#Atomic heart clown Patch#
Patch Adams, the person, would have, if I had Robin's money, given all $21 million to a free hospital in a country where 80 million cannot get care." Patch Adams also said of Robin Williams in an interview, "He made $21 million for four months of pretending to be me, in a very simplistic version, and did not give $10 to my free hospital. He said that out of all aspects of his life and activism, the film portrayed him merely as a funny doctor. Adams has heavily criticized the film, saying it eschewed an accurate representation of his beliefs in favor of commercial viability. The 1998 film Patch Adams was based on Adams's life and his views on medicine. Patch Adams with Nechama Rivlin in Award Ceremony of the Danielle Prize Healing with a Heart, April 2017 He also teaches at one session of Wavy Gravy's circus camp Camp Winnarainbow. Īdams still leads trips to cheer kids up all over the world. MindFreedom International, a nonprofit coalition that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support "creative maladjustment" and social change. In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" or IAACM. Īdams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award on January 29, 1997. Ultimately, Adams wants the Gesundheit! Institute to open a 40-bed hospital in rural West Virginia that offers free, holistic care to anyone who wants it. His prescription for this kind of care relies on humor and play, which he sees as essential to physical and emotional health. The Center and Clinic will enable Gesundheit! to see patients and teach health care design.Īdams urges medical students to develop compassionate connections with their patients. In October 2007, Adams and the Gesundheit! Board unveiled its campaign to raise $1 million towards building a Teaching Center and Clinic on its land in West Virginia. Adams has also given strong praise to Health Democracy, Glover's book written and published the same year. In January 2006 IHA launched the Ithaca Free Clinic, bringing to life key aspects of Adams's vision. Since the 1990s Adams has supported the Ithaca Health Alliance (IHA), founded as the Ithaca Health Fund (IHF) by Paul Glover. Its goal is to integrate a traditional hospital with alternative medicine, with the organization developing educational programs in sustainable systems design targeted to medical students and the general public. Soon after graduation, Patch, Linda, and friends founded the Gesundheit! Institute (originally known to many as the Zanies), which ran as a free community hospital from 1971 to 1984.Ī revamped Gesundheit! Institute, envisioned as a free, full-scale hospital and health care eco-community, is planned on 316 acres (128 ha) in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Gesundheit! Institute Gesundheit! Institute Founded Adams and Edquist married in 1975 and had two sons, Atomic Zagnut "Zag" Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams they divorced in 1998. While working in an adolescent clinic at MCV, in his final year of med school, he met Linda Edquist, a fellow VCU student who volunteered in the clinic. Convinced of the powerful connection between environment and wellness, he believes the health of an individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world. In the late 1960s one of his closest friends (a man, not a woman as depicted in the film) was murdered by a deranged patient. He began medical school without an undergraduate degree, and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Virginia Commonwealth University ( Medical College of Virginia) in 1971. After a third hospitalization in one year he decided "you don't kill yourself, stupid you make revolution." Early career Īfter graduating in 1963 from Wakefield High School, Adams completed pre-med coursework at George Washington University. As a result, Adams was unhappy and became actively suicidal. Adams has stated that upon his return he encountered racism and segregation amoungst his peers which he stood and spoke up against it, which made him a target for bullies at school.
After his father's death, Adams returned to the United States with his mother and brother. His father, a United States Army officer who fought in Korea, died while stationed in Germany when Adams was only 16. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Lomax Hunter, was a Poet Laureate of Virginia. Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Anna Campbell Stewart (née Hunter) and Robert Loughridge Adams.