Lia is born of a loving Hmong household. and merely three months into her life. begins to uncover epileptic symptoms. Harmonizing to the Hmong community. the status is curable. and the presence of liquors in such a patient’s psyche is considered a approval. However. American physicians in a community medical centre fail to understand and appreciate Lia’s parents’ attack to the child’s disease. and are merely interested in salvaging this child’s life. As the struggle develops. it becomes evident that the kid will non be healed ; but this is non without the physicians recognizing the importance of via media. In this book. Anne Fadiman claims. “I have come to believe that her [ Lia’s ] life was ruined non by infected daze or defiant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” ( Fadiman 262 ) . Before doing this claim. Fadiman had come to to the full understand the Hmong civilization. This statement was therefore an avowal that her parents’ crude intervention to epilepsy was non to fault for Lia’s desolation. but the cross-cultural misinterpretation that surrounded her life. Based on the grounds provided by Fadiman and supported by the positions of critics. this essay aims to reaffirm that cross-cultural misinterpretation was to fault for Lia’s ruined life.

The Hmong civilization was partially to fault for the debatable intervention of Lia. Shamans. the community’s physicians. needful clip in their patients’ places. where they diagnosed and treated based on the patients’ symptoms. If a patient died. human mistake in his/her intervention was non a possibility. and alternatively – they considered disease to be fulfilment of the wants of the liquors. The method used by modern physicians at the Merced Community Medical Center. including taking of blood samples and depriving a patient of her apparels. was hence considered immoral ( Twiss 167 ) . As such. the Hmong community. including Lia’s parents. was unwilling to organize with the modern physicians in their attempt to salve Lia’s wellness. This factor increased the cross-cultural misinterpretation ; doing Lia’s intervention even more debatable.

The Lees were appreciative of their girl. in malice of her status. This entailed appreciating her corpulent nature. because harmonizing to the Hmong civilization. a embonpoint stature signified good parenting. Her thick tegument made it hard for the trefoils to follow a vena. and sing her status. she ought to hold been immobile as drugs were administered. At one point. Lia’s parents. the Lees. are observed to unbrace her during intervention so she could kip beside them. They could non understand the ground behind which she was tied. and as such. idea of the physicians as sadistic. At this point. the function played by Jeanine Hilt. an American societal worker. can be decently understood. It was Hilt’s tenderness and apprehension that was responsible for the minimum via media that characterized the state of affairs ( Twiss 172 ) . Because of Hilt. Lia’s parents. the Lees began to appreciate that Americans were every bit thoughtful. merely that they employed foreigner techniques to handle their patients. While Hilt served as Lia’s advocator among the physicians. misconstruing between the physicians and the Lees persisted. and it was instead impossible for Lia to be treated.

Lia’s physicians. Neil Ernest and Peggy Philp. ought to hold taken a better attack in breaking her medical state of affairs. While their misinterpretation with Lia’s parents did non act upon their willingness to handle the immature miss. it is evident that they were loath to see the Lee’s grudges. The Hmong community was willing to incorporate their intervention steps with those of the modern physicians but the modern physicians dismissed the diehard methods as crude and damaging for a critical status like Lia’s. Alternatively. they recommended scheduled medicine. to which the Lees complied ( Fadiman ) . The effect. including the ultimate ictus. and attendant encephalon harm made it apparent that modern medicine was non plenty. After the modern physicians had given up on her. anticipating her decease to happen hours after dismissal from the infirmary. traditional physicians came in ready to hand and even caused her status to stabilise. This sequence of events is an avowal that the physicians ought to hold given a opportunity to the Shamans. whose initial part might hold ensured a normal life for the miss.

Language barrier was a major factor that served to widen the boundary existing between the two civilizations. Some of the vocalizations made by the physicians were interpreted right but were understood wrongly ( Swartz 2 ) . This resulted in a worsened understanding of the American physicians by the Lees and Hmong as an entity likewise. In the instance of an exigency. the Lees needed to reach an ambulance. but could non pass on with the infirmary.

This necessitated the engagement of their learned nephew. who would name an ambulance. The reading procedure would at times limit the effectivity of the message intended by either party. For case. when Lia was undergoing critical attention in MCMC. the Lees needed to be comforted. a procedure which had to be done by an translator. Before the concluding discharge. miscommunication between Lia’s female parent and the physicians had her think that the nurses disconnected medicine tubings off Lia in order to give it to some other patient ; a average act. In the same incident. Lia’s male parent was made to subscribe a missive of discharge for Lia. which would go on in two hours. However. he understood this as a missive to vouch decease in two hours. Such incorrect readings eliminated any possibility that the two civilizations would eventually appreciate each other. Cross-cultural miscommunication was hence a major cause for the intensification of Lia’s job.

Although cross-cultural miscommunication was to fault for the jobs experienced in an attempt to handle Lia’s status. ignorance and superstitious notion had a important function to play in finding the result of the full state of affairs ( Swartz 2 ) . Ignorance by Neil Ernest and Peggy Philp was the ground why the girl’s psyche was non considered of import in bring arounding her organic structure ( Fadiman 265 ) . The superstitious impressions held by the Lees had a function to play in finding the result of Lia’s intervention. because in conformity with their beliefs. she got worse each clip modern physicians administered intervention on her.

While it was a wellness status. the issues that surrounded her epilepsy. particularly the jerk of war between her traditional parents and modern physicians politicized her intervention. However. cross-cultural struggle was the chief ground to Lia’s failed intervention. The result of the narrative reveals that American physicians eventually understood why Lia’s parents insisted upon administrating traditional medical specialty. However. sing that the American physicians failed to reconstruct her wellness. the reader is left to believe that the Hmong civilization ne’er got to understand why proper modern intervention is of import.

Work Cited

“The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. ” Oriental Medicine Journal 16. 4 ( 2008 ) : 39. Alt HealthWatch. Web. 27 June 2012.

“Why Cultural Awareness Matters To American Medicine. ” Quarterly Journal Of Speech 86. 1 ( 2000 ) : 111. Communication & A ; Mass Media Complete. Web. 27 June 2012.

Fadiman. Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child. Her American Doctors. and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York: Farrar. Straus and Giroux. 1998

Swartz. Leslie. “Clinical authorship and the civilization job. ” Journal of Child & A ; Adolescent Mental Health Aug. 2008: 2. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 June 2012.

Twiss. Sumner B. “On Cross-cultural Conflict And Pediatric Intervention. ” Journal Of Religious Ethics 34. 1 ( 2006 ) : 163-175. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 June 2012.