The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

Language barrier was a major factor that served to extend the boundary existing between the two cultures. Some of the utterances made by the doctors were interpreted right but were understood wrongly (Swartz 2). This resulted in a worsened discernment of the American doctors by the Lees and Hmong as an entity alike. In the case of an emergency, the Lees needed to contact an ambulance, but could not communicate with the hospital. This necessitated the involvement of their learned nephew, who would call an ambulance. The interpretation process would at times limit the effectiveness of the message intended by either party. For instance, when Lia was undergoing critical care in MCMC, the Lees needed to be comforted, a process which had to be done by an interpreter. Before the final discharge, miscommunication between Lia’s mother and the doctors had her think that the nurses disconnected medicine tubes off Lia in order to give it to some other patient; a mean act. In the same incident, Lia’s father was made to sign a letter of discharge for Lia, which would happen in two hours. However, he understood this as a letter to guarantee death in two

Kind of like in the book “the spirit catches you and you fall down,” by Anne Fadiman. Fadiman described how the Hmong’s and the doctors had different point of views; because of their differences in culture and the language barrier they had trouble communicating and understanding one another. In the Banes family, Jackie was responsible for understanding and pursuing treatments for her grandmother. These treatments were not so easy for Jackie to understand, and often there has been a lack of communication

Lias final seizure was a horrifying yet blameless conclusion to her extremely short life. At only four years old she went into an extremely violent seizure that lasted for hours. Nurses and doctors were unable to stop her seizing due to her size (Fadiman 143). When they were finally successful in stopping her seizure she had almost no brain activity left, and was declared brain dead and sent home to die, (Fadima 211). Following all of the previous events of her life it can be easily assumed that the Lees did not give Lia her medicine, or the doctors and MCMC complicated her regime, causing her symptoms to worsen, but that is not the case. Lia had her final seizure due to sepsis, not because she was epileptic. (Fadiman 147). The fact that her organs were shutting down was hidden by a lack of symptoms. Despite everyone finally doing what they needed to do, Lia’s fate had already been sealed at that point. The ultimate cause of her brain death was nobody 's fault at all, and it had nothing to do with culture, it was just an unfortunate accident.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down or quag dab peg is said to mean “a soul stealing dab; peg means to catch or hit; and quag means to fall over with one’s roots still in the ground, as grain might be beaten down by wind or rain” (Fadiman, 1997). The Lee family belonged to the Hmong tribe, which was the basis of their differing beliefs in comparison with modern medicine. Lia’s parents believed that when she was three months of age, she had been startled when her older sister, Yer, slammed the door of the Lee family’s apartment. This resulted in Lia’s first seizure which her parents believed made Lia particularly fit for divine office. The Hmong believed epileptics became shamans or medicine men and

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997) is an ethnography written by Anne Faidman. It tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, and her family’s journey with managing the condition and the cultural barriers that posed great challenges in Lia’s care. Lia was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 1. It was her family’s opinion that the condition was a spiritual gift. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua, were wary of the American medical system, preferring to treat Lia in the Hmong way. Under the more spiritually focused care of her parents, Lia continued to have severe seizures; at the age of 4 ½, she slipped into a coma that would last the rest of her life. This book serves as a testament to the importance of cultural competency

The Lees, a Hmong family, came to the United States in the 1970s as refugees from Laos, and lived in Merced, California. Unlike most immigrants, the Hmong population was less amenable to assimilation. The traditional health beliefs and practices of the Hmong population were disputed by the practices of Western medicine. This became very event when the Lees took their three-month-old daughter, Lia Lee, to the emergency room in Merced. Lia was diagnosed with epilepsy a disease that had two different meaning among the Hmong population and Western medicine.

The case study of Lia Lee is interesting and serves as a cautionary tale as it explores the consequences of cultural misunderstanding. In this case both the parents and medical staff sought the same thing; they both wanted Lia to have a positive outcome. Unfortunately, both groups had distinct ideas regarding how to achieve the common objective. This division was rooted in each sides individual cultural beliefs.

The story draws attention to the disadvantage that the language barrier caused in the Chapter titled “Take as Directed”. This chapter talks about how the parents don’t follow the doctor’s orders in giving Lia the proper dosing regimen. The staff and doctor’s didn’t know if her parents simply did not want to give her the medicine or if they basically didn’t know or understand what to do. Lia’s suffers a grand mal seizure during this chapter and gets intubated and placed on a ventilator to keep her alive. To make matters worse, the doctors start to believe that the seizures are causing retardation and that if Nao and Foua would give the child the medicine as directed she would be getting better. Finally a decision is made among medical staff that placing Lia under Foster care may be in her best interest in order to assure a proper dosing regimen.

According to the Hmong culture a shaman helps to cure the soul. A doctor cures biological problems. As we learn throughout this class there is a difference between an illness and a disease. An illness or a disease may have the absence of the other. In most cases an illness can be present without a disease. In the case of Lia there was a presence of both Illness and disease. If txiv neb and the American doctor would have balanced their practices and learned from each other this would have affected the way the Lees thought about medicine. I believe that faith plays an important role in Lia’s case if the doctors would have understood the way that txiv neeb thought and vice versa the lees would have trusted American doctors and medicine more. Learning from txiv neeb would have also helped the American doctors in other cases when treating Hmong by understanding their culture. It is important for the doctors to understand the Hmong culture and specifically the way that a txiv neeb works because in Merced a third of the population were Hmong and used a tixv neeb as their main source of healing.

We can see that there was a misunderstanding between the Lee’s and the doctor. Both parties explained the view on Lia’s case but from a biased perspective within their own culture. Lia's doctors strongly opinionated to treat her disease with medication, however her parents felt that being given medication would restrict with the spiritual healing given by a Hmong shaman.

The Lees believe that for an illness to be cured the soul has to be called back through the ritual sacrifice of animals such as chicken and pig. That is, they believe in the “Shamanistic ritual performed by a trix neeb in which an animal is sacrificed and its soul battered for the vagrant soul of a sick Person” (Fadiman, 1997, p.100). According to Lia's father Nao Kao “Sometimes the soul goes away but the doctors don’t believe it…The doctors can fix some sickness that involve the body and blood but for us Hmong some people get sick because of their soul, so they need spiritual things. With Lia it was good to do a little medicine and a little neeb” (Fadiman, 1997,p.100). The medical care that the doctors at Merced were providing was without animal sacrifices therefore the Lee’s believe that it could not make their daughter well.

“In the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman explores the subject of cross cultural misunderstanding. This she effectively portrays using Lia, a Hmong, her medical history, the misunderstandings created by obstacles of communication, the religious background, the battle with modernized medical science and cultural anachronisms. Handling an epileptic child, in a strange land in a manner very unlike the shamanistic animism they were accustomed to, generated many problems for her parents. The author dwells on the radically different cultures to highlight the necessity for medical communities to have an understanding of the immigrants when treating them.

Anne Fadiman wrote this book to document the conflict between cultural barriers and how they affect medical issues. In this book, Lia Lee is a Hmong child was has epilepsy and battles cultural medical differences. The main struggle in this story is the conflict between the doctors and parents because they cannot seem to get on the same page. While writing the book, Fadiman stated that there was a “clash of cultures”. (Fadiman, preface) Meaning, there are two different sides to the story and the problem has not be solved.

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, there are many different intercultural misunderstandings. A Hmong girl’s life was forever changed because of these misunderstandings and some things could have easily been avoided, had each side taken the time to better understand the other.

The book titled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Talks about a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures written by Anne Fadiman. Anne Fadiman is an American essayist and reporter, who interests include literary journalism. She is a champion of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Salon Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. In the book, Anne Fadiman explores the clash between a county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the health care of Lia Lee. Lia Lee is a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy, whose parents and the doctors wanted the best treatment for her, but the lack of communication cause a tragedy. The essay paper will state and explain what went wrong between Lia’s family and the doctors. The central point is a lack of understanding between them leads to Lia’s tragedy.