Patch Adams: Indifference is the Disease
The video Patch Adams, played by Robin Williams, is an extraordinary film. Patch Adams life was about humanity and caring for people. He believed in building a relationship with the patient over 4 years. His hospital was a home surrounded by people who care. He states the doctors mission is not only to prevent death but the quality of life.
My mother before she died said she wanted to live but her quality of life was pain and suffering. No-one ended the suffering for her or questioned why she became sicker. The main narrative is voluntary assisted dying rather than voluntary assisted living. It is not more compassionate to let a person die when pain is a outcome of a medical model. The real compassion is to be like Patch, ask questions, reframe medicine (or biotechnology) and be courageous enough to challenge narratives that need to be challenged. Many people die in hospitals these days, some argue they are the leading cause of death. This is not only about malpractice, it is about a medical model that has become toxic and forgot its mission. It is not to set aside the Hypocratic Oath through signing Do Not Rescucitate but to honour the Hypocratic Oath and do everything possible to ensure quality of life and a natural death pain free. My mother died in pain and there was no real attempt to help her or save her. She was old and her death was facilitated. The issues Patch has raised nearly two decades ago are more relevant today than in any other time.
In the film they show how Patch bumped up agains the medical profession due to his unorthodox style of clown doctoring to get up close to love people, they labelled him or diagnosed ‘excessive happiness’. These days we hear the words ‘toxic happiness’. There is no such thing. Happiness is when we are in alignment with who we are. Patch followed his heart, he brought colour, humour, love, feeling and care into hospitals. Yet still today the medical profession does not get what ‘healing’ is really about and how important the patient is in their own recovery. Instead today we are in a business model that no longers sees a human being but a patient, diagnosis and the bottom line. How many die due to the ‘indifference’ many doctors are taught and feel as patients come and go in endless admissions and discharges. The real human is lost in this.
This scene is particularly powerful as it demonstrates the hardline of doctors when confronted with a man who believes in humanity. He attributes his loving disposition to his mother, a school teacher, who loved her children and encouraged them to be happy. Is this not what each parent wants for their child. Why can’t this be the rationale for how we live in societies, or business, or in schools. Instead the mind is over emphasised at the expense of the whole person.
The statement ‘love is the answer’ is not mystical. It is the very glue that binds society and heals people. It is indeed the missing link. Love is a higher consciousness because we feel lighter when we feel loving. This is when we are happiest and the body is more likely to heal itself quicker. Why is this not a primary teaching in any healing or health modality?