How It All Goes Down
There are two different stories happening in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.
A good portion of the book is spent recounting Hmong history. We watch as these folks are driven from China for refusing to assimilate its culture, then eventually make their way to the mountains of Laos. We watch as the Vietnam War destabilizes the region, forcing the Hmong to fight for the U.S. government in the so-called "Quiet War" (and you can bet that's an oxymoron if we've ever heard one). We watch as their communities are decimated by communist forces, forcing the Hmong to risk life and limb to make it to America.
That's when the real story starts.
Hmong refugees Nao Kao and Foua Lee have settled in beautiful Merced, California with their family. Their daughter Lia is born and tragedy strikes: she has frequent seizures and is diagnosed with epilepsy. Lia's treatment is complicated by Nao Kao's and Foua's inability to speak English, making it all but impossible to communicate with her doctors. Ultimately, everything comes to a head when Lia's doctor, Neil Ernst, gets fed up with this lack of communication and sends Lia into a foster home. Yikes.
Things go from bad to worse. Although Lia's foster mom, Dee Korda, is an awesome lady and her social worker, Jeanine Hilt, is equally awesome, Lia's condition worsens as soon as she's separated from her family. By the time she returns home, she's having major seizures on a regular basis and her development is noticeably slowed. Some time later, a severe seizure leaves her legally brain-dead.
This leaves Nao Kao and Foua to pick up the pieces and reassemble their lives. Although they dedicate themselves to making Lia as comfortable as possible—keeping her alive for decades longer than the doctors expected—Nao Kao and Foua are deeply shaken by the experience, blaming Lia's doctors for their daughter's condition. And yes, eerily enough, we'll leave it at that.