Lia's Illness In The Hmong Culture

Being taking away from her mother was a painful memory that she carries with her every single day hoping that her mother will rescue her. She battles between different caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, dealing with other foster care children, and forced to endure manipulative. In this forgettable memoir, Ashely discovers her voice and was able to succeed in life. After reading this book, I initially felt angry because Ashely was taken from her mother at a young age.

The only dilemma I might face if I were to be involved in a Hmong

Lia’s parents spoke the Hmong language, which was a barrier during the treatment of Lia Lee. During the hospital stay at Merced County Medical Center, the doctors tried to explain the procedure of her treatment and provided the medications to cure Lia’s epilepsy. But since Lia’s parents had language barrier, the doctors and Lia’s parents were confused on the medications of what is supposed to be given for the betterment of Lia Lee. They even tried to send a nurse to their home to help with the medication regime. They soon realized that her parents did not want to give the medications to Lia.

She does a wonderful job of showing both the Hmong and American side of the story by providing

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

Foua and Nao Kao had no way of knowing that Dan had diagnosed it as epilepsy, the most common of all neurological disorders. Each had accurately noted the same symptoms, but Dan would have been surprised to hear that they were caused by soul loss, and Lia's parents would have been surprised to hear that they were caused by an electrochemical storm inside their daughter's head that had been stirred up by the misfiring of aberrant brain cells” ( Fadiman 28). The Hmong strongly believed that Lia’s seizures were related to spirits. On the other hand, the doctors believed that Lia’s seizures were a result of a malfunction of the body and the only way to cure Lia was through medications.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a biographical work on a Hmong family living in California during the early 80’s. While the book is a true accounting of the Lee’s family attempt to secure quality healthcare for their epileptic daughter while traversing the American medical system and the Department of Children Services. The author, Anne Fadiman, takes the reader on a painstaking but necessary journey of Hmong history and culture and how they came to reside in Merced, California. As you learn more about the history of the Hmong people, you come to admire them as a strong and resilient people that have, as a people, overcome many challenges with respect to being conquered, nomadic and always having to start over.

Western medicine could have easily allowed Lia a healthy life, but the cultural differences and misunderstandings resulted in death for her. This paradox poses serious risk, especially in the act of assimilation. The Hmong has one solid foundation of how someone gets ill, the soul is lost, and how that person can get better, by gaining its soul back. The paradox of Western medicine, in which it can help and harm their family members, is very concerning to the Hmong culture, resulting in their lack to

In the book Fadiman describes two opposing belief systems, the western belief system and the Hmong. On one hand there is the Hmong community, which is seen as being a personality style of medicine, which is usually caused by some sort of supernatural force (Stephens 2014). In the case of the Hmong, they believe it was due to the loss of Lia’s soul, from getting frightened (Fadiman 1997:20). However, the western medical system does not involve looking at the soul, but is more focused on biomedicine or the physical aspects of the disease (Stephens 2014). Their reaction to her disease was much different; they believed that she had a neurological problem which was causing her to seize (Fadiman 1997:28).

If a doctor however was given the chance to save Lia’s life and failed, they would be blamed for it. There was a feeling amongst the Hmong that because American doctors were so different than the Hmong medical system they were used too, they were more likely to cause harm than restore it. The Lee’s were no different in their judgment of American doctors, throughout the book it was clear that they cared about Lia very much and wanted the seizures that plagued her to stop, but their knowledge of medicine and health clashed with Western medicine and caused the seizures to increase rather than decrease. On the other side of the spectrum stood the American doctors who were more to blame than the parents for Lia’s permanent vegetative state. They didn’t adhere to simple the Hmong culture that would gain the Lee’s respect and understanding.

The doctors diagnose Lia to have epilepsy caused by the misfiring of neurons in the brain. In contrast, Lia’s parents blame the banging of a door loudly or falling off a swing to have caused the soul to have left the body and possibly be captured by a malicious spirit called a daab. However, it is intriguing that the physicians determine the prognosis of epilepsy to disadvantageous to the development of Lia, while her Hmong parents see this as a call to become a txiv neeb, a Hmong healer. Nonetheless, the most significant contrast is illustrated in the different treatments prescribed by the doctors, who constantly tried to adjust medication to control the seizures and the parents, who believed a combination of some medicine, with the sacrifice of an animal and the healing ceremony by a txiv neeb was what was necessary to improve Lia’s health. Evidently such differences in opinion, aided by difficulties in communication due to a language barrier, led to conflicts between Lia’s physicians and parents that ultimately compromised her level of

Because of her willingness to do whatever it took to help, many innocent children and adults’ lives were saved. By examining Spaak’s selflessness, bravery, and persistence, it is clear that she was indeed full of moral courage. Spaak was born into a high class Belgian banking family, and was accustomed to a high standard of living. Her husband, Claude, was a filmmaker and they had two children whom she found great fulfillment in raising.

Based on your readings from this section and the videos respond to the following questions and to 2 of your classmates. Describe a challenging, diversity-related situation that you have faced, and likely will continue to face in your nursing career. A challenging, diversity-related situation that I have faced, and likely will continue to face in my nursing career is caring post-operative patients with various pain and treatment beliefs. As a Med-Surg nurse, I often care for patients with countless diagnoses/surgeries and of various cultural beliefs and practices regarding pain and treatment beliefs.

She did everything in her power to keep the children safe. She even went out of her way to search the Riversaltes internment camp for any children that she could take in. There were multiple instances where she made excuses for them, and hid children from the authorities. She was caught by the Nazis, but the kids were safe, somewhere else. She ended up being detained by the Nazis in January 1943.

Perhaps it takes courage to raise children”. This quiet bravery led her through her life as a mother, her career as a teacher, her service to her community, and her mission to protect her country by selling Liberty Bonds during World War II. Every one of these actions is also evidence of