Hmong vs. Westernized Healthcare Systems
Anne Fadiman's book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down recounts the long and tragic story of Lia Lee, the child of Hmong parents, who was born at Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) rather than in a traditional Hmong hut in Laos. From all appearances, a birth at a Westernized healthcare facility would seem to be both more sterile and more technically correct than one in a primitive jungle hut, yet Lia's mother, Foua, had given birth to 12 other children back in Laos that fared better than Lia did. Lia's story is one of critical misunderstandings between her Hmong parents and the staff at MCMC that resulted in a long series of illnesses and medical interventions and a situation in which, at age 7, she was "quadriplegic, spastic, incontinent, and incapable of purposeful movement," which the doctors termed a "persistent vegetative state" (Fadiman, 1997, p. 210). Fadiman (1997, p. 258) points out that the epileptic Lia would probably have died while still an infant if she had been in Laos, but "American medicine had both preserved her life and compromised it," and Fadiman states, "I was unsure which had hurt her family more."
A review of the literature on Hmong culture and the problems they encounter in Westernized medical facilities due to their religious beliefs shows that American hospitals-especially in areas where a substantial number of Hmong live-are becoming more knowledgeable about the Hmong and have developed medical approaches that permit Hmong families to keep the most important aspects of their beliefs while they or their family members are patients. Sharon K. Johnson's journal article "Hmong Health Beliefs and Experiences in the Western Health Care System" details her ethnographic research on the subject, noting that the Hmong have little understanding of the human body or its organs and their locations. They believe that a human being has a "pool of...