The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures Review
This true story about a Central California Hmong family recounts the recent history of the Hmong people, and enlightens the reader about a culture vastly different than our own. The author describes the nomadic lifestyle of the Hmong, who have lived throughout the Southeast Asian mountaintops, settling until the land is exhausted and then moving on. They aligned with the United States during the VietNam conflict only to be abandoned to hostile local governments once it was over. Their survival stories are stunning, unimaginable, and unforgettable.
The immigrant family that settled in Central California includes a beloved young daughter with severe epilepsy. Heartbreaking events culminate in Western medicine's failure to be able to treat her despite the best- intended treatment and efforts by devoted physicians, and her parents' efforts to do all that they can to care for their most precious daughter. The challenge of bridging cultures is brought home in painful detail.
The Hmong culture is replete with beliefs in spirits and magical aspects that are fascinating. The title itself is the literal translation for the Hmong term for epilepsy. When the Spirit Catches you, you fall Down is not a quick read, yet it is an essential and gratifying reading for anyone who is practicing in health care, anyone who is visiting Southeast Asia, or anyone who wants to learn about far different human ways to perceive and live life.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures Overview
When three-month-old Lia Lee Arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit and fiercely people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee Entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication.
Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness aand healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe, while medical community marks a division between body and soul, and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former. Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness, qaug dab peg--the spirit catches you and you fall down--and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures Specifications
Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility."
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Customer Reviews
GREAT! - kristymp87 -
THE BOOK WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, AS DESCRIBED BY THE SELLER. SHIPPING WAS VERY QUICK!
great book - Amy L. - St. Louis, MO
So far I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book. Excellent representation of the clash of cultures. I would recommend this to any patient or health care provider. Product shipped fast and in great condition.
Fantastic book!! Interesting and Informative - -
This book is a page turner! The author illustrates very well the perspectives of both the Hmong immigrants and their American medical providers, helping the reader to understand and relate to a variety of issues related to immigration, healthcare, the Hmongs, and other contemporary concerns. I read this book for a college class, it is great for students and casual reading as well.
great insight but... - PS - CA USA
This books gives great insight into the hmong people, modern medical practices, and cultural clash. I am glad I read the book, but not sure I would call it a great read. It's kind of like reading a research paper. There is a ton of very detailed documentation of events that became monotonous and slightly predictable. While I enjoyed the underlying story a great deal, the minutia often seemed distracting from what could have been a good read.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 28, 2010 02:58:05
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