Karina Parr Attends Patch Adams Gathering
CLEBURNE, Texas (June 11, 2006) - When I think of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, I see him as actor Robin Williams, making hospital rounds, wearing a bulbous red nose. The renowned medical doctor, clown and social activist was the subject of the blockbuster film, "Patch Adams."
When I learned that Karina Parr had spent a week in Hillsboro, W.V., with Dr. Adams at his Gesundheit! (to wish you good health) Institute to enrich her medical school training, I asked her to share the experience.
As it turns out, the movie was very accurate, Karina said, as the skilled physician is totally uninhibited and has a passion for bringing joy to others. His gathering was devoted to inspiring carefully selected medical students to bring a positive attitude and a sincere concern for each patient into their medical practices. "The most revolutionary act you can commit in today's society is to be publicly happy," Adams told them.
Karina is a native of Russia and married to CHS graduate Brandon Parr. She is beginning her second year of medical school at Texas A&M Health Science Center in College Station, and first heard of Patch Adams in her humanities class there.
"Our professor showed us a clip of the movie in class," Karina said. "I was the only student there who had not seen it before. I was so touched. Brandon and I rented the movie over Thanksgiving break 2005, and I watched it twice and cried. When I studied all the extra information on the DVD and the Web site, I saw that Patch's Health Care Justice Gathering would accept 30 medical students from all across the country. I filled out an application on line and wrote an essay and submitted it. "I was surprised in January to receive an e-mail welcoming me to attend. I was one of 30 from the nation. I could hardly wait until January."
When Karina arrived, she found Gesundheit! Institute to be a holistic medical community that has provided free medical care to thousands of patients since it began in 1971. The 30 enrollees at the conference were medical students, physicians, medical professionals, clowns and community members. Of the 30 there, 20 were medical students.
When she met Dr. Adams she smiled.
"He lived there with us, and we all ate our meals together. Each morning he went to his closet or dresser and just pulled out anything. His clothes were always very bright-colored and fun, though they never matched. He honestly could have cared less as long as he was warm. There was snow on the ground.
"He has no desire to be famous or rich, but only wants to heal and spread joy and have others to join him to work for love and peace. If you ask to have your photo taken with him, he will say, ‘Only if you act silly.'
"When he learned I was from Russia he kissed me three times on one cheek and again on the other — just as the custom is there. I learned he has traveled there many times during the past 20 years, even during the Cold War. There were photographs of him in his clown suit on Red Square as soldiers were on guard. They were staring at him, hugging him and laughing. One of the buildings on his campus is a house that has Russian-inspired architecture.
"We stayed in various houses on the grounds and cooked our meals together and helped clean. We enjoyed the produce from the garden there — there is a full-time gardener.
"I am rather reserved by nature. We had to be shown how to become uninhibited. It was so much fun. We had to design our own super hero costume — I became Natasha the secret agent, using the supplies of the Gesundheit! closet. We learned about the healing power of laughter.
"Once we chose a superhero we were told to return to society and to pretend to be a regular citizen, but to let that superhero become the real us.
"One class was named Laughter Yoga. It was silly but liberating. You lost your role of status in front of other people as you laughed through each exercise.
"Patch stressed that healing can come from music. Anything that makes another person feel better is therapeutic."
Karina learned that health care should not be viewed as only caring for the patient.
She explained, "Patch taught that one cannot separate health care from family, community and world. It is a puzzle — all the pieces have to be in place. I was so attracted to his philosophy. We must all take care of each other."
Adams also believes that social environment and global health are essential parts of his medical practice. Violence, injustice, unemployment, poverty, pollution — they are all medical issues in his practice.
She learned that volunteers, doctors, nurses and medical students who believe in Adams' vision, make clown trips, providing free medical care as they try to cheer people.
"Patch's two sons work with him, and they were both in El Salvador during the time I attended the institute," Karina said. "One out of five children die in that country before age 5, because of hunger.
"His work is carried on in 40 countries. Besides integrating healing arts, they do lectures, workshops and presentations around the world. Patch told us, ‘The loudest cry of patients is for compassion and attention.'"
She explained that clowning is a huge part of the Gesundheit! healing work.
"Patch takes clown teams to hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, orphanages, foreign countries, refugee camps - even to war zones. All of his service is that of love and fun. Helping people, therefore, becomes a joyful endeavor and not a hard sacrifice."
Karina was amazed at how much Adams loved to read and how well versed he was on many topics. "He is a voracious reader. He was at the top of his class in medical school and still had time to read for pleasure. Imagine that. Only the very brightest students have leisure time in medical school. I have to study very hard; it came so easily for him. He loves music. We had a world dance party, sunrise hikes. His energy level was so strong."
They had discussions on undoing racism and expressing compassion and love.
"It sounds rather ‘hippie' but we were taught to see every patient as a person and to treat everyone with love and respect. I totally agree with that. Some of his other ideas were a lot more idealistic than mine, but it is what the world needs."
Karina plans to become a general practitioner or specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. The medical field has been a familiar environment to her since early childhood.
"My father, Shamil Minyarova, is a general surgeon and pathologist in Snezhinsk, Russia. My mother, Guzel, is an orthopedic surgeon. My parents went to medical school after I was born. I grew up watching them study - I went with them to the hospital — they didn't use a babysitter. It's not as though I have no idea what it will be like."
Karina had been taught English since first grade, but during her junior year in high school she decided to come to America as an exchange student to have to use English exclusively. Ron and Janet Bednorz and their daughters in Joshua told the Pacific Intercultural Exchange Program they would open their home to Karina. Upon her arrival at DFW Airport in summer 1999, she found the sweltering Texas climate to be almost overwhelming.
She explained, "In Russia it snows from October to the end of March. It is not unusual for the temperature to be at zero or 10 below. I can recall when we had 30 below. For the first two weeks I was here I could hardly breathe because of the heat."
School was different, as well.
"There were 30 of us that started in kindergarten together in Russia. We were still together in all our classes until the end of my 11th-grade year. We had many required classes. Calculus and organic chemistry were required. Electives were all after school. We had a standard exam plus local exams that we had to pass. "I attended a bilingual school. We spoke English from the first grade. I began to learn German in the fifth grade and have spoken it since seventh grade."
Even though she learned a great deal in such a structured environment, she found delightful differences in school in America.
"I had never seen a farm animal. At Joshua, I showed for FFA. I sent pictures home of my washing and shaving a pig. My dad called immediately and asked, 'What are you doing in the barn with the pigs?'"
"I told him I was getting ready to show the pig. He wanted to know who I was going to show the pig to and wanted to know why. It was a cultural difference that was funny to both of us."
Karina was physically fit when she came to America, as she had participated in mountain climbs and had been an avid cross-country skier with her sister, Alina.
With no snow or mountains in Joshua, she ran track and played soccer.
"But I missed my family and friends. I was so homesick, but my host parents were wonderful. They and their daughters showed me places that really interested me. Most important, they took me to church. I made a decision to follow Christ."
After graduating from Joshua High School, Karina returned to Snezhinsk for the summer, where she worked in her grandmother's four-star hotel as a waitress. She also worked as a tour guide and interpreter.
"Texans come there and stay in my grandmother's hotel. In my Russian school we had studied the British pronunciation of the language, which did me absolutely no good with Texans.
"After a year in Joshua, it made all the difference. One morning at this very proper breakfast I told my group of Texans, 'Ya'll, we've gotta go!'
"This man smiled and said, ‘I've never heard a Russian girl talk like that!'"
She returned to America to attend East Texas Baptist University and attended Lane Prairie Baptist Church when she visited Joshua. There she met Brandon Parr.
"After Christmas that year a friend had free tickets to Six Flags, and Brandon and I went along. It was easy for us to talk and we had fun together. Later, he took me to a New Year's Eve party. I had prayed that I wouldn't date any man that God didn't want me to date, so I was cautious."
Karina received a call at 5 a.m. one morning — Brandon had been praying, too.
"He was so excited. Just days before, he said he had prayed that God would send him the right person. We were married Aug. 17, 2002."
As they return to College Station from a visit with his parents, Glenn and Connie Parr of Cleburne, Karina will return to medical school while Brandon serves as worship pastor of the Fellowship of Lake Creek Church. He also writes Christian music and has made recordings.
"When Karina was at the gathering with Dr. Patch Adams, she called me," Brandon said. "She was amazed that there were so many other people there who shared the same passion for selfless acts of service.
"Patch Adams could be a multi-millionaire," he continued. "Doctors leave him huge endowments, but he chooses to fund so many projects with that money.
"I am in charge of missions for my church. I am eager to use his ideas there."
Karina is planning to help Brandon at church and to put Adams' ideas to work on campus.
"I am the global health chairman on campus at A&M in our local chapter of the American Medical Students Association. I will give a talk to encourage other students to attend one of Patch's Health Care Justice Gatherings. They need to be inspired by him in person. It's a life-changing experience.
"I will encourage others to volunteer. We sponsor and participate in a Health Circus quarterly at A&M. It is run by the medical students. We are assisted by the Blinn College Nursing School students and are supervised by physicians. We offer free well-child screenings and immunizations and check blood pressure and offer diabetes screenings for adults. The event will be a wonderful opportunity to follow what I have learned — among other things, to treat others with the love and respect that every human being deserves."
She recalled that Adams told her "the loudest cry of patients is for compassion and attention."
She added softly, "It all hits home now."
