"Treating a person is about improving the quality of his life, not just delaying death,"
I remembered how my mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol always told me about the Hindu chant "May I be an instrument of love and peace, may I be well." This is the same principle that the real Patch Adams shared along with his other six mantras: love, happiness, care, cooperation, fun, creativity and thoughtfulness.
Sixteen year ago the great Robin Williams brought to life his revolutionary work and people still miss him for being Patch Adams. I myself have always remembered the name of Robin Williams as Patch Adams because that was the first movie where I watched him. Both are like twins--they continuously bring joy and happiness not just to the world but to the world of suffering, pain, and chaos. It is hard enough as it is to spread the love and be an instrument of peace but both Patch Adams and Robin Williams have done with such finesse and ease that they have turned the world upside down and contributed to making the world a better place worth living in.
The story first zooms in to a suicidal man who narrates his worth in life and the worth of the world he's living in. He self-admits to a mental hospital and found in this most unlikely place his place in the world--he met his roommate Rudy who is schizophrenic and always sees squirrels crawling all over him, a Nobel Prize winner doctor who always laughs at people who say four to the four fingers he shows and his psychiatrist who "sucks at his job" and won't even look his patients in their eyes. After having a game with Rudy to make him go to the bathroom, and learning from the genius doctor that four fingers means looking at the problem too hard, he finally realizes he wants to help people and become a doctor.
But then helping people is easier said than done. Patch enrolls in a medical school and makes a few friends who are still in doubt about his philosophies in improving the quality of life of the patients instead of just treating the disease. In the hospital, he makes all kinds of clown tricks to cheer up the patients which all became very effective. He befriended the nurses and was even able to tame the wildest patient who would never let anyone near him because of his terrible disease.
An epiphany hits him: a free hospital with no insurance policies and other formalities, where there are only free medicines, care, and a bonus of laughter from the balloons and cap guns and bubble machines. A conflict arises because of the low supply of the medical kits because of the absence of insurance. Another major conflict hits Patch where his girlfriend Carin (Monica Potter) was killed by a psychopath. These are all overcome by Patch and the work goes on.
A final conflict surfaces because the medical school principal does not want him to graduate because of "excessive happiness". However he was able to defend himself in court thanks to the help of all the patients he helped in the hospital.
I do believe in my mentor's Hindu chant "May I be an instrument of love and peace. May I be well." I realized that most of the time it's hard to do because I myself have a lot of things going in my head that I don't manage to look at other people's problems. What I didn't realize was that I could really learn about other people's lives and equally learn more about my life when I talk to them.
We will always remember you, Robin Willliams a.k.a Patch Adams.
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