Lia Lee and family

Anne Fadiman's account about the events concerning Lia Lee, the daughter of Nao Kao Lee and Foua Yang, Hmong parents, is a riveting tale. From the very beginning she states that many of the problems and frustrations of the parties involved with Lia's epilepsy stemmed from the cultural barrier that prevented common grounds from being reached. Anne Fadiman does a good job explaining the characteristics the Hmong culture has instilled in its people: from the nomadic lives and tenacious fighting to spiritual medicine and strong family values. The depiction of the picture the Hmong people had of American doctors and vice versa helped tremendously in order to comprehend how uneducated each group was towards the other.
As I read, I found myself amazed at the ignorance and lack of initiative the American doctors had when dealing their Hmong patients. Fadiman mentioned that during medical school, students would be taught to practice medicine a certain way and expected a certain type of approach towards their patients. The author also said that Merced Community Medical Center had many doctors who had just gotten out of medical school and did not have much field experience. Yet even with all this, somehow, I wish to blame the doctors for all the troubles the Lee family and many Hmong patients had at American hospitals. I might not be the best at recognizing different cultural values but I have learned to respect the fact that there are many different kinds of people out in the world and many do not think and same way I do nor hold the same values. Perhaps I have the advantage of hind-sight that these doctors did not have. I have history to back me up and experiences that have exposed me to different cultures that has trained me to see people as individuals with different ways of thinking. I hope that someday, we can all know that different cultures exist and not treat someone poorly because of it. People should not be treated the same (equally) but the fairly to respect their own values, however hard that may be.