How did the Lees care for Lia for 26 years?
While most American families would have committed a daughter with brain damage to an institution, the Lees cared for Lia for 26 years, bathing her, dressing her impeccably, and even celebrating her birthday each year. Their care is likely what kept her alive for so long, when the doctors believed she would die within days.
Why did Lia's doctors believe she needed spiritual treatment?
They believed that Lia's illness had a spiritual origin and therefore needed spiritual treatment (shamanic ritual, or neeb), and that too much medicine could reduce the neeb's effect. This belief put them at odds with Lia's doctors, who did not understand their belief system and insisted upon complete compliance with Lia's medical regimen.
What happened to Lia Lee's brain?
Lia Lee slipped into a coma after suffering from a tonic clonic seizure in 1986, when she was four years of age. Lia Lee's doctors believed she would die, but Lia Lee remained alive but with no higher brain functions. This section needs expansion.
Why did Lia's condition get worse?
Through miscommunications about medical dosages and parental refusal to give certain medicines due to mistrust, misunderstandings, and behavioral side effects, and the inability of the doctors to develop more empathy with the traditional Hmong lifestyle or try to learn more about the Hmong culture, Lia's condition worsens.
What were the Lees beliefs about Lia's illness?
The Lees were no different than any other Hmong in their attitude toward Lia's illness - a mixture of concern and pride. The Hmong are exceptionally well known for the gentleness with which they treat their children. They consider them as the most treasured possession a person can have.
How do the Hmong view Lia's condition What do they believe is the cause?
The Hmong culture, as Fadiman illustrates, therapeutically centres around Animism. Lia's own family believed her seizures were caused by her soul leaving her body, which could be returned to her via animal sacrifice.
Was Lia's life ruined by cross cultural misunderstandings?
Along with the language barrier, there was a great deal of “cross-cultural misunderstanding” (Fadiman 262) regarding the treatment of the child. Fadiman thinks that “[Lia's] life was ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” (262).
How did the Lees View Lia's epilepsy?
How did the Lees view Lia's epilepsy? They were concerned for her health but also proud, as epileptics are often chosen to be shamans and can see things others cannot.
What are the Hmong people's beliefs?
The Hmong are animist, people who believe in souls or spirits, in their practice of religion. The Hmong believe that the spiritual world coexist with the physical world. The spirit world consists of many types of spirits that influences the human life.
What do traditional Hmong consider their most important duties and obligations What do American doctors consider their most important duties and obligations?
What do American doctors consider their most important duties and obligations? It is very clear that the Hmong value their family and cultural and spiritual beliefs to be the most important in their life. The Hmong look to heal in spiritual ways while American doctors look to heal in medical ways.
When you fail one Hmong patient you fail the whole community?
Dan Murphy once told the author that when you fail one Hmong family, you fail the whole community. “Lia's case had confirmed the Hmong community's worse prejudices about the medical profession and the medical community's worst prejudices about the Hmong.”
What was Lia's fate in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
Lia Lee slipped into a coma after suffering from a tonic clonic seizure in 1986, when she was four years of age. Lia Lee's doctors believed she would die, but Lia Lee remained alive but with no higher brain functions.
What happened to Lia Lee Hmong?
Ms. Lee — who in July celebrated her 30th birthday in that bed, surrounded by her mother, brother, seven sisters and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins — died Aug. 31 after a lifelong battle against epilepsy, cerebral palsy, pneumonia and sepsis, a toxic reaction to constant infection.
How is someone with epilepsy regarded in Hmong culture?
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 do the Hmong think about seizures?
The Hmong name of epilepsy is qaug dab peg, which translates to "the spirit catches you and you fall down*" illuminates the Hmong belief that those who are epileptic are gifted with the ability to enter the spirit realm.
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.
In Western medicine, what is "quag dab peg"?
wy did lees trust, Jeanine? why did Jeanine succeed where so many had failed.
Who filed a report about Lia to Child Protective Services?
n April 1985, after receiving word that the Lees were once again modifying Lia's medical treatment, Neil sent a note to Child Protective Services r...
Why was Lia transferred to a different hospital in Chapter 11?
MCMC didn't have a children's Intensive Care Unit, so they transferred her to Valley Children's Hospital in Fresno.
What happened to Lia?
Shortly afterward, she had a grand mal seizure. She lost all higher brain functions and was sent home to die. Her family had cared for her ever since, keeping her at the center of their home and activities.
What happened to Lia's family?
After Saigon fell in 1975, the Hmong were persecuted and many were killed. About 150,000 fled the country.
Why did Lia get taken away from her parents?
When she started suffering epileptic seizures, her parents turned to their traditions to help her. Authorities took their daughter away from them for a year for not properly giving her ...
What caused the death of the girl who was in a vegetative state?
The immediate cause was pneumonia, although it was epilepsy and sepsis, a toxic reaction to infection, that had left her in a vegetative state for much of her life. “Medicine couldn’t have kept her alive.
What is the book about Lia Fadiman?
Fadiman’s book recounting Lia’s story was published at a time when the medical community was doing its own soul-searching about a more holistic approach , such as including the patients or their families in decisions about their health. It became required reading at many medical schools, including Yale University.
What is Lia Lee's medical case?
Lia ’s medical case challenged the Merced hospital by presenting difficult... (full context) Chapter 1: Birth. Lia Lee was not born in the highlands of northwest Laos, where twelve of her older... (full context) Lia was the first Lee child born in America.
What chapter does Fadiman describe Lia's life?
Chapter 18: The Life or the Soul. Fadiman considers whether or not Lia ’s life would have been better if she had been treated by somebody like Arthur Kleinman... (full context) Chapter 19: The Sacrifice. Fadiman describes a healing ceremony for Lia that she attended at the Lees’ apartment in Merced.
What chapter does Foua give birth to?
Foua gave birth to her in Merced... (full context) Chapter 3: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Three months after her healthy birth, Lia went into a seizure after her older sister Yer loudly slammed the apartment door. Foua... (full context) ...Jeanine Hilt, a social worker who worked closely with the Lees, once said, ...
Why do men think it is divine?
Men think it is divine merely because they don’t understand it. But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why, there would be no end to divine things.”. Chapter 5 Quotes. The MCMC nursing staff came to know Lia well—better, in fact, than most of them would have wished.
What did Lia's seizures do to her?
Lia's frequent seizures resulted in mental retardation, and she often threw tantrums. At the same time, she was very affectionate and extremely well loved. Her parents had very different ideas from her doctors about the cause and optimal treatment of Lia's disease.
What did the neebs believe about Lia?
They believed that Lia's illness had a spiritual origin and therefore needed spiritual treatment (shamanic ritual, or neeb), and that too much medicine could reduce the neeb's effect.
What did Jeanine do to Lia?
The Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworker assigned to Lia when she was placed in foster care. Jeanine did her best to educate Foua and Nao Kao so that Lia would be allowed to return home, teaching them how to measure and administer Lia's medication. She developed a close relationship with the family and advocated for them whenever she could. Of Lia's caregivers, she alone had asked the family what they thought was the cause of Lia's illness and what they were doing to try to treat it. Ironically, Jeanine's fate eventually mirrored Lia's, as she suffered an asthma attack so severe that she became brain dead, passing away three days later.
What is the tragic story of Lia?
The epileptic child whose tragic story illustrates the cultural divide between the Hmong and the American medical systems. Lia was the fourteenth child of Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee and arguably their favorite. They spoiled her and treated her like a princess, believing that her epilepsy marked her as special and that she might someday become a shaman. Lia's frequent seizures resulted in mental retardation, and she often threw tantrums. At the same time, she was very affectionate and extremely well loved. Her parents had very different ideas from her doctors about the cause and optimal treatment of Lia's disease. As a result, she was placed in foster care for one year in order to ensure she would receive the recommended medicines. Lia eventually lost brain function as a result of septic shock, possibly brought on by the weakened state of her immune system caused by so much medication. Her family continued to love and care for her in her vegetative state for over twenty-five years.
Why did Lia's parents escape to Thailand?
Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee. Lia's parents. Originally from Laos, they escaped to Thailand in 1979 due to communist persecution after the Vietnam War. (Although their village had escaped fighting, the Hmong people had helped the CIA to fight the communists and were therefore treated as traitors.)
Why was Lia in foster care?
As a result, she was placed in foster care for one year in order to ensure she would receive the recommended medicines. Lia eventually lost brain function as a result of septic shock, possibly brought on by the weakened state of her immune system caused by so much medication.
How old was May Ying when she started working for Fadiman?
May Ying was a 20-year-old clerk at the Merced County Office of Refugee Services when she began working with Fadiman. Her father was a famous tvix neeb and a soldier who had trained with the CIA. Her age and gender turned out to be an asset, as the Lees felt much more comfortable opening up to people with lower status.
Why did the Lees not give Lia her medication?
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.
Why did Lia have no seizures?
Lia no longer had seizures, because she now had vastly reduced electrical activity in her cerebral cortex, the brain’s outermost layer. She grew only slightly, as is typical of children with severe brain damage: by the age of 30, she was 4 feet 7 inches and weighed 47 pounds.
What caused Lia Lee to die?
The immediate cause was pneumonia, Ms. Fadiman said. But Lia’s underlying medical issues were more complex still, for she had lived the last 26 of her 30 years in a persistent vegetative state. Today, most people in that condition die within three to five years. Image. Lia Lee in 1988. Credit... Anne Fadiman.
When did Anne Fadiman meet Lia Lee?
In 1988 , when Anne Fadiman met Lia Lee, then 5, for the first time, she wrote down her impressions in four spare lines that now read like found poetry: barefoot mother gently rocking silent child. diaper, sweater, strings around wrist. like a baby, but she’s so big. mother kisses and strokes her.
Where was Lia Lee born?
The 14th of 15 children born to her mother, Foua Yang, and her father, Nao Kao Lee, Lia Lee was born on July 19, 1982, in Merced, Calif. — the first of her parents’ children born in the United States, and the first born in a hospital. She was plump, porcelain-skinned, lively and beautiful.
Where did the Lees live?
In the United States, the Lees eventually settled in a modest apartment in Merced, about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco. By the time Ms. Fadiman met them, Merced’s population was one-sixth Hmong. Image. The book is required reading at the Yale School of Medicine.
Who is Lia's father?
Nao Kao Lee, Lia’s father, died in 2003. Besides her mother, Foua Yang, and her sister Mai, her survivors include a brother, Cheng, and six other sisters, Chong, Zoua, May, Yer, True and Pang. In Merced and far beyond, Lia’s legacy is pervasive.
Why did Lia Lee's parents believe her daughter was transferred?
Lia's parents believed their daughter was transferred because of the Ernsts' vacation plans. Lia Lee slipped into a coma after suffering from a tonic clonic seizure in 1986, when she was four years of age. Lia Lee's doctors believed she would die, but Lia Lee remained alive but with no higher brain functions.
What is the cause of Lia's seizures?
Beginning in infancy, Lia experiences severe seizures due to Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. Anne Fadiman: author and narrator of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, writing about her experience with Lia and her family.
Why didn't Lia Lee's parents give her medication?
Anne Fadiman wrote that Lia's parents did not give her medication as it was prescribed because they believed that Lia Lee's state showed a sense of spiritual giftedness, and they did not want to take that away. The American doctors did not understand the Hmong traditional remedies that the Lee family used.
What is the conflict between Ernst and Lia's parents?
Throughout the story, they clash with Lia's parents, whose adherence to Hmong shamanism conflicts deeply with their own beliefs about Western medicine. Despite the good intentions of Ernst, Philp, and Lia's parents, significant miscommunication and disagreement cause Lia permanent harm.
How old was Lia Lee when she was removed from her home?
The doctors treating Lia Lee, Neil and Peggy Ernst, had her removed from her home when she was almost three years of age, and placed into foster care for one year, causing friction with her parents.
Which theory did Fadiman use to prove that the Hmong people originated from Siberia?
Fadiman's book cited the Quincy theory that the Hmong people originated from Siberia. Entenmann wrote that because of the reliance on Quincy's book, Fadiman's book propagates the idea that Sonom was a Hmong king, a concept that Entenmann says is inaccurate.
How old was Lia Lee when she died?
Lia Lee lived in a persistent vegetative state for 26 years. She 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 inches (1.40 m) tall; many children with severe brain damage have limited growth as they age.
How old was Lee when she had a seizure?
At 4-foot-7 and 47 pounds, Ms. Lee could speak only with her eyes and her cries. Stricken by seizures since she was a few months old, she battled through, singing Hmong folk songs and joyfully running around her neighborhood. At 4, she suffered a grand mal seizure that stole her speech and her ability to move.
Who is Mai Lee's sister?
But when her parents removed her feeding tube, Ms. Lee cried out. Her sister Mai Lee, 32, said Ms. Lee’s strong will to live, nurtured by her family’s love, faith and constant care, proved the doctors wrong.
What book did Anne Fadiman write about her family's struggles with hospitals, doctors and social workers?
Her family’s struggles with hospitals, doctors and social workers were chronicled in Anne Fadiman’s best-selling 1997 book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down ,” which altered Americans’ views on cross-cultural medical treatment. She became a symbol for disabled children and immigrants intimidated and confused by Western medicine.
Where did Foua Yang live?
Foua Yang crumpled in tears on the staircase in her south Sacramento home, just feet from the empty hospital bed where her daughter Lia Lee lived most of her life.
Why did Lia and her family use a crib sheet?
When faced with the challenge of taking a written driver's test, they used a "crib sheet" to pass and thereby earn the license they needed to stay close to relatives. Likewise, despite their loss, Lia's family never gave up hope that their daughter's soul would return.
What is the role of culture in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
The Hmong traditionally lived high in the mountains of Laos, where they practiced agriculture and subsisted primarily on rice, vegetables, herbs, and occasionally pork or chicken . They believe that most disease has a spiritual cause and can be alleviated through traditional forms of healing such as rubbing the skin with coins, creating a vacuum by igniting cotton soaked in alcohol under a tiny cup, or drawing disease out with an egg. A tvix neeb, or shaman, could conduct more powerful healing; such a figure is thought to be able to get rid of evil spirits called dabs and retrieve lost souls.#N#Certain aspects of Hmong culture, such as taboos against medical procedures, beliefs about the origins of diseases, and power structures within the family and the clan often conflict with the culture of western medicine, resulting in misunderstandings between doctors and patients. Other aspects, such as utilizing animal sacrifice in shamanic ceremonies, have lead to conflicts between the Hmong and their American neighbors; for instance, some Americans believe the Hmong are kidnapping and killing neighborhood dogs. Lia Lee's tragedy is presented as the result of this cultural collision and highlights the need for a new model of cultural understanding and cooperation.