What is the lesson from the The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a moving story that highlights the importance of acknowledging and respecting people’s beliefs as part of their health care — in other words, cultural competence. And thanks in part to this book, cultural competence is now a required lesson in many medical schools.
What did Lia do when she sensed a seizure?
Foua and Nao Kao knew when a seizure was coming on, because Lia knew. The aura, a sense of premonition common to all epileptics, could be seen in Lia in a strange, scared expression, and they would pick her up and gently lay her down on a mattress in the living room, placed there just for that purpose.
What does the title The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down mean?
epileptic seizure
‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down’ is the literal translation of the Hmong terminology for an epileptic seizure. The journalist Anne Fadiman takes you through the maddeningly frustrating journey of a loving Hmong family and their dedicated western doctors.
What difficulties does the Merced medical Center face treating the Hmong community and Lia specifically?
What were problems with the way Lia’s parents were treated in the Merced hospital? – failure to work within the traditional Hmong hierarchy of male/elders making decisions lead to confusion because information was being relayed to people that could not act on it.
What does QUAG dab peg mean?
Quag dab peg. That means the spirit catches you and you fall down.
Is Lia Lee alive?
Lia Lee died in Sacramento on Aug. 31. (Her death was not widely reported outside California.) The immediate cause was pneumonia, Ms.
What was Lia Lee diagnosed with?
epilepsy
Lia Lee was born July 19, 1982, in Merced. When she was 3 months old, she had her first seizure. American doctors eventually diagnosed epilepsy.
How many children did FOUA Yang have?
When they still lived in Laos, Lia’s mother, Foua Yang, had conceived, carried, and bore twelve children with ease.
How many kids did FOUA Lee have?
Having given birth to twelve children in her native Laos, Foua and her family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand to escape the dangerous communist forces that had won control of her country in 1975. She gave birth there to her thirteenth child, Mai.
Why did the Lees believe that Lia was returned to them did the hospital system make her sick?
Why did the Lee’s believe that Lia was taken from them? Out of anger, as punishment by the doctors rather than for her own protection.
How long was Lia in foster care?
six months
By Anne Fadiman It’s the whole thing about nine kids and one with a life-threatening disease, you know. In 1985, Lia is taken from her home. Although she’s initially only gone for a couple weeks, the courts eventually decree that she has to remain in foster care for at least six months.
Why is it important for Hmong to keep the placenta after the baby is born?
The Hmong word for placenta is the same word for “jacket,” because it is considered one’s first and finest garment. They believe that after death, one’s soul travels back place to place, retracing the life’s geography, to the house where its placenta is buried.
Who is to blame in the spirit catches you and you fall down?
Lia has her first seizure when she’s three months old. Her parents blame this on her older sister, Yer: Yer had slammed the door just before the seizure happened, which in their minds scared the soul out of Lia’s body.
What did the Lee’s Do in honor of Lia returning home in Chapter Nine?
As a result of Lia’s condition, the Lees stepped up her traditional medicine. The doctors at MCMC would have been surprised to learn that the Hmong actually took their children’s health seriously since they so readily spurned American care. They spent large amounts of their money on such things as amulets.
Why did the Lees not give Lia her medicine?
Perhaps, the Lees believed, Lia was destined to become a shaman herself. The Lees did not always give Lia her medication, Ms. Fadiman wrote, because they did not want to interfere with qaug dab peg entirely. To encourage her soul’s return, her parents gave her herbs and amulets.
Who helped the Lees regain custody of Lia?
Because of the love she showed them, Foua accepted her help and learned to administer Lia’s medication, which led to regaining custody.
What culture eats human placenta?
Since it is the structure through which the fetus receives nourishment, many cultures consider it rich in nutrients; it’s even said to relieve postnatal depression. Preparing the placenta for consumption by mothers is considered traditional among Vietnamese and Chinese people.
Why do Africans bury the umbilical cord?
The burial of the placenta and umbilical cord is thought to restore the woman’s fertility and help heal her womb.
What is QAUG dab peg?
But for traditional Hmong who have retained their animistic beliefs, epilepsy (qaug dab peg, literally translated as “the spirit catches you and you fall down,” which became the title of my book) is caused by a malevolent spirit called a dab, who captures someone’s soul and makes him or her sick.
How did the EMT’s and the doctors respond to what Neil referred to as Lia’s big one?
The efforts by the EMT and the doctor’s to Lia’s “big one” were superlative. The EMT took the time to try, and recognizing the consequence of failure, made the decision to move with all due haste. Perhaps there could have been an alternative response, but I can not imagine it.