![]() Her primary physicians, Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, tried to provide the highest standard of medical care possible. Lia's rationalist doctors, on the other hand, treated Lia's epilepsy purely as a neurological disorder. The family believed in "a little medicine and a little neeb," but worried that too much medicine could limit the effectiveness of the spiritual healing. They brought her for treatment to the Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC), but they also utilized traditional healing methods and engaged a tvix neeb to call back her soul. They diagnosed her illness as qaug dab peg, "the spirit catches you and you fall down." While they were concerned for Lia's safety, they also believed her seizures made her special, as many epileptics were chosen to be ‘tvix neebs’, or ‘shamans’. Her parents, Foua and Nao Kao, believed that the noise of the door had caused her soul to flee. ![]() When Lia was around three months old, her older sister Yer slammed a door and Lia had her first seizure. ![]() ![]() The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with epilepsy, whose tragic demise reveals the dangers of a lack of cross-cultural communication in the medical profession. ![]()
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