anthropology assignment

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The cases about the two Hmong children whom went to the doctors and had fevers were similar but different in some ways. With the case about Daisy, the six month old girl, the parents had taken her daughter to her primary care physician because she had a fever of 103°F but had no other symptoms. The parents tried to treat the fever with Tylenol but the fever got worse. There was no interpreter so the physician spoke to the parents in English. The physician was concerned that Daisy might have had bacterial meningitis. The parents asked little questions about the procedures and tests the physician wanted to do to confirm bacteria in the blood stream. The parents agreed to keep Daisy at the hospital. The grandparents came and stated that they wanted a khawv koob ritual. The doctor had allowed the ritual to happen in the hospital but had said that the healer could not burn incense because of oxygen Daisy was being given. Unfortunately Daisy did not get better and died from cardiac arrest.

If I was the physician I would have made sure that there was an interpreter present and translating for me what I had to say to the parents. This is very important because so many details of Daisy’s condition could get lost in the conversation between Daisy’s parents and me. With the interpreter, all options could be informed effectively and the parents could be warned of repercussions. It would also be important for me to be competent about this cultural and the values it has. It’s evident that the Hmong culture believes in Khawv Koob healers and value this practice. I would know what the benefits of this practice are and use my knowledge to be empathetic towards what this family was asking for. I would make sure that the nurses tending to the patient and their families were also competent about the Hmong culture.

This case was hard to determine whether the daughter was going to die with or without the ritual. Unlike the other case, Daisy was not getting better, instead she was getting worse. In my opinion, there was probably nothing that could have been done to save her life.

The case about Neng Song was different than Daisy’s case because the fever Neng had was not persistent and the doctors had no real proof of bacterial infection because no test was done. Neng’s parents refused any treatment or test to determine with there was bacteria in the blood stream and the doctor was concerned that the baby would die if not being treated. So, the doctor tried to get a court order and held the family at the hospital but by the end of their hold the baby’s fever had went down to 100 °F and the baby was not fussy anymore. The family somehow escaped and the baby had gotten better with khawv koob ritual.

In this case there was a Hmong interpreter but it’s obvious that the doctor was not competent of the Hmong culture. The doctor did not allow the Khawv Koob to be in the hospital and did not offer that. I would allow the khawv koob be in the hospital and allow the ritural to happen if that meant that I could perform the test needed to make sure that the baby did not have bacterial meningitis. Either way, if the family wanted to leave, I’d allow them to leave after communicating to them the possibilities of bacterial meningitis to make sure they are okay with the decision they are making of leaving the hospital.