According to Arthur Kleinman, there is no better doctor-patient relationship than one where both parties are able to answer a set of eight seemingly obvious and simple questions. The key to this dynamic is the ability to answer, not the similarity between answers. The importance of this distinction could have made all the difference in the conflict in Lia Lee’s case. The introduction of eight “golden” rules to consider in health care at the end of Lia Lee’s case allow all parties to self-reflect retrospectively and consider the cosmological differences between Lia Lee’s parents and her doctors. The take-away is to eradicate the cultural term of noncompliance, as this asserts moral supremacy.…
The article, “The beauty of Bodysnatching”, By Druin Burch is a piece that brings to stage questions of morality, and furthermore the implications of one’s ability to transcend societies limitations. Burch begins the article by introducing different anatomists all practicing in the same period of time, each of whom found their own unique way of coping with the controversy that came along with practicing surgery in the 1800’s. Burch centers his article around one anatomist in particular who had a great many differences from the other surgeons spoken of, both in his practice and in his way of looking at anatomy, this anatomist was Astley Cooper. In a time when desecration of the dead would be greatly taboo, Astley Cooper found a view of the world that allowed him to overcome the limitations that bridled most surgeons of the time.…
Lia Should Have been Removed from Her Parents’ Home In some poor and backward regions, the development of the health care and the social service systems is still incomplete and insufficient. It results that the people in these area can not get medical treatment in time and they are lack of medical sense. Worse, these deficiencies may also contribute to the medical neglact to a child. In addition, the features of religion beliefs and attitudes would be another reason which cause this problem. In the chapter five of the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Lia is without necessary medical treatment that her parents didn’t give her the appropriate doses of medications because they didn’t understand the direction or they were unwilling…
1. Much of “Brownies” is very funny. What role does humor have in the story—and how does it relate to the decidedly unhumorous ending? The story is very humorous.…
Introduction: This essay will assess how cultural differences impacted Lia Lee's health in the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It will point to several different times when cultural disagreements lead to distinct negative or positive effects on Lia’s health. It will also show how, despite overcoming almost all of the cultural disagreements amongst the Hmong and American doctors, Lia’s health still failed. A counter argument claiming that the doctors hold more responsibility than the Lee’s for Lia’s declining health is also provided and rebuked.…
However, Pearson also believes after witnessing many of these cases that a doctor’s obsessive advocacy for his or her patients can be a dividing factor between life and death. It was as a result of Jacqueline’s work that Gloria eventually obtained treatment from Houston Methodist which consequently saved her…
Kaci is diagnosed with a specific type of epilepsy called Rasmussen’s and it causes the left side of her brain to work difunctionally. Her parents should have allowed the surgery because her life was not productive. She wasn’t happy with how she was living. She could barely go out and do anything. Kaci was having 100 seizures a day and because of all the seizures it left her body unavailing.…
Lialma speaks, reads and writes only Dari. She completed the eleventh grade and has not worked outside of the home. She and Abdi had been married for over twenty years. Abdi was “forty-six or maybe forty-eight” when he died.…
One of the most fundamental trust relationships is between a patient and their doctor. Physicians have supposedly earned their trustworthy title because of their extended education and desire to help others. However, this perception is being shattered by physicians violating patients’ trust by not providing all the information needed for making a responsible decision for a person’s health and performing unimaginable procedures. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” provides multiple examples of the unethical practice of doctors. When scientists do not recognize their subjects as human beings and their relationship results in an unbalanced power dynamic, their advantageous position often leads to the unethical treatments of subjects, especially…
For Hmong who maintain their traditional beliefs in America, the scientific worldview and Western medicine, have challenged their entire means of understanding the world. Likewise, Hmong beliefs have done the same to Western medical practice. In the story of Lia Lee, her treatment via her doctors seemed to be none the same as her parents’ perception of illness, yet there lies two crucial ideas in common. Foremost, they both wanted to heal Lia. Secondly, each party was forced to understand an “existential crisis” like Lia Lee’s sickness.…
Lia’s mom, Foua and I have a lot in common as far as passions, but are very different in life experience. Foua cares so deeply for her daughter Lia. She constantly does what is best for her, and is a selfless woman in many ways. She sacrifices her own desires for the sake of her family and the well-being of her children. Her value is family.…
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the relationship between the Hmong culture and the American culture; in particular the differences in medicine. Medicine has been a difficult subject to understand and master; moreover it becomes almost impossible if the person was raised in an entirely different culture than that of western medicine. This book discusses what it was like from both sides; the Hmong and those of the western doctors what it is like to deal with each other when it involves a common interest. That common interest being Lia Lee, an epileptic Hmong child. Both of the parties cared for Lia Lee; however their cultural differences were enough to distract from the real goal.…
Rye Country Day does not offer any classes related to the world of medicine, the closest thing that comes to mind is the anatomy and physiology class, however that course has a focus on the body, not medicine. As a result this book became the first instance in which medicine was presented to me through school. Not only did the book provide detail on the science behind Lia’s condition, but on the significance of medicine in our culture and obviously that of Hmong culture. Hence this book stood out to me among other books in the various English curriculums at Rye Country Day as it presented not only a non-fictional approach, but a sense that education was being delineated in a multifaceted manner. The reality is that in the past English curriculums of Rye Country Day, the various novels have tended to blend into one another; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the diversity missing from those curriculums.…
It is made clear very quickly that June is respectful towards her mother, Suyuan Woo. She addresses her as her “mother” instead of calling her “mom”. The word “mom” is connoted comfort and suggests that she is more friends with her. On the other hand, “mother” almost has a cold and formal connotation. By using this form, she indicates that her mother is someone that she should respect rather than someone that she can be more informal with.…
There’s no question for me, personally, as to the most intriguing question in the field of biological engineering. Nothing else even comes close to the question of how biology, medicine, and engineering can be brought together to treat epilepsy. I doubt the average biological engineer would agree with me, but the average engineer hasn’t had the experiences with epilepsy that I have had. When my cousin Riley was eleven, he caught a virus.…