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Summary Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down

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A common theme that has been discussed regarding the adversities that immigrants experience when arriving to the America are the social and cultural clashes between immigrants and citizens. What I find interesting is the conflicts pertaining to the health care system. Based on previous lectures, immigrants tend to mistrust the American healthcare system due to difference in medical remedies and the language spoken. I know first hand that my mother would perfer to have a Ghanaian physician, as opposed to the general white American doctor. Anne Fadiman wrote a successful award-winning book called, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which highlights how the cultural differences between the Hmong culture and American medicine jeopardized the health of a little girl named Lia Lee. The story brings into light the topic of Medical anthropology, which is the study of medical systems, healing practices, and views on health from different cultures. Prior to reading this book, I always was thought of this issue in the immigrant 's perspective; I understood the mistrust that immigrants had in the health field, because they feel that the county is …show more content…

People of all ages can get it and a significant sign of diagnosing the condition is experiencing two or more seizures in a 24 hour period (“The Epilepsies” 2016). Although there is no cure for epilepsy, the condition can be controlled with anticonvulsants drugs. I personally have prior knowledge to the condition from my AP Biology class. I immediately thought of my senior year of high school, when I first was taught about epilepsy.My friend Nadine showed us a documentary which showed a old man who would suddenly fall out of consicouness during his daily tasks; I remember this documentary very well because it was a scary sight for me to

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229 Words | 1 Pages

“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.

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565 Words | 3 Pages

‘The spirit catches you and you fall down’ was published in 2012 by essayist and reporter Anne Fadiman. This introductory book review analyzes the way in which different cultures perceive illnesses and diseases. It focuses on the story of the Lees a Hmong family, who moved to the United States and experiences difficulties with language, culture and biomedicine method of healing, which contradict to Hmong’s way of healing. The chapters describe the differences between the ways childbirth is conducted in Hmong society compared to the western society. As well as the struggle the Lees family has with the cultural differences in diagnoses and treatment of their ill daughter.

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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162 Words | 1 Pages

In Anne Fadiman’s, A Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, there’s a conflicting battle going on between cultures. While it might never be specifically stated, Anne Fadiman attempts to convey a neutral understanding to her readers of the Hmong beliefs and culture alongside of the culture of biomedicine western society is mostly familiar with. While the Hmong beliefs and practices in medicine are taboo to western society, readers gradually see that Hmong medicine is just as equal or more powerful than biomedicine that we’re so familiar with. It’s an important concept to understand in this book is that the doctors are there to treat Lia’s disease, not precisely concerned with Lia as a person. Hmong medicine seems to be more related to in helping

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2160 Words | 9 Pages

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.

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1302 Words | 6 Pages

Cultural insensitivity is prevalent throughout the Hmong’s journey with the American health care system. Between 8 months and 4.5 years Lia was in the hospital seventeen times and made more the one hundred visits to ER and paediatric clinic. The health care system failed to attempt to understand the Hmong language and culture, which lead to the Hmong adapting their cultural traditions and familiarities to please

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842 Words | 4 Pages

A young Hmong man presents a five-minute oral report in French. The topic he chose was a recipe for la soupe de possion: Fish Soup. He extensively detailed the whole ordeal in a ‘in order to, you must ‘manner. His complex example of something simple extended to forty-five minutes long oral report. The ending results of his presentation left the classroom black board with factors, options and a flowchart written in French with Hmong.

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1623 Words | 7 Pages

Anne Fadiman’s book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” tells the story of a young Hmong Child, Lia Lee, living in America. Lia has various medical ailments, including epilepsy, and there is a big cultural clash and confusion between the American medical staff and the Lee family’s beliefs. This book provides a holistic representation of ethics and ethical dilemmas, particularly relating to culture and respecting other cultures. This book gave me insight on what can really occur in complex ethical dilemmas with cultural differences present. The ethical dilemmas involved medical professionals, social workers, translators, and the family.

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1960 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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1385 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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482 Words | 2 Pages

In a healthcare setting you will see different cultures that will come and go. It is very important to know how to deal with each culture so that you can help them while still making sure they are comfortable. Native Americans have many different characteristics because of the different tribes from all over the world. Healthcare providers should be familiar with them so they know how to distinguish them if needed. While knowing their characteristics they should also know how to interact with Native Americans as well since their culture is a lot different than ours, we want to make sure that we don’t disrespect them.

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829 Words | 4 Pages

If a Hispanic came into their local physicians office it is assumed that they are an illegal immigrant and shouldn’t be helped because they don’t belong here, they belong on the other side of the wall, in a land with no opportunity. Monique Tello had a patient of hers share a story of a painful experience in the emergency room. “They treated me like I was trying to play them, they didn’t try to make a diagnoses or help me at all” (Tello, 1). A middle-aged, church going, black women who has had no record of substance abuse, poorly treated because of the color of her skin and the stereotype she has unfairly fallen under. More stories like this exist, there are constant situations just like this one happening in hospitals all over the country.

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400 Words | 2 Pages

Immigrants face many barriers when it comes to gaining proper access to health care. Immigrants have the highest rate in the nation to not receive health insurance for the year. Not receiving health insurance is mainly due to the high cost of health care. Obtaining the proper health insurance is important for any human being because as humans we have to pay to be healthy. Immigrants come from their countries to seek better opportunities such as access to health care and health insurance.

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534 Words | 3 Pages

Over the past four months, this course has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had during my first year of college. Although I have always realized the importance of being culturally competent in daily life, specifically healthcare, I was unaware of the many ways that cultural competence can be obtained. This class gave me the opportunity to view situations from a different perspective, especially through the weekly discussion boards and peer responses. Learning from classmate can teach more valuable lessons than listening to boring lectures or reading hundreds of pages in a textbook because it is easier to relate to experience rather than hypothetical situations. For example, one of the discussion boards asked us to detail

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