Cultural Beliefs

As I sent and watch the early episodes of my favorite television show; Grey's Anatomy, it was kind of perfect timing for a specific episode. Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shephard had this neural medical issue that had come across dealing with this early 20 year old Hmong girl. She needed brain surgery and did not want any surgery until her soul was found. She believed that if her she did not have her soul before surgery, she would die.

Dr. Shephard was frustrated because he felt that it was a simple surgery and it would change her life for the better.

This whole situation reminded me of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. The only difference between my episode of Grey's and the book was that Dr. Shephard was willing to try and understand why the girl was unwilling to have the surgery right away. The Doctors in the book were unwilling to understand the Hmong culture and believed that they were just being stubborn when in reality they just had a different belief system then them.

When Dr. Shephard started to understand why his patient was wanting the help of a Shaman he did all he could do. He went outside to talk to her dad and the dad at first was upset at the fact because he thought that Dr. Shephard was going to try and talk him in to making his daughter have the surgery, but Dr. Shephard surprised the dad and said that if a Shaman is needed he would have a plane fly out to get the Shaman and bring him to Seattle Grace Hospital to do a ritual to help find her soul.

I thought it was kind of cool to see a small portion of what a Shaman actually does when he begins his ritual. Too bad the Lee family could not speak English like the family in the episode, the medical treatment might have gone in a completely different direction.