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Summary Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Annie Fadiman

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The spirit catches you and you fall down by Annie Fadiman is a story about Hmong girl named Lia Lee, who is epileptic. Lia Lee suffered from seizures and eventually becomes vegetative for the rest of her life. The story is about a series of episodes of miscommunication, misinterpretations, disagreements between Lia’s parents and the medical team who is treating her. According to the Hmong culture they referred to the condition as the “quag dag peg,” which means the spirit catches you and you fall down (Fadiman, 2012). It first happened when Lia Lee’s elder sister slammed Lia with the door, which caused Lia to have a shocking reaction by jerking and frightening a “dab” (spirit) away (Fadiman, 2012). Lia’s parents were not planning to take her to the hospital first because they …show more content…

Lia’s parents spoke the Hmong language, which was a barrier during the treatment of Lia Lee. During the hospital stay at Merced County Medical Center, the doctors tried to explain the procedure of her treatment and provided the medications to cure Lia’s epilepsy. But since Lia’s parents had language barrier, the doctors and Lia’s parents were confused on the medications of what is supposed to be given for the betterment of Lia Lee. They even tried to send a nurse to their home to help with the medication regime. They soon realized that her parents did not want to give the medications to Lia. So, Lia was getting the wrong dosage of medications or not even getting medications. The doctors wanted to check her blood to know whether the medications were actually helping her or not. But they have realized that Lia’s mother has been lying or confused about how she administered the medications to her throughout this time (Guerrero et al, 2002). The next time Lia had a grand mal seizure; her parents blamed it on all the medications that were prescribed to

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