Patch Adams: Raging Against the Dying of the Light

Patch Adams: Raging Against the Dying of the Light

Imagine lying in a bed with a disease. Monitors beeping. A feeling of loneliness. Nurses run around you. You sit in your frigid cot and think that no one even knows you’re there -- unless your machine starts to go off. The doctor doesn’t care if you die today or die tomorrow, just as long as he gets paid. This is the grim reality for most of the unfortunate people who have terminal illnesses. This is the way many view their time in a hospital.

In the film Patch Adams, Robin Williams plays a doctor who believes that “…doctors should treat the patient, not the disease, and that sick, frightened people need to feel that those who take care of them are paying attention….” (1) He is a 40 year old man who, after willingly committing himself to a mental institution, finds that the general treatment accorded patients is not the way to cure them. He believes that to cure the disease you must treat the patient...