The real 'Patch Adams' visits Tulsa

The man who inspired the movie "Patch Adams" visited Tulsa Tuesday. He spoke at a conference on Alzheimer's disease. <br><br>News on 6 reporter Patrina Adger has the story of this doctor-turned-clown

Tuesday, March 11th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The man who inspired the movie "Patch Adams" visited Tulsa Tuesday. He spoke at a conference on Alzheimer's disease.

News on 6 reporter Patrina Adger has the story of this doctor-turned-clown who's made a living with the belief that laughter is contagious.

Meet the real Patch Adams, Hunter "Patch" Adams. You probably know him from the movie starring Robin Williams based on a doctor who uses laughter as medicine, doing everything and anything to make his patient's laugh. â€œWe wanted to address the issue of vitality of life, so we fully integrated medicine with performing arts.â€

His love of medicine started when he spent a year as a teenager in a mental hospital. " I made a decision to change my life forever. To serve humanity and medicine, the other to love and the world, and made a decision to never have a bad day."

Since then he says he's never had a bad day and has "clowned" around for the past four decades caring for the young and the young at heart. His unconventional methods of care have taken him all over the country. He and his entourage of clowns have traveled to prisons and nursing homes to orphanages in Russia and the war zones in Bosnia wearing the red noses and clown suits all for a simple moment of pleasure from a patient. His latest adventure was in December to a hospital in Afghanistan.

In some video he shows those attending Tuesdayâ€™s conference, of a young baby severely burned cries in agony as she grabs onto her mother. Suddenly, she's distracted. And for a moment, the pain doesn't seem so bad. Adams says he's made living and dying funny.

At Tuesdayâ€™s regional conference on Alzheimer's disease, Adams tells caregivers never to give up on loving those who depend on them. "If you want meaning in your life, act in love, through volunteering, not our of duty, just to love another."

If you'd like more information on the Alzheimer's Association of Oklahoma you can call 1-800-493-1411.