The 14th of 15 children born to her mother, Foua Yang, and her father, Nao Kao Lee, Lia Lee was born on July 19, 1982, in Merced, Calif. — the first of her parents’ children born in the United States, and the first born in a hospital.

How old was Lia Lee removed?

Her doctors grew frustrated as the family called in shamans, sacrificed roosters and tied strings around her tiny wrist, but did not always give their exceptionally beautiful and animated daughter her prescriptions. At the age of 3, the sick child was removed from her home by Child Protective Services.

Where is Lia Lee now?

The refugee family traveled a great distance from Laos to Thailand, and now resides in Merced, California.

How old is Lia in the spirit catches you and you fall down?

Lia Lee 1982-2012 Lia Lee died on August 31, 2012. She was thirty years old and had been in a vegetative state since the age of four. Until the day of her death, her family cared for her lovingly at home.

Why is Lia Lee taken away from her family?

When she started suffering epileptic seizures, her parents turned to their traditions to help her. Authorities took their daughter away from them for a year for not properly giving her prescriptions which came with dizzyingly complicated instructions.

How did Lia Lee live so long?

The immediate cause was pneumonia, Ms. Fadiman said. But Lia’s underlying medical issues were more complex still, for she had lived the last 26 of her 30 years in a persistent vegetative state. Today, most people in that condition die within three to five years.

Is FOUA Yang still alive?

It is with a heavy heart that we let you know that our mother Foua Yang passed away peacefully on January 12, 2021 at Sutter Memorial Hospital, following a stroke.

What is QAUG dab peg?

But for traditional Hmong who have retained their animistic beliefs, epilepsy (qaug dab peg, literally translated as “the spirit catches you and you fall down,” which became the title of my book) is caused by a malevolent spirit called a dab, who captures someone’s soul and makes him or her sick.

Why do Hmong traditionally want to keep the placenta after birth?

Why do Hmong traditionally like to keep the placenta after a baby’s birth? They believe a person’s soul returns to the placenta and puts it on before journeying to the place where it will be reborn. … -Lia’s father sacrificed a pig to invite the soul of one of her ancestors to be reborn in her body.

How many kids did FOUA Lee have?

Having given birth to twelve children in her native Laos, Foua and her family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand to escape the dangerous communist forces that had won control of her country in 1975. She gave birth there to her thirteenth child, Mai.

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What is LGS syndrome?

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is a type of epilepsy. Patients with LGS experience many different types of seizures including: Tonic – stiffening of the body. Atonic – temporary loss of muscle tone and consciousness, causing the patient to fall.

Who is the only one to ask what the Lees are doing to heal Lia?

Jeanine Hilt was the only one who ever asked the Lees how they were treating Lia’s developmental delays. She had secured them their disability money and so was held in high esteem.

Why did Neil recommend placing Lia in foster care?

Why did Neil recommend that Lia be placed in foster care? He felt that her parents were jeopardizing her health by not following her medical regimen. establishment whenever she can on Lia’s behalf and truly cares for the Hmong as a culture.

Why is the case of Lia Lee the child of a Hmong family in Merced California significant for medical anthropologists?

The day before Thanksgiving in 1986, she suffered her near-fatal seizure at the family’s kitchen table. Her father declared, “When the spirit catches you, you fall down,” meaning a powerful spirit was locked inside her body, Mai Lee said. Ms. Lee was rushed to the hospital for the 16th time.

What was the prescription medication mentioned in chapter five that Lia took most often?

The greatest problem, for both the Lees and the hospital, was Lia’s medication. Most of the time, she was on a combination of Phenobarbital, Dilantin, Tegretol, and Depakene along with antibiotics, antihistamines, and bronchodilating drugs.

What is QUAG dab peg What does it mean what spirit is referenced?

quag dab peg. the Hmong term for “the spirit catches you and you fall down” the spirit referred to in this phrase is a soul-stealing dab; peg means to catch or hit; and quag means to fall over with one’s roots still in the ground.

Who is Jeanine hilt in the spirit catches you?

Jeanine Hilt – She is the social worker who makes Lia her personal cause. She fights against the medical establishment whenever she can on Lia’s behalf and truly cares for the Hmong as a culture.

What is the meaning of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?

‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down’ is the literal translation of the Hmong terminology for an epileptic seizure. … Lia’s own family believed her seizures were caused by her soul leaving her body, which could be returned to her via animal sacrifice.

Is Anne Fadiman Hmong?

Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a non-fiction exploration of culture and medicine that tells the tragic story of the Lee family and their daughter Lia, an epileptic Hmong girl.

Who is Dan Murphy in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?

A family practice resident at Merced Community Medical Center who is interested in Hmong culture. Dan is the first doctor to diagnose Lia as epileptic after seeing her in the throes of a seizure during her third visit to the hospital.

Was Lia's life ruined by cross cultural misunderstandings?

Fadiman thinks that “[Lia’s] life was ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” (262). … He even admits that “by following [the doctors’] instructions, [the parents] set [Lia] up for septic shock” (255).

What does placenta Hmong do?

The Hmong bury the placenta outside. They believe that after death, the soul must retrace the journeys undertaken in life until it reaches the burial place of its placenta jacket.

In what country have the Hmong lived during most of their history?

The Hmong are members of an ethnic group that have not had a country of their own. For thousands of years, the Hmong lived in southwestern China. But when the Chinese began limiting their freedom in the mid-1600s, many migrated to Laos, Thailand and other neighboring countries.

What is the significance of the placenta to Hmong people?

By contrast, the Hmong believe that the placenta is the infant’s first “clothing”; the soul of the deceased must return to the place his or her placenta was bur- ied to retrieve this afterlife “garment.” Only by wearing his or her placental “jacket” can the soul find safe passage to the spirit world and be reunited …

Is Anne Fadiman an anthropologist?

Anne Fadiman may not be an anthropologist, but she conducted her research using ethnographic methods such as participant-observation and interviews. Through this work, Fadiman came to understand the power structure and hierarchy of the Hmong with clan leaders at the top.

How do you cite the spirit catches you and you fall down?

1. APA. Fadiman, A. (1998). Spirit catches you and you fall down. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
2. Chicago. Fadiman, Anne. 1998. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. …
3. MLA. Fadiman, Anne. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998.

What do American doctors do that in the Hmong's opinion threaten their lives and their soul?

The Hmong believe that there is only a finite amount of blood in the body, doctors are continually taking it. When people are unconscious, their souls are at large, so anesthesia may lead to illness or death. Surgery is taboo and so are autopsies and embalming.

What kind of epilepsy did Lia Lee have?

On the most basic level, the book tells the story of the family’s second youngest and favored daughter, Lia Lee, who was diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy named Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome and the culture conflict that obstructs her treatment.

How do the Hmong view epilepsy?

The Hmong name of epilepsy is qaug dab peg, which translates to “the spirit catches you and you fall down*” illuminates the Hmong belief that those who are epileptic are gifted with the ability to enter the spirit realm.

What happened to Lia's seizures as she got older?

Lia began having epileptic seizures when she was about three months old. Her older sister, Yer, slammed the front door of the Lees’ apartment. … Despite the careful installation of her soul during the hu plig ceremony, the noise of the door had frightened out of Lia’s body, and it became lost.

What caused Lia Lee's epilepsy?

American doctors eventually diagnosed epilepsy. Her mother, Foua Yang, and her father, Nao Kao Lee, called it qaug dab peg (pronounced “kow da pay”). To them it was a spiritual illness: They thought their daughter’s soul was wandering and needed to be called back from the farthest reaches of the spirit world.