Fadiman's work “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” is a unique platform where medicine absorbed cultural traditions and transformed into a powerful mechanism. People achieved high results on the background of terrible mistakes. In the novel, the main accents are placed on identifying the causes of misunderstandings between doctors and patients and the ways to solve them as well as the importance of interpreters in health care settings.
Any errors serve to realize important lessons and continuation of the way. Fadiman represents three misunderstandings, which appeared on the brink of medicine and culture. The first one arose between health care providers and patients due to the language barrier. In such a situation, interpreters act as an informative channel between interlocutors to ensure productive negotiations. In Fadiman’s novel, interpreters were incompetent and provoked a total misunderstanding between doctors and Lia’s parents. It caused a range of problems: for a long time, doctors could not determine Lia’s diagnosis; her parents did not understand the foreign prescriptions of drugs and refused to give medicines to their daughter (Fadiman, 1997). The language barrier turned out to be a serious obstacle on the way to solving health problems.
Patients and American doctors’ different attitudes towards medicine caused the second misunderstanding. The epicenter of the discussion was Lia’s diagnosis. Doctors based their position on scientific conclusions: “epilepsy is a sporadic malfunction of the brain…which can be traced to oxygen deprivation during…birth”. (Fadiman, 1997, p.39) Lia’s parents, citing their cultural beliefs, considered it to be “ the illness where the spirit catches you and you fall down” (Fadiman, 1997, p.38). The author shows that different points of view can distance people further than kilometers.
The third misunderstanding arose due to doctors’ dominating position in decision-making ignoring patients’ wishes. Workers of Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) firmly believed in the effectiveness of their actions. Time has shown that such a one-sided initiative led to terrible consequences: the excessive amount of medicines totally exhausted Lia's body; Hmong child got an infection because of doctors' negligence and it caused a somatic shock (Fadiman, 1997). Medical staff's self-confidence and reluctance to get a feedback from Lia's parents became a cause of irreparable mistakes. Interpreters’ incompetence, doctors’ unwillingness to compromise and groundless confidence resulted in Hmong family tragedy. This story provoked people to correct the errors made.
A smart and rational approach to the situation is the key solution. Firstly, to avoid the language barrier, MCMC should hire qualified translators and interpreters who professionally use the medical terminology and are able to distinguish cultural features. These criteria for choosing specialists will make cooperation effective. Fadiman noted the changes in the medical sphere after 15 years, and they turned out to be significant: many hospitals provided translation services and more representatives of the Hmong culture became bilingual (Fadiman, 2012). Secondly, to address the differences in the points of view, there should be mutual understanding of each other. Doctors should share cultural beliefs of Lee’s family to establish a certain connection. Every patient is a person with his/her tastes and ideologies. A two-way communication creates credibility, and a patient is more inclined to a compromise. Over time, experts combined western medicine with traditional therapeutic arts ensuring collaboration with foreign healers, an intercultural education program was created to teach their nurses and translators "cultural competence" (Fadiman, 2012). Finally, giving an advice to patients instead of uncompromising guidelines is an effective method to cope with the third misunderstanding. Such organization of the medical process is more productive, and the psychological state of patients remains normal. Later, in the hospital where Lia was treated, such an approach was actively practiced (Fadiman, 2012). Mistakes made by Fadiman’s heroes revealed important lessons that became an impetus for others to raise medical services to the higher level.
An interpreter performs an important function in any negotiations, especially referring to a medical sphere where everything depends on the qualitative transfer of information. Any information stimulates to a certain action, which can save or hurt a patient’s life. This responsibility makes interpreter’s role great in maintaining patients’ health.
A healthy body is the most valuable tool for everyone; thus, it should be cared about at the professional level. The author shows valuable lessons on the heroes’ example that can be useful for every specialist working in medical sphere. Firstly, framework for different type of care is a medical literacy of the staff. Every medical worker should constantly develop his working skills, raise his qualification’s level, and become a professional. When workers have a medical literacy, they get authority and patients' trust. Secondly, medical professionals should work in cooperation: they should give advice and get patient's feedback as his/her knowledge and perception of his/her body helps to choose the most suitable treatment. Finally, medical worker should become a friend to a patient, be ready to compromise, and maintain his normal psychological state during treatment. These findings are important to become a valuable nurse or a qualified doctor. Lia's health care providers overlooked these moments. That is why these tips will serve people to avoid errors, which were bitterly tested by Fadiman heroes.
In conclusion, tragic history of Lia became a catalyst for progress in terms of medicine and intercultural relationships. Her suffering built a bridge between science and culture, showed a close connection between soul and body. This story revealed people a set of truths and valuable lessons which transformed into successful achievents for society.
References
Fadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down. (2012). Afterwards. New York: NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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