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On one hand, they’ve taken her there twice hoping she would get some medication to stop her seizures and stabilize her condition. Lia’s family has had mixed experiences with MCMC (Merced County Medical Center). They have a lot of faith in it, but they also think that their traditional remedies work better than Western medicine.

The Hmong people are conflicted about the effectiveness of Western medicine. The Hmong regard quag dab peg as an evil spirit or “soul loss” but also see potential for great things from those who have seizures since healers need them to communicate with evil spirits and fight for souls of their victims.įoua Lee is highly protective of Lia, so although they are saddened by what happened they are pleased by the idea that one day Lia might become a healer therefore, he tries everything he can think of to make sure his daughter won’t die. Her parents believe that this noise caused her soul to leave her body and that she will die unless they do something about it (this belief is common among Hmong people). Although this may seem like good news, it’s actually bad news because she has a seizure when her sister slams the door loudly at three months old. She is also the first to survive past infancy. Unlike the other thirteen children Foua Lee had, Lia was born in a hospital. Fadiman tells her story while also providing an anthropological study on Hmong culture as well as interviews with many other people about their experiences living in America.

She had epilepsy and struggled with American medicine because she did not speak English.

In the 1980s, Lia was part of the Hmong population in America who were refugees from Laos. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down is a work of literary nonfiction that chronicles the life and medical troubles of Lia Lee, a young girl from Merced, California. 1-Page Summary of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Overall Summary

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