Patch Adams (1998)
Patch Adams, played by Robin Williams, is suicidal. Checking into a mental hospital, he finds that the doctors, who are supposed to be helping him, are indifferent. In contrast, other patients help him overcome his suicidal urges. He resolves to become a doctor to help other patients.
Patch Adams, based on a real person of the same name, breathes humour and life into the dreary world of the modern hospital. As an intern, Adams finds that patients are identified by their ID number and disease. Doctors and nurses seem more concerned about medical charts than their patients. Finally, Adams startles a nurse by asking her about a patient: “What’s her name?” The very idea that a patient may be something more than his or her medical records reveals the impersonal and bureaucratic nature of the modern doctor–patient relationship.
Patch Adams is intent on infusing personal care, humour, and humanity into the doctor–patient relationship. In dealing with children whose hair had fallen out because of chemotherapy, Patch plays a clown in order to bring smiles to their faces. He believes humor and laughter can be a great cure.
Not surprisingly, Adams faces resistance from medical school administrators. After all, he deviates significantly from the norm of impersonal professionalism. They attempt to expel him from the medical school. With support from his friends and patients, however, he manages to win a court battle to remain in medical school. In real life, Patch Adams goes on to become a medical doctor, who not only maintains a sense of humor, but also continues to live up to his ideals, including helping poor patients around the world.
Patch Adams is a sentimental movie, pitting the humorous individual against the grim organization. However, the movie critic Roger Ebert wrote: “To himself . . . [Patch Adams is] an irrepressible bundle of joy, a zany live wire who brings laughter into the lives of the sick and dying. To me, he’s a pain in the wazoo. If this guy broke into my hospital room and started tap-dancing with bedpans on his feet, I’d call the cops.” Here Ebert is saying that the norm of professionalism—grim and impersonal though it may be—may be preferable to the antics of Patch Adams. Do you agree with Ebert? Would you prefer your doctor to be a “human being,” or simply to play his professional role efficiently and effectively? What are the health advantages and disadvantages of each approach to doctoring?