate sentences.
Do you feel that President Obama is doing a better job?
Well thank goodness you said "better" and not "do I think he's doing a great job." I voted for him. He's very disappointing to me. He didn't fight for single payer, that he's not out of Guantanamo or out of the wars for oil that we have in the Middle East. I don't think he is the dark evil that I felt in Bush and Cheney. I do feel he is, once again, that he is owned by wealth.
Is the Gesundheit! Institute -- with free medicine, no hierarchy among the staff work -- a good blueprint for the country?
The insurance companies, just in the first quarter of last year, spent $50 million on lobbying. Most congressman and senators are millionaires, so what would they know about the American people? The American people pay for very good health insurance for all of them. It's embarrassing that they haven't fought for it. Our model is not the answer. We're not really a blueprint. We are simply there to say if we can do our crazy model, what's yours? Our model eliminates 90 percent of the cost. In our hospital a cleaning person and the surgeon make the same salary -- $300 a month, living in a communal Eco-village hospital. What a romantic idea.
It's such a throwback to the Flower Power 1960s.
But if you really think about it, it's just being a normal grandmother. For an educated person these ideas are in the history of faith. I'm not a religious person, but they're in all the faiths. They're in the great poets and artists of history. They're in all the women. All the problems of the world are due to men. I've been in countless refugee camps. Who do you think is working? In two thousand orphanages I've never found a male worker. So I think the '60s were adorable, but if you watch women work everywhere in the world, for them it's just normal care. From their point of view, it's not even remarkable.
But Patch, women usually raise the men.
In the modern era women are working. So who is doing the raising? A meaningless educational system? Television? Come on. How many stay-at-home mothers do you know? They are treated like doo-doo. Yes, one of the really dangerous things about the modern world is women used to be holding it together, now because of working and more strained situations, they're also becoming part of the problem.
In the book you advise, everyone has the right to fail. Accept it as the bottom line. Can you explain?
I'm saying a success-failure model. Let's say in market capitalism, means that there are going to be very few winners. The success-fail model has the American commentator at the Olympics saying to the silver medalist "How does it feel to lose?" So what I encourage people to do is define success in a term that it is always going to be success. Did I try? Did I give my time? Did I never give up? This whole success-failure that we have in this society, it's a success if you are beautiful and a failure if you are ugly. Or it's a success if you're thin, so we have bulimia and anorexia. So for me success in medicine is 'Did you care and guarantee care 100 percent of the time?' You can never, ever promise a cure.
Is there anything about the new health care plan that you like?
I want health care for everybody, equal care. I don't want a tiered system. I don't want public hospitals for poor people and rich people hospitals for rich people. That's not my style. There are some things in the bill; I haven't read the 2,000 pages. For years I didn't even like "single payer" because all it did was say 'Let's try to find a way to pay for the vulgar greedy system we have.' It wasn't 'Let's make a beautiful health care system.' The entire debate was only about cost. It wasn't about the overwhelming outcry around the world for a health-care system that gave you enough time with a patient. There's not a happy hospital in the world. Even in countries that pay for their health care they are not satisfied with the system. The entire ethic of television is money and power. Would you agree?
I would say money is what makes America and the world go 'round.
Well, it will make us extinct this century. I don't see a single trend that says we won't make ourselves extinct this century and I'm not a pessimist. I'm reporting having read 2,000 books on the environment. We are in deep trouble and we are selling "American Idol" and multi-millionaires playing with their footballs on TV. Every message a kid gets growing up is all about money and power. I've been a free doctor over 40 years and never made a penny as a doctor. That's why I'm so happy.
So, it's service.
What is the ethic of all the faiths? Compassion and love. So I tell my Christian audiences, "It would be nice if you were."
Mackenzie Carpenter's video program, "Omnivore," is available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
