Written by Patch Adams, M.D. with Maureen Mylander - Audio book narrated by Arte Johnson - Abridged Nonfiction - 1 CASSETTE - 1.5 hours

Publisher, Dove Audio (1998)

Now a major motion picture from Universal Studios starring Robin Williams as Patch Adams, this book tells the inspiring and hilarious story of Adams' quest to bring free health care to the world and to transform the way doctors practice medicine. Includes 20 photos.

Inauthenticity is our modern form of plague: it kills life.

At a time when the power of technology makes possible undreamed-of interventions in the diseases of mankind, the very relationship between doctor and patient has become a battleground.

Meet Hunter D. "Patch" Adams, M.D., the Clown. A social revolutionary and one-man show who believes in "horse and buggy" medicine and never charges his patients, his medical career has been devoted to giving away health care—one of the most expensive things in America—for free. In 1971, Adams and a few colleagues founded the Gesundheit Institute, a forty-bed free hospital on 310 acres in a medically underserved area in northern West Virginia, utilizing an "unorthodox" approach to medicine: laughter, humor, the philosophy of listening, not just hearing, and doctor and patient as intimate, respecting partners. During the next twelve years they operated a home-base family medical practice, open to "anyone from anywhere," treating more than 15,000 people without payment, malpractice insurance, or formal facilities.

Adam's positive vision of the future addresses the concerns of millions of Americans who are unhappy with, and increasingly hurt by, deficiencies in our health care system. Revealing to us what we have become and heralding a brighter future of affordable, humane health care, this Clown is deadly serious.