The Spirit Catches You

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down written by Ann Fadiman is about a Hmong child, Lia Lee, that has epilepsy. Lia Lees’ story shows the importance of communication in the medical profession dealing with different cultures. Yer, Lia’s older sister, slammed a door which triggered Lia’s first seizure. Quag dab peg or “the spirit catches you when you fall down” is the diagnosis that her parents gave her illness. The Lee family believed in spiritual healing rather than prescribed medication from the doctor. Against the doctor’s medical regimen, Lia’s parents did not follow instructions because of the side effects of the medicine. Unfortunately, their daughter’s condition worsened. On May 18, 1988, Fadiman met the Lee family in Merced, California. She heard that other Hmong patients and the medical staff from the county hospital were having miscommunication and misunderstandings. One doctor called them “collisions,” which made it sound as if two different kinds of people had rammed into each other, head on, to the accompaniment of squealing brakes and breaking glass (Fadiman 2012, preface). Fadiman wanted to research this problem on her own. She wanted to thoroughly investigate the situation for herself so she did interviews and …show more content…
Ethnocentrism, which is the belief that your culture or point of view is superior to others, is very essential and needs to be broken down. Fadiman significantly contributes and establishes a relationship with medical pluralism and cultural competence. Fadiman states that “to most of the doctors, the Hmong taboos against the basic tools of modern medicine such as: blood tests, spinal taps, surgery, anesthesia, and autopsies seemed like self-defeating ignorance. They had no way of knowing that a Hmong might regard these taboos as the sacred guardians of his identity” (Fadiman 2012,