Wisdom from Dr Patch Adams

I was very fortunate to be able to attend a lecture given by one the world's most caring doctors. He, who's name made Robin Williams 20 million dollars, he who told us that he could not stand his first year in peds because his view of medicine was so staggeringly different. I am, of course, talking about Dr. Hunter Campbell Adams, more commonly known as Patch Adams.

Although there were many great things in that speech, I wanted to share a couple because of their impact on me personally.
First, Dr. Adams was asked about which character inspired the most his clown roles. Without a second of hesitation, he answered that it was an adult with Down's syndrome. To illustrate his reasoning, he gave us an example of a pediatric burns ward, where you would look at a child and see the awful damage that a 75% surface area third degree burn did to him. You would almost feel the tremendous pain he is suffering. You might even feel pity. However, it is almost indisputable that you would be deeply affected. An adult with Down's syndrome, on the other hand, would only see a child. Using Dr Adams' words, he would "unconditionally love" the child. This example reminded me about all those delightful "adult" behaviors and thoughts we acquire in the process of maturing and entering the realm of grown-ups. Where we are more preoccupied with making the Halloween party than spending an extra 5 minutes with a patient, where we get used to human suffering, and, ultimately, when we start to know what real suffering is so well that we can tell. This example reminded just how full of shit we are sometimes. It reminded me that sometimes simple is better. It reminded me to never forget.You can take whatever you want from this example, but I urge you to at least ask yourself how would you want people to perceive you with a severe burn...

The other interesting thing was about the medical elective course called Humanistic Medicine: Constructing Your Humanism, that Dr Adams set up in his Gesundheit Institute. Like most universities, my own has their take on making doctors more human. We get speakers, small groups, invited patients - all talking about humanity and its impact on patient outcomes. Although it has some relevance, for a very long time, even before being admitted and more so afterward, I started becoming convinced of the almost complete uselessness of this exercise. It informs, but it does not transform. Coming back to Patch, in his course about humanism he brings the students on the busiest street in the city at rush hour and requires them to start a friendly conversation with every single person passing by. This is teaching humanity. He takes them out of town, and makes them appreciate nature and their own thoughts, Sounds silly? If you think about it, being nice to others and keeping your cool in such isolation after our typical overstimulated overbooked urban life is a sign of the capacity to have a more meaningful relationship with yourself (and by extension with others) than the shallow, common, superficial pretend-interaction that I regretfully saw all too often in the hospitals.