Recommended: The hmong medical beliefs
This book proved that in the end, neither way of thinking was completely wrong or completely right. Both the medical community and the Lees should have sought out ways in which they were able to better come to an agreement. For instance, the medical community could have tried to find a translator for the Lees which could have helped them both determine proper medical procedures. They also could have decided to learn more about the Hmong culture to have some understanding of where the Lees were coming from and avoid any barriers for them to better treat Lia. A big drawback that the medical community made was having a pessimistic outlook to Lia’s critical condition.
“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.
The author of this book is called Anne Fadiman. It is based on a story of a Hmong child known as Lia Lee who suffered from epilepsy. The demise of this condition shows the harm that can be contributed by absence of cross-cultural communication especially in the area of medicine. At the age of three months, the elder sister to Lia known as Yer banged a door which caused Lia to have the first seizure.
Anne Fadiman’s professional background is that of the Hmong lifestyle with its cultures against the entire American culture. In his background, there is miscommunication resulting from the refusal of the give medical dosages and other medicines due to the misunderstandings and mistrust. According to Barnsteiner , (p.71), there is also the inability of the US doctors to treat those people deeply rooted in the Hmong culture and they are also unable to learn that culture in the most helpful. Hmong is a refugee family in the US and that is where Ann Fadiman comes from. They come from provinces such as Laos and Sainyabuli which have tried to interact with the healthcare system in California and Merced.
The different ways one can look at Paja’s illness is by acknowledging the Hmong culture and by looking at the perspective of the biomedical world.
The Lee Family The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman, is a story of a Hmong child and her family who collide poorly with American culture and medicine. Lia Lee was their last child out of thirteen brothers and sisters. Lia, whose family is from a very cultural land, was diagnosed with epilepsy after her family fled to America. This led to numerous cultural collisions, miscommunication issues along with medical incompetence, and her parents’ custody battle with the American government. They came to America for safety and security, where they were left unfairly treated.
The fear of the unknown aides in fueling the imagination with picturing the most lucrative reasons for how the Americans practice medicine. To those educated in the ways of the western world, the scenarios described by the Hmong are outrageous, the eating of internal organs and the selling of dead
The “Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman is the story of a refugee family from Laos in the United States. The story develops over the tragic case of one of the family’s daughters named Lia, who suffers from epilepsy. The book describes the Hmong’ beliefs and medical Western practices in medicine and how it influences Lia’s life. In addition, the book relates the barriers of becoming part of a new culture, the Western perspective in medicine, and the misunderstanding between the doctors and the Hmong due to the collision of the cultures and the differences of knowledge.
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
The Vietnam war of 1955-1975 had an immense effect on the Hmong population in Laos. Traditional Western medicine is commonly held as the gold standard of medical care worldwide, while in recent days, the Western approach is attempting to gradually recognize the values of alternative medicine used in diverse cultures/populations. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (2012), is a prime example of the clash of two cultures and two opposite medicinal approaches. This paper discusses the humanistic perspective in clinical/medical social work and the systems theory in macro/administrative social work. Based on the humanistic perspective, a micro analysis is conducted on the main character of the book (Lia Lee).
The biomedical worldview is based on the idea that the body is a machine, and illness is caused by a malfunction of that machine. Treatment is focused on fixing the malfunction, often through the use of drugs, surgery, or other medical interventions. In contrast, the Hmong worldview sees illness as a sign of a spiritual imbalance, and the cure is focused on restoring that
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.
Dreams, contrary to popular belief, are terrible. The best thing to do, is to stop chasing dreams because all dreams do is distract people from more important responsibilities. People spend their time chasing their dreams, but they don’t perform their day to day tasks they need to survive on their own. In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary, has a dream of becoming an artist. Instead of getting a job to provide for her poverty stricken family, she decides to stay home and paint all day.
Puerto Rican Culture Religion, culture, beliefs, and ethnic customs can influence how patients understand health concepts, how they take care of their health, and how they make decisions related to their health (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). As a nurse, it is important to understand that not every patient shares the same healthcare beliefs. A nurse must be able to perform his or her duties without judgement and care for each patient with respect for their own unique set of beliefs and morals. In this paper, the Puerto Rican culture will be discussed, from family units to religious and cultural beliefs, as well as how Western Medicine fits into their healthcare. Explain the culture.
During it 's two hour runtime it depicts the both the hardships of pioneering in uncharted territories of medicine as well as the racial discrimination and segregation of America in the 40s. It is a mirror of both great capacity for good and progress as well as inhumane detachment from one another based on race such as with Vivian Thomas or even gender such as with Dr. Helen Taussig. The struggle to advance the discipline of medicine with all cost and at the same time bringing us closer together as human beings under the same purpose no matter the differences is worthy of discussing. The ethical dilemmas depicted on the movie can be divided in two categories; social and medical.
