The Eight Questions
- Despite the doctors' predictions, Lia doesn't die. As her brothers and sisters go through college and start their careers, Lia remains at home in a state of arrested development. But in a much, much more depressing way than what that makes you think of.
- Exhausted by their constant care for Lia, Nao Kao and Foua allow her to go to the Schelby Center for Special Education during the daytime to ease their load.
- In 1993, Jeanine Hilt has a brutal asthma attack while at Disneyland. She falls into a vegetative state ("exactly the same fate that had befallen Lia") and dies three days later (17.4). Um, WHAT? As you might guess, Foua is devastated.
- Tragedy hits Neil and Peggy as well when their son is diagnosed with leukemia. Sheesh, things just keep getting worse. When Foua hears, she comforts both of them, even shedding some tears with Peggy. Luckily, the cancer goes into remission.
- Though Foua has grown more affectionate toward Neil and Peggy, the Lees have lost all faith "in American medicine" (17.8).
- Anne visits Dr. Terry Hutchinson, a doctor at Valley Children's Hospital, to try to figure out exactly what happened with Lia. Terry drops a bomb on her—he believes that Lia had caught "septic shock" while at the hospital, which was the real cause of her health problems (17.17). Nao Kao and Foua were right!
- To make sense of all this, Anne turns to a series of eight questions coined by Harvard psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman.
- These questions are used to convey a patient's perception of their illness to a doctor. In this instance, Nao Kao and Foua would have responded by explaining their views on the soul, evil spirits, and epilepsy. Not things like sanitary conditions, specific bodily movements, etc.
- When Anne presents these answers to Kleinman, he argues that the doctors' failure to see past their own biases ultimately led to the breakdown of communication between the two sides. So it's, um, both of their faults?