Adams patches up Sri Lanka's hurt

"Laughter is the best medicine you know," says Dr Adams

Dr Hunter "Patch" Adams, whose unconventional healing methods inspired a 1998 Robin Williams film, has visited Sri Lanka's tsunami-hit towns.

Dr Adams brought a troupe of 30 clowns performing juggling, unicycle riding and puppet shows to hospitals and relief camps in the country's south.

His Gesundheit Institute in the US is run according to his philosophy of using humour with healing.

Dr Adams has also taken his clowns to Bosnia, Africa and Afghanistan.

Encouragement

The first stop was the Karapitiya Hospital, near Galle.

Giving and receiving love has become the world's currency after the tsunami Dr Adams

"We do everything that makes people laugh," said Dr Adams, 59. "Laughter is the best medicine you know. I want to stop their suffering."

He told the Reuters news agency: "I decided to come to Sri Lanka as I have a great feeling of tragedy and desire to encourage people to rebuild after the tsunami."

As he bounded into children's wards, one doctor asked: "Is that man looking for the psychiatric ward?"

The troupe sprayed wards with soap bubbles and performed a puppet show for children suffering from cancer.

Train site

Dr Adams said one positive aspect of the tsunami was that it had "made people forget their greed for power and think of humanity".

Dr Adams meets author Arthur C Clarke in Hikkauwa, Sri Lanka

He also visited the site of what is thought to be the world's worst train disaster, at Telwatta, 110km (75 miles) south of the capital, Colombo.

Tsunami waves struck the Queen of the Sea train, killing at least 800 and possibly twice that number.

"When the power of nature destroys, there is no one to blame. You have got to collect the pieces and move on your own, but the world did not forget these people," Dr Adams said.

"Giving and receiving love has become the world's currency after the tsunami."

In all, the tsunami killed more than 31,000 people in Sri Lanka.

Dr Adams graduated as a doctor in 1971 and over the past three decades has developed his philosophy that the health of an individual is intrinsically linked to the health of the family, community and the world.

His Gesundheit Institute, a free hospital and health-care "eco-community" in West Virginia, combines traditional medicine with alternative treatments and the performing arts.

The Robin Williams film, Patch Adams, tells of the doctor's own experience of receiving uncaring treatment in hospital, which inspires him to develop his unconventional humour-based healing.