Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

¶ … spirit catches you and you fall down.

Notions of epilepsy amongst the Hmong nation are diametrically different to those of the West.

The Hmong believe that epileptic individuals are particularly fancied by malevolent spirits (called 'dabs') that enter their bodies, make them sick, and allow them to communicate with the spirit realm in order to serve as mediums to help others in their present existence and to communicate with those who are dead.

This religious belief is called shamanistic animism, which asserts that malevolent spirits are constantly seeking human souls to inhabit, particularly those of vulnerable or unloved children (although Lia, in this case, was the favorite child) and that epilepsy is but one instance of the spirit's inhabiting the human body.

In Hmong culture, epilepsy is referred to as quag deb peg (I.e. "The spirit catches you and you fall down."). Perceived as an honorable condition, the epileptic individual is obligated, by his or her culture, to use these phenomena in order to help others.

In fact, many Hmong shamans are epileptics, and achieve acclaim as physical and spirit healers for the physically and emotionally sick individuals of their cultures. Recipients of their help are, sometimes, helped. It may be due to the fact that impact of their treatment acts as placebo. Nonetheless, efficacious results reinforce cultural beliefs about healing characteristics that epileptics possess. As a result of their belief in this process, Hmong individuals would certainly be against western medical interventions that seek to cure epilepsy in any which way or manner.

Inclusive amongst other rituals and customs that contradict western medical tradition, is the fact that some Hmong perform traditional animal sacrifice, related, too, to cultural myths of shamanistic animism, and they disallow invasive medical surgery due to their belief that doing so will enable human souls and the spirits sometimes invading these souls of escaping.

Although Klee's family were ready to question this tradition in their overriding desire to help Lia, given their culture, they were ambivalent about having her honorable position removed. They also expected instant results being that they had experienced positive results from western medical treatment when in a Thai refugee camp, and found the Merced hospital efficacious in resolving the epileptic seizures. However, they found it difficult to understand that vaunted Western medicine could not cure the problem instantly and thoroughly, but, rather, that medication had to be applied on a regular process. If Lia's doctors were as competent as said, the parents could not understand why the problem could not resolved as rapidly and decisively as the antibiotics had eliminated the foot problem in the refugee camp.

Other factors that confused them were the variability and characteristics of the medical regimen (with drugs being changed frequently) and their lack of English literacy hampered them from following instructions. The pills were also difficult to administer with some having adverse side effects.