She lived the last 26 years of her life in a persistent vegetative state, kept alive well beyond medical predictions by the folk remedies and traditional care of her immigrant family.
In August 2012, Lia Lee died at the age of 30 in Sacramento, California. She lived the last 26 years of her life in a persistent vegetative state, kept alive well beyond medical predictions by the folk remedies and traditional care of her immigrant family. Most of her first four years were plagued by an unusually severe epilepsy, or qaug dab peg (pronounced "kow da pay"), a Hmong word whose English translation provided the title to this 1997 book. FTP, name this nonfiction work by Anne Fadiman, a heartbreaking and cautionary tale of the cultural chasm between Lia's proud and independent Hmong family, with its age-old animist beliefs, and the rationalist American medical community that attempted to treat her.
In August 2012, Lia Lee died at the age of 30 in Sacramento, California.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down