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BECOMING A PHYSICIAN Previous Volume 353:1317-1318 September 29, 2005 Number 13 Next

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The referrals were always the same. Febrile seizures, noncompliant mother, noncompliant mother, noncompliant mother, noncompliant mother.

So reports a California nurse who visited Lia Lee, the epileptic Hmong girl at the center of Anne Fadiman's 1997 book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Most of Lia's U.S. health care providers attributed the worsening of her condition that culminated in brain death largely to parental noncompliance. As Fadiman reveals, Lia's immigrant parents, faced with a constantly changing regimen that was no match for the evil spirit they knew was causing Lia's fits, had neither the ability nor the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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