Anne Fadiman, author of the book, ‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” reveals the negative effects of no cross-cultural communication in the medical profession. Lia Lee and her family had no previous experiences in an American hospital, America no less. This proved to be difficult, leading both sides (Hmong family and doctors) to misinterpret what both are doing and saying. This book summary summarized the book, the qualifications of the sources used, and critiques the book as a whole.
The book is about Lia Lee, a Hmong girl who has epilepsy; having her first seizure when her sister Yer slammed a door. Foua and Nao Kao (her parents) diagnosed her with quag dab peg, or the spirit catches you and you fall down. “The doctors can fix some sicknesses that involve the body and blood, but for us Hmong, some people get sick because of their soul, so they need spiritual things,” - page 101 says Foua Kao; she believes
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Moreover, the writing is exceptional, but the format and the flow of the book is disorganized and incomprehensible. The book has a large number of frame stories, and although it gives character to other literary works, it places you with one thought, moves you to another, then to another, to bring you back to the previous thought; confusing you with what scene you are in. Although the format is not outstanding, the main theme of the book is, collision of culture. The subject of the book being Lia Lee with her epilepsy and her family and the doctors dealing with the epilepsy and the cultural differences. The author’s aim for this book is to look at both sides of the story, Hmong and American. For the Hmong, it was difficult with the cultural change and the American hospital procedures clashed with their beliefs. To the Americans, the Hmong were non-compliant and disobliging. Overall, Fadiman accomplished the emphasis of the theme, subject, and aim of the book, but failed the format and flow of
“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anna Fadiman tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with epilepsy, whose life could have been different if only her family was caught up in western medicine. This book reveals the tragic struggles between a doctor and patient because of lack of communication. When Lia was around three months old, her older sister Yer accidentally slammed a door and Lia had suddenly fallen into the floor. This is the first recorded time that Lia was experiencing an epileptic shock.
In order to become doctors in the Western culture, they had to go to some medical school. The fact that none of the doctors had courses in “cross-cultural medicine” is a reflection of the Western system failure to teach this. Therefore, the doctors cannot be blamed for not understanding the Hmong culture because they were not taught to be culturally sensitive. Maybe if the doctors were trained to become more cultural, they could develop a proper relationship with the Lees in order to improve Lia’s health. Also, the doctors were thought to be the ones who were right because of their preparation and knowledge.
The language barrier also prevented the doctors from figuring out that the parents are trying to help in their own way by buying things that Hmong believe will heal the body. The doctors didn’t know for sure if the parents were serious or not. Basically this whole book so far is showing the importance of being able to understand and communicate with one another
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, explores cultural competence, ethics in medicine, and the provision of culturally competent health care in the United States by following a family of Hmong culture in their struggles with mainstream U.S. society and healthcare. Fadiman has implemented her studies to highlight the differences between Hmong and Western practices and perspectives on health care, illness, spirituality, and the body. Through her extensive research, Fadiman is able to express cultural differences and the impact ignoring this crucial piece can have. Healthcare in the U.S. is described as the best in the world, but Fadiman is able to highlight the weaknesses this healthcare system has in regards to culturally
Micro Level Analysis Target & Dimensions As aforementioned, Lia Lee’s father, Nao Kao Lee, and his perception of Lia’s primary doctor, Dr. Neil Ernst, will be analyzed using the social constructionist perspective. Specifically, individuals and couples are the targets for analysis. Looking at these interactions through a micro lens includes examining how and why the interactions between Nao Kao and Neil happened. Adding in the social constructionist perspective to the micro level, social workers utilizing this perspective would investigate how Nao Kao constructed his individual perception of reality based on his experiences with Neil.
The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures by Anne Fadiman illuminates the dilemmas, as well as barriers, persons of various cultural backgrounds can encounter daily, specifically when residing in a foreign habitation of different practices, perspectives and beliefs. This book highlights the difficulties one family must face during a clash between Hmong family cultural beliefs and western medicine. Fadiman (1997) brings our attention to these harsh realties that one can encounter when persons are unintentionally culturally incompetent through sharing the story of the Lia Lee and her parents, Nao Kao and Foua, who look for guidance from western doctors to assist their spiritual
In the Novel, Lucky Child by Loung Ung 2005, Loung Ung is a girl who is chosen to go to America with her oldest brother and his wife. Chou is Loung’s older sister and stays in Cambodia. Lucky Child is a story about them trying to reunite with each other while coping with their inner demons revolving around the Khmer Rouge genocide and the Cambodian civil war. In this novel, persistence is a major character trait that allows the characters to survive and eventually thrive throughout their lives in their past, present and in the end. Despite enduring hardship during the Khmer Rouge, It is persistence that ultimately ends up playing a vital role that helps the characters survive.
The author was trying to show how the difference between two cultures can influence in health care. The author showed how the difference between illness and disease also affects the forms of treatment. It is important to recognize the patient’s cultural beliefs because this may help us to recognize how effective the given treatment can be and in what ways we can enhance the treatment without sacrificing the patient’s cultural beliefs. The author also showed how both the parents and the doctors care about Lia but what they thought was best for Lia varied. The doctors thought that the parents were harming the treatment by not being compliant and the parents thought that the doctors were hurting Lia by giving her so much medicine.
Within the Hmong culture there is great emphasis on symmetry, balance, and complementary sections in bodies, society, and cosmos. Additionally, the soul must be kept in balance to maintain good health; sadly, the soul of Lia was not kept in good health which lead to severe, poorly-treated epilepsy. The medical mistakes and lack of precise communication ultimately lead to an untimely death of Lia; however, between both parties dealing with Lia’s epilepsy, the severity of her illness could have been prevented if both parties took Eliade’s perspective on sacred space into account during treatment. Sacred space, in terms of Eliade’s perspective, is one of the most critical, cherished topics that defines his paradigmatic model for religion. The
Our trust in American society may be flawed when the mistreatment and inequality of new settlers is revealed. Instead of symbolizing freedom and unity they are attacked with alienation and discrimination. Valentino Achak Deng’s story of tragedy was one of many and Dave Eggers voice as an author depicted Valentino’s spirit with accuracy and creativity. The use of literary elements, such as: conflict, symbols, and characters, creates detailed examples to convey the complex issues that immigrants face in result of our country’s faulty system.
Tan expresses the life experiences of Chinese immigrants to the United States and attempts to depict the relationship of a mother and daughter through her significant piece of writing ‘The Joy Club’. Therefore, all these authors somehow portrayed their early struggles and their view point towards life from their literary
Over the progression of the book the view points and relationships between the Lees and the doctors develops slightly. The medical staff was not prepared with a translator or a cultural understanding of the Hmong and how their beliefs would not match up with their medical practices. “Not only do the Hmong fail resoundingly to improve the payer mix- more than eighty percent are on Medi-Cal- but they have proved even more costly than other indigent patients, because they generally require more time and attention, and because there are so many of them that MCMC has to hire bilingual staff members to mediate between patients and providers” (Fadiman 25). This theme in the story was immensely eye opening for all of the cultural gaps that exist throughout the United States. The solution to this problem is for both sides standing on opposite sides of the gap to take the time to bridge the gap together.
“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.” This text is written in the preface of Adeline Yen Mah’s second book, Chinese Cinderella, originally published on September 1999 by Delacorte Press. The author, Adeline Yen Mah (嚴君玲), is a retired doctor in the United States whose passion is to write since childhood. She was once a chief physician specializing in anesthesiology; however, after the publication of her first novel, Falling Leaves, she decided to give up medicine and pursue writing full-time.
Regarding effective communication, “good interpretation and good translation go a long way toward solving cross-cultural communication problems and language barriers in health care” (Dreachslin, Gilbert & Malone, 2013, p. 289). These services, through interpreters or voice-assisted devices, provide better opportunities to blend cultures and understand the tradition and beliefs of diverse populations. These two topics were just samplings of the information discussed, but they stuck out to me on a personal level, while pushing me to promote cultural competence and understanding beyond this course in all my future workplace
For the purpose of this assignment the student will critique video A ‘interpreting the message’ and discuss the issue of language barriers and patient interpretation in delivering culturally sensitive care from the view point of the healthcare professional. The student will discuss these issues in relation to cultural competence, cultural awareness and cultural knowledge. Ireland nowadays is a culturally diverse country. With approximately 160 different nationalities now living in Ireland, cultural diversity and its implications play a key part in the day to day life of Irish nurses (World of Irish Nursing, 2003). Cultural Knowledge and cultural awareness are vital for a health care professionals in today’s culturally diverse society.