Spirit Catches You Final reflective paper
The book presented the true-life story describing the critical role culture and healthcare play in the society. The book also described the way of life of the Hmong. Culture is a very important part of the normal life of everyone. Culture has an influence in the way we interact with people routinely during our everyday lives. Cultural misunderstanding is experienced most of the time when it comes to the relationship we have with our physicians. The biggest concern is how physicians can accept that everyone is made up differently and culture determines most of that. Knowing and engaging the patient will help build a great therapeutic relationship. If Lia’s parents had gotten an interpreter would the situation have been different? Would she have lived a winsome and happy life? It can be argued in both the affirmative and negative. The fact that Lia was in America in itself made her survive this aggressive grand mal seizure she was experiencing. If she was in Laos the situation could have been different. She perhaps would not have lived to see her adolescence. That been said, Lia was in America and she did not receive collaborative healthcare. Physicians from MCMC did not know what was going on at first and the situation was not helped by the fact that the hospital at that time did not have an interpreter to help the Hmong community. At the same time the parents tried to explain the condition Lia was suffering to the physicians and residents but they did not understand Lia’s parents. I can argue that if communication was fluent between Lia’s parents and the physicians at the MCMC things would have been handled differently. …show more content…
Aside this, Lia’s parents had a misunderstanding with the doctors about the way they were touching her, giving her medications, and treating her. The misunderstanding stems from the culture differences between the lee’s and American physicians. The American physicians had some “reputation” as been “brain eaters” by the Hmong and because of that the Lee’s had some perceptions about the way they treat their patients. As this was going on, the Hmong belief was that as a person experiences grand mal seizure, he or she is communicating with the spiritual world. He or she becomes an interceder between the world of living and the world of the spirits: a place where dead spirits duel after their life on earth. The spirits duel till they are reincarnated back onto earth. Such a person was called a shaman. Being a shaman is a blessing according to the Hmong and taken with great pride among the people. Lia’s parents accepted that fate and took pride in it initially until they witnessed what that could do to Lia. They were faced with many challenges during this period. Working with physicians, social workers, nurses and interns was very difficult because all these people had no clue as to what the Hmong preferred. From the physicians perspective they were just trying their best to help Lia through this tough illness. The irony of the situation was that both parties: Lia’s parents and the physicians wanted the Lia to live a happy and fruitful life but due to the communication barrier both parties were in a tag of war. Lia’s medications were another huge problem. The medications that Lia’s parents were supposed to give to Lia were not been given appropriately. There were consequences of that as well. The reason was a very simple one. They did not understand the way they should be giving Lia her medications. They took matters into their hands and provided care the best way they knew how. They used traditional medicine that was provided by the shaman. I believe in the healing abilities of traditional medicines and I strongly attest to the fact that, using those medicines, which the Lees spent a lot of their money on, helped somewhat in prolonging the life of Lia. Love was a very important factor in all this. The Lees loved their daughter so much. They would do anything to protect her wellbeing. They always made sure she was comfortable and provided her the care and attention she need
The book presented the true-life story describing the critical role culture and healthcare play in the society. The book also described the way of life of the Hmong. Culture is a very important part of the normal life of everyone. Culture has an influence in the way we interact with people routinely during our everyday lives. Cultural misunderstanding is experienced most of the time when it comes to the relationship we have with our physicians. The biggest concern is how physicians can accept that everyone is made up differently and culture determines most of that. Knowing and engaging the patient will help build a great therapeutic relationship. If Lia’s parents had gotten an interpreter would the situation have been different? Would she have lived a winsome and happy life? It can be argued in both the affirmative and negative. The fact that Lia was in America in itself made her survive this aggressive grand mal seizure she was experiencing. If she was in Laos the situation could have been different. She perhaps would not have lived to see her adolescence. That been said, Lia was in America and she did not receive collaborative healthcare. Physicians from MCMC did not know what was going on at first and the situation was not helped by the fact that the hospital at that time did not have an interpreter to help the Hmong community. At the same time the parents tried to explain the condition Lia was suffering to the physicians and residents but they did not understand Lia’s parents. I can argue that if communication was fluent between Lia’s parents and the physicians at the MCMC things would have been handled differently. …show more content…
Aside this, Lia’s parents had a misunderstanding with the doctors about the way they were touching her, giving her medications, and treating her. The misunderstanding stems from the culture differences between the lee’s and American physicians. The American physicians had some “reputation” as been “brain eaters” by the Hmong and because of that the Lee’s had some perceptions about the way they treat their patients. As this was going on, the Hmong belief was that as a person experiences grand mal seizure, he or she is communicating with the spiritual world. He or she becomes an interceder between the world of living and the world of the spirits: a place where dead spirits duel after their life on earth. The spirits duel till they are reincarnated back onto earth. Such a person was called a shaman. Being a shaman is a blessing according to the Hmong and taken with great pride among the people. Lia’s parents accepted that fate and took pride in it initially until they witnessed what that could do to Lia. They were faced with many challenges during this period. Working with physicians, social workers, nurses and interns was very difficult because all these people had no clue as to what the Hmong preferred. From the physicians perspective they were just trying their best to help Lia through this tough illness. The irony of the situation was that both parties: Lia’s parents and the physicians wanted the Lia to live a happy and fruitful life but due to the communication barrier both parties were in a tag of war. Lia’s medications were another huge problem. The medications that Lia’s parents were supposed to give to Lia were not been given appropriately. There were consequences of that as well. The reason was a very simple one. They did not understand the way they should be giving Lia her medications. They took matters into their hands and provided care the best way they knew how. They used traditional medicine that was provided by the shaman. I believe in the healing abilities of traditional medicines and I strongly attest to the fact that, using those medicines, which the Lees spent a lot of their money on, helped somewhat in prolonging the life of Lia. Love was a very important factor in all this. The Lees loved their daughter so much. They would do anything to protect her wellbeing. They always made sure she was comfortable and provided her the care and attention she need