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| "A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures" |
This book tells the story of Lia Lee, an Hmong immigrant child whose family had moved from the traditional tribal life in the mountains of Laos, to the hectic and crowded town of Merced, California.
Now first off, before I dive deeper into this book, I want to make sure that everyone is following along well. I know that some of you may have never even heard of the word "Hmong", and others may be more familiar.
Basically, the Hmong originate from the mountainous regions of south China, and are called Hmong due to their dialect (Hmong).
Alright, back to the book!
In the book, the chapters go back and forth between two different stories. Half of the chapters focus on the story of Lia, and the other half focus on the history and culture of the Hmong. The book flipped back and forth between every chapter.
I'm not going to lie, reading the history chapters was a tedious task. I personally found Lia's story much more interesting.
Now, about Lia.
What is her story?
I'll briefly summarize.
Lia Lee had a very difficult life, starting from the time she was a baby.
When she was only 3 months old, Lia had an epileptic seizure.
The seizures continued to happen more and more often, about 20 times the next few months after the first seizure.
Her seizures progressed into something her doctors had dreaded.
Grand mal seizures.
Lia started to get even more sick, and as her health started to decline, the amount of medication she was taking started to increase.
Tremendously.
Lia's parents could hardly write their names, let alone read the labels for her medicine.
The Hmong also had different views on health and medicine, and purposely did not give some of her medicine to her, thinking that it was making her even more sick.
Instead they sought out traditional methods of healing, such as herbal teas and bringing txiv neebs, (shamans), to Lia.
As a result, her doctors decided that Lia's parents were not responsible, and eventually got a court order that took her away from her parents.
A year later she was returned back to her family.
Fearing that Lia would get taken away again, her parents obediently fed Lia her medications.
However, medication was not enough, and Lia continued to get seizures constantly.
One day, Lia went into status epilepticus, a seizure that doesn't stop.
Luckily, her seizure was stopped, but not before she had lost all higher brain function.
Lia was in a permanent vegetative state, aka brain dead.
Her doctors were surprised that she had even survived.
She could not talk, walk, see....the list goes on and on.
Anne Fadiman, the author, brings up these questions in the book, Could this have been prevented? Whose fault is this? The doctors, or Lia's parents?
Depending on what perspective you view this situation, you could blame either side. Lia's parents could be blamed for their noncompliance to the orders of the doctors. Who knows how Lia would have turned out if she had been taking all of her medicine regularly?
Lia's pediatric neurologist believes that the doctors were responsible for Lia.
He even stated:
''Go back to Merced, and tell all those people . . . that the family didn't do this to the kid. We did.''
Lia's case is only one example of the many cases where problems occur due to lack of cultural competence. Being able to work with different cultures is essential anywhere, especially in healthcare.
It was mentioned very frequently throughout the book how none of the doctors took the initiative to understand the culture of the Hmong and the reason why Lia's parents were not following their directions. Due to the ethnocentrism on both sides, Lia was not properly treated. If both sides took the time to understand each other, a lot of conflict and trouble could have been prevented.
I suggest reading this book if you are interested in reading about the culture of the Hmong, you would definitely learn a lot from reading this!
And also to those who want a thought provoking book. You get to see Lia's situation from both the perspectives of her doctors and her parents, and in many parts of the book, you really have to sit and think for a moment. You can really see the importance of good communication, and realize how essential it is to have cultural competence.
In the book, the chapters go back and forth between two different stories. Half of the chapters focus on the story of Lia, and the other half focus on the history and culture of the Hmong. The book flipped back and forth between every chapter.
I'm not going to lie, reading the history chapters was a tedious task. I personally found Lia's story much more interesting.
Now, about Lia.
What is her story?
I'll briefly summarize.
Lia Lee had a very difficult life, starting from the time she was a baby.
When she was only 3 months old, Lia had an epileptic seizure.
The seizures continued to happen more and more often, about 20 times the next few months after the first seizure.
Her seizures progressed into something her doctors had dreaded.
Grand mal seizures.
Lia started to get even more sick, and as her health started to decline, the amount of medication she was taking started to increase.
Tremendously.
Lia's parents could hardly write their names, let alone read the labels for her medicine.
The Hmong also had different views on health and medicine, and purposely did not give some of her medicine to her, thinking that it was making her even more sick.
Instead they sought out traditional methods of healing, such as herbal teas and bringing txiv neebs, (shamans), to Lia.
As a result, her doctors decided that Lia's parents were not responsible, and eventually got a court order that took her away from her parents.
A year later she was returned back to her family.
Fearing that Lia would get taken away again, her parents obediently fed Lia her medications.
However, medication was not enough, and Lia continued to get seizures constantly.
One day, Lia went into status epilepticus, a seizure that doesn't stop.
Luckily, her seizure was stopped, but not before she had lost all higher brain function.
Lia was in a permanent vegetative state, aka brain dead.
Her doctors were surprised that she had even survived.
She could not talk, walk, see....the list goes on and on.
Anne Fadiman, the author, brings up these questions in the book, Could this have been prevented? Whose fault is this? The doctors, or Lia's parents?
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| Lia Lee |
Depending on what perspective you view this situation, you could blame either side. Lia's parents could be blamed for their noncompliance to the orders of the doctors. Who knows how Lia would have turned out if she had been taking all of her medicine regularly?
Lia's pediatric neurologist believes that the doctors were responsible for Lia.
He even stated:
''Go back to Merced, and tell all those people . . . that the family didn't do this to the kid. We did.''
Lia's case is only one example of the many cases where problems occur due to lack of cultural competence. Being able to work with different cultures is essential anywhere, especially in healthcare.
It was mentioned very frequently throughout the book how none of the doctors took the initiative to understand the culture of the Hmong and the reason why Lia's parents were not following their directions. Due to the ethnocentrism on both sides, Lia was not properly treated. If both sides took the time to understand each other, a lot of conflict and trouble could have been prevented.
I suggest reading this book if you are interested in reading about the culture of the Hmong, you would definitely learn a lot from reading this!
And also to those who want a thought provoking book. You get to see Lia's situation from both the perspectives of her doctors and her parents, and in many parts of the book, you really have to sit and think for a moment. You can really see the importance of good communication, and realize how essential it is to have cultural competence.
