Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, as the literal translation from the Hmong language is epilepsy, is a story of the misunderstanding in medicine due to intercultural differences proving to be deadly. But on this medical route, Fadiman moves to the town of Merced in California and speaks with the local Hmong immigrant community. In this way, she manages to tell the heartbreaking story of Leah Lee, a little girl with a severe form of epilepsy. Fadiman portrays how diverging views on health and illness, between the Eastern philosophy of Lia’s parents and her Western doctors, condemned Leah to death.
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