Complete 5 page APA formatted essay: Reflection.Download file to see previous pages... The disease also destroys her brain beyond any repair. She later gets into a coma after she suffered grand mal se

Complete 5 page APA formatted essay: Reflection.

The disease also destroys her brain beyond any repair. She later gets into a coma after she suffered grand mal seizure and lives up to the age of 26 years with no higher brain functions. This story, which is a true story, shows the tug of war that existed between Lia’s parents and her doctors, between culture and healthcare profession. Important issues regarding healthcare and religious belief/practice Reading through this book, one will find the high level of the clash of ideas which is eminent. A cultural conflict exists between modern healthcare and religious beliefs or practices. The text is an example of the level of war which exists between western medicine or health care professionals and religious beliefs or practices. The religion of the Hmong people has it that a disease like the one suffered by Lia Lee is spiritual in nature (Fadiman, 2012). They also believe that epilepsy is brought about by a vengeful and an evil spirit named dab which catches the soul of a person making the person fallfall and people suffering from epilepsy become shamans or txiv neebs. Epilepsy is referred to as qaug dab peg which means that a spirit which catches a person and they fall. A conflict exists between the scientific factors behind the cause of epilepsy by the healthcare professionals and the perceived spiritual factors by the Hmong people. They also believe in animal sacrifices as the cure for such diseases something which contradicts the beliefs of western medicine. To the healthcare professionals, epilepsy is a difficult condition to medicate and trial and error methods is advisable but with different types of anti-seizure medications (Fadiman, 2012). This conflict quite challenges healthcare professionals as they become unable to reach these people regardless of their severe medical conditions. In most cases, culture becomes a challenge to healthcare professionals as it is a door to the treatment of all diseases. The text also brings about the kind of language barrier which exists between medical practitioners and the people. Normal people like the Hmong people usually have a lot of trouble in following instructions and especially those who do not read them like in the case of Hmong people (Fadiman, 2012). The Hmong people did not trust the modern medicines, and this obstructed the treatment of Lee. There were translators at the time when Lee was sick, and if they were there, cultural barrier was higher than the language barrier. However, a translator would have bridged the gap by helping the parent of Lee understand their daughter’s condition was medical and not spiritual (Fadiman, 2012). Lee’s parents held the belief that tradition and religion surpassed any medicine and that are why they were extremely stubborn and did not follow the instructions given to them by Lee’s doctors. Language barrier between the western medicine and the religious groups is another challenge faced by healthcare professionals as people continue to ignore the instructions given by the doctors which usually end up with disastrous consequences. Engaging the issues The fact that the parents of Lee involved the modern doctors in her was a bold move. The Merced Community Medical Center also did its best by diagnosing the condition of Lia Lee and also by giving medication to her parents even though the parents never followed the medical instructions given by the American doctors (Fadiman, 2012).