My favorite chapter of The Spirit Catches You, "The Big One"

One of the things I liked about the chapter on Lia's grand mal seizure is that it showed the medical perspective on something so severe. Neil's biggest fear concerning Lia came true, and I think it was a great example of Karma, how Neil was the doctor on call when he desperately wanted not to be. His doctoring seemed sub-par when it came to Lia, not because of his medical performance, but because of his human performance. He was annoyed by and referred to Lia negatively throughout the book, and he got the pressure of trying to save her.

One negative medical aspect I couldn't forget is that the doctors felt that a brain with no activity represented a body that didn't need medication or medical care; I feel that the right to make decisions for their child was stripped from Foua and Nao Kao, and even though they got some say in what happened, it makes me appreciate medicine of today and the respect given to family members when they go through such a struggle.

I also constantly think about Neil'n'Peggy and the way they were personally as opposed to professionally. True, they held each half well, but in transition arose their flaws. Neil especially, seems to be a man who loves his family and gets along with people, and medically he is a great man, but when transitioning between personal and professional, he looks like he can't do both at the same time. His attitude toward treating Lia shocked me, and I was displeased to read about him reacting the ways he did when he was on call for Lia, it was always a negative emotion because he had to go in, and I imagine many doctors get like that because though the job is what they wanted, the time allotted for personal life is very short. Looking back on it, I know I felt very negative toward Niel, especially when presenting over this chapter, but now I understand how his stress must have been hard to deal with because he needed the time to get over everything that was happening, but he spent so much time with Lia that it was getting to him. For our future doctors, a few of which are in this class, I wish you the best when it comes to handling your patients, because sometimes the emotional care you show means more than the medical care you can give.

By the way, to all graduates, congratulations!!