The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

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In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman, the whole story revolves around Lia, the thirteenth child of Lee family. Lee family was a refugee family in USA and Lia was their first child to be born in US. At the time of time of birth, she was declared as a healthy child but at the age of three it was founded that she is suffering from epilepsy. In the words of western or scientific world the term epilepsy mean mental disorder of a person and in Hmong culture, epilepsy is referred to as qaug dab peg (translated in English, "the spirit catches you and you fall down"), in which epileptic attacks are perceived as evidence of the epileptic's ability to enter and journey momentarily into the spirit realm (Wikipedia, 2014)
In this case, communication and medications adoptions were the main difference in the treatment of a Lia. Though Lia’s parents and her doctors want best for her, but the above barriers were creating a hindrance in her treatment. They both were not understanding each other and interpreter was also not there, doctors want to transfer her to another best hospital because they were not getting with her disease but her parents misunderstood the situation and thought they were shifting her for their own benefit.
In expansion to these convictions, Hmong likewise have numerous traditions and folks that are negotiated by those of the American standard and therapeutic groups; for instance, some Hmong customarily perform custom creature sacrifice and in view of extremely particular entombment customs and the alarm of every human's numerous souls potentially getting away from, the accepted Hmong convictions don't consider anybody experiencing obtrusive restorative surgery. Hmong medicinal framework is dependent ...

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Lia Lee existed in a persevering vegetative state for 26 years. She kicked the bucket (died) in Sacramento, California, on August 31, 2012 at the age of 30. At that age she weighed 47 pounds (21 kg) and was 4 feet 7 creeps (1.40 m) tall; numerous kids with serious cerebrum harm have restricted development as they grow. Fadiman said that pneumonia was the prompt reason for death. (Farrar, 2014)
In the US., the therapeutic group seldom has approaches to correspond with individuals of societies so drastically unique in relation to standard American society; even a great interpreter will think that it troublesome deciphering ideas between the two separate societies' reality ideas. American specialists, not at all like Hmong shamans, regularly physically touch and cut into the collections of their patients and utilize an assortment of capable medications and meds.

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