Life is very crazy for me right now. Lots of changes happening. For that reason, I am just going to write a very short post about this book.
This was the selection for our book club. The person who selected it works in healthcare, and it is definitely an important work for people who are responsible for delivering care to individuals and families.
The book chronicles the events concerning a Hmong family and their daughter who suffered from seizures, and the challenges they faced trying to navigate the healthcare system in the United States.
Everyone in the US is painfully aware of how difficult it is dealing with hospitals, insurance companies, prescriptions, and government bureaucracy. Try to imagine how much more difficult it would be if there was a language barrier that prevented you from communicating with healthcare providers, or from understanding the instructions for care that the providers gave you. And as this book shows, those challenges are compounded by cultural differences.
“The language barrier was the most obvious problem, but not the most important. The biggest problem was the cultural barrier. There is a tremendous difference between dealing with the Hmong and dealing with anyone else. An infinite difference.” Dan Murphy said. “The Hmong simply didn’t have the same concepts that I did. For instance, you can’t tell them that somebody is diabetic because their pancreas doesn’t work. They don’t have a word for pancreas. They don’t have an idea for pancreas. Most of them had no concept that the organs they saw in animals were the same as in humans, because they didn’t open people up when they died, they buried them intact. They knew there was a heart, because they could feel the heartbeat, but beyond that—well, even lungs were kind of a difficult thing to get into. How would you intuit the existence of lungs if you had never seen them?”
(p. 69)
Overall, I found the book interesting, but it did drag at points for me, mainly because the author digs deep into the cultural history of the Hmong. And while I understand the importance of the cultural and historical context, it just became a little tedious for me at points.
Anyway, it’s a good book and if you are interested in medical history or social sciences, definitely worth reading. Cheers!
Stuff Jeff Reads 
I hope everything is ok with you my friend!
Glad you are still posting!
Yeah, I’m hanging in. Things should be back to normal in a few weeks. Cheers
Good 2 Hear Brother!
Glad to see your post, Jeff. Hope all is well with you. I have not heard of this book, but I will tell you firsthand how difficult it is to understand doctors’ instructions and descriptions of procedures and to have to make decisions based on limited understanding. I can only imagine how difficult it is for different cultures trying to navigate that world.
It’s crazy how complex our society has become. Healthcare is just one aspect. The legal system is just as complicated, as is higher education, etc.