The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Remember the saying “when you assume, you makes an ass out of you and me.” Well, it kept going through my head as I read the first part section of this book. One assumption led to another which led to actions that had grave consequences. The doctors would not give the Hmong women the babies placentas because they assumed they wanted to eat it. This led many of them see these Hmong individuals as backwards, dim individuals who had so much to learn. This and other assumptions further exacerbated cultural barrier and made meaningful communication nearly impossible.
The first few chapters show how so many important things can be missed the rush to treat one patient and move on to the next is coupled with assumptions. The doctors and nurses assumed that because Foua signed the release papers she could read. This turns out to be a horrible assumption that leads to problem after problem. I was just talking to a classmate who said that divisions exist because we can never understand 100% of another person’s background. I do not feel that one needs to understand a person 100% to know how and how not to approach that individual in a way that can reduce barriers and division. It’s hard to say that if the doctors and nurses who had attended to Lia during her first emergency trip had tried to understand where the Lees were coming, from the sequences of events which occurred would not have been a grave.
There are two ways which Lia can be treated and due certain events and factors they seem to be competing rather than complementing each other. The traditional western medical approach practiced by Dr. Ernst and Dr. Philp relied on the belief that their medical school knowledge was the only way to deal with Lia’s problems. We then also have the family who feels that they best way to help this young girl is through the ways their culture deals with illness by addressing the matters of the soul. No doubt both parties want to help the girl, but the way in which it is done ends up causing more harm than good. The Lees saw western medicine and the hospital as something with which to hedge their bets, a sort of last ditch effort and not as the primary source for curing their daughter; the doctors did not see it this way. One of the concepts we have discussed in class and see again in this book is the issue of ownership of one’s body and taking an active role in deciding how an illness should be treated. For Andre Lorde, an American college professor, making her intentions known are not as difficult as it is for a young girl whose parents do not fully understand the culture of those helping their daughter and thus cannot adequately state their intentions
As I am reading this book, one thing I have to keep reminding myself is that it was written nearly 10 years ago about events which happened between 15-20 years ago. It can be very easy to forget that. I feel some of the issues addressed in this book have changed/improved and others have become a bit more complicated especially in relation to other cultural groups.