In addition to providing regular medical care, American doctor, comedian, and social activist Patch Adams believes in treating his patients with compassion, humor, and creativity. After being hospitalized three times in a year for suicidal attempts as a teenager, he made the decision to put an end to everything. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia) in 1971, which helped him to materialize his vision. He established Gesundheit! Institute as a free community hospital out of his passion for sharing love and laughter with everyone. After operating it for free for 12 years, he emerged from his shell and traveled the world, giving presentations and lectures at medical conferences and schools to raise awareness of the alternative medical facilities available to treat patients. As a result, the American healthcare system as it is currently practiced was changed. Additionally, he conducted clown visits to hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, disaster areas, war zones, and refugee camps. He has recently been putting a lot of effort into rebuilding Gesungheit Institute as a community eco-village health care facility in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. This facility will have a 40-bed hospital as well as other features like a theater, horticulture, vocational therapy, and arts and crafts shops.
Early Childhood & Life
On May 28, 1945, in Washington, DC, Patch Adams was born as Hunter Doherty Adams into a military family to Robert Loughridge Adams and Anna Campbell Stewart.
His father fought in both World Wars II and the Korean War, and he passed away in 1961 while serving in Germany. Along with his mother and brother, he returned to the US and settled in Virginia.
He attended Wakefield High School, which was exclusively white, where he experienced prejudice and was bullied by other students. As a result, he made three hospital stays in a year and attempted suicide twice.
Instead of taking his own life during his final hospital stay, he decided to start a revolution by using love and laughter to heal others.
He graduated from high school in 1963 and went on to George Washington University to complete pre-medical coursework.
Without having completed his undergraduate studies, he enrolled in the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where he later earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1971.
Career of Patch Adams
He founded the Gesundheit Institute and ran it out of his house for more than 12 years, merging all healthcare-related difficulties into one model and providing free care to patients without reimbursement from health insurance or malpractice insurance.
As time went on, the patient population grew, but he soon ran into financial problems.
In 1984, he made the decision to go public and start working as a speaker while still trying to find a way to get the money he needed to run his hospital and keep treating patients.
He started giving talks at conferences and medical institutions both domestically and overseas. He has delivered lectures and given presentations in more than 50 countries during the past three decades.
He began a clown tour to the former Soviet Union in 1985 with a group of individuals, visiting hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes as well as performing on the streets while dressed in brightly colored clothing to spread love, joy, and laughter to patients and bystanders.
The wildly popular clown tours turned into a crucial component of Gesundheit’s international outreach. In addition to performing in Russia, he has traveled the world as a clown, visiting refugee camps, conflict areas, and places affected by natural disasters.
Apart from other places, his facility has provided medical assistance to refugee camps in Macedonia, conflict zones in Bosnia, and orphanages in South Africa.
The 1998 Hollywood film “Patch Adams,” which was partially based on his life and unique viewpoint on medicine, helped him further increase his notoriety.
The 2003 film “Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.” was also inspired by his life and unique approaches to caring for patients through humor.
In order to build a Teaching Center and Clinic in West Virginia, an initiative to treat patients and educate health care design on one platform, he and Gesundheit Board initiated a campaign to raise $1 million for it in 2007.
Construction on the Teaching Center’s initial phase began in 2011.
On 310 acres of land in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, he intends to create a full-scale, contemporary healthcare center that will feature a 40-bed hospital, arts and crafts stores, a theater, horticulture, and occupational therapy.
He is the author of the novels “House Calls” and “Gesundheit: Good Health is a Laughing Matter.”
He visits patients in nations including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Russia, and Cuba while traveling for almost 300 days a year and giving over 11 talks in a single day.
He is currently working with the US Green Shadow Cabinet as the “Assistant Secretary of Health for Holistic Health.”
Bigger Works of Patch Adams
In 1971, he founded the Gesundheit! Institute, a prototype hospital. He collaborated with Linda Edquist and 20 other friends to offer folks who couldn’t afford treatment free medical care.
Recognition & Achievements
The Institute of Noetic Sciences Award for Creative Altruism was given to him in 1994.
He received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1997.
In 2008, the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment (IAACM) chose him as its honorary chair.
Along with a number of other well-known celebrities, he has served as the Harvey Ball Foundation’s honorary ambassador of peace.
Personal Legacy & Life
During his final year of medical school, he connected with Linda Edquist, a fellow VCU student, and they got married in 1975. Atomic Zagnut “Zag” Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams were the couple’s two sons. But in 1998, the two were divorced.
He is now a resident of Urbana, Illinois.
Patch Adams Net Worth
A surgeon, clown, author, comic, and social activist from the United States named Patch Adams has a $2 million fortune. In May 1945, Patch Adams was born in Washington, D.C. He established the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971, and each year he arranges for volunteers to tour the globe dressed as clowns to provide laughter to everyone, particularly sick people and orphans.