Synopsis

                                         **SPOILERS**

 

        The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a heartbreaking novel that takes you through the life of a young Hmong girl and her family who are continually fighting assimilation into the American culture and the severity of her epilepsy. Lia Lee, the protagonist of the novel, suffers from oppressive epilepsy. Conflicts arise when her American doctors, with the influence of western medicine, ignore the Hmong's cultural differences and customs.

        Lia was born on July 19th, 1982 to parents, Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee in Merced, California. The Lees are Hmong, a distinct group from isolated mountains in southeast Asia. During the Vietnam war, thousands of Hmong desired refuge in the United States.                

        Epilepsy, otherwise known as Quag Dab Peg in Hmong, is considered one of the most transcendent "gifts" to have in the Hmong culture. At Merced Community Medical Center, the hospital where Lia's epilepsy was treated, the doctors failed to create positive relationships with Lia's parents solely due to lack of communication and understanding. This led to Lia not receiving the proper medical care and treatment she needed most.

       Lia was put in foster care due to the fact that the doctors at Merced Community Medical Center thought her parents were not capable of taking care of a child in the state Lia was in. While in foster care, Lia and her parents had a very difficult time adapting to their new life. Jeanine Hilt, a Child Protective Service worker began to work with the Lees so they could get their daughter back. Eventually Lia was returned back home and the Lees administered her mdeications correctly and  things began to run much smoother.

       On November 25th, 1986, when Lia was just four years old, she had a seizure that lasted for nearly two hours causing her to have reduced brain function. Simutaneously, Lia was found to have septic shock, an infection where toxins initiate a full body inflammatory response. She becomes brain dead, in a vegetative state.