MEDICAL CENTER REPORT
04/30/08
A muse helps doctors understand their patients
Anne Fadiman has told the story of a toddler with epilepsy who was left with severe brain damage after tragic misunderstandings divided her immigrant Hmong family from their U.S. doctors.
She'll bring that real-life story from her 1997 book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, to the annual "Medicine and the Muse" symposium at the School of Medicine on May 6. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will also include presentations, music and photo and art exhibits by medical students and others at the school.
The program will be held at the Clark Center auditorium at 5 p.m., followed by a reception at 7 p.m.
Fadiman's book described how cultural misunderstanding eroded the trust between competent doctors and the caring Hmong parents of an epileptic child who eventually was left in a coma with severe brain damage. A New York Times book review has said the story "has no heroes or villains, but it has an abundance of innocent suffering, and it most certainly does have a moral." Fadiman is also the author of another book, At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays.
The symposium will also feature medical students performing musical excerpts from an original play, demonstrating tai chi, playing the viola, reading from an original novelette and several exhibits of photography and art.
Medicine and the Muse is sponsored by the Arts, Humanities and Medicine Program as well as the Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration, both within the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
The symposium is held each spring, featuring performances and exhibits of creative work by Stanford medical students. Each year the performances and keynote speech are followed by a reception and art exhibit in which students display their painting, photography and sculpture.
This year's symposium was supported by several sources and people, including the Vera M. Wall Center at Stanford, the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Funds, the Osher Foundation and Helen and Peter Bing.
For information, contact Paula Bailey at pbailey@stanford.edu or go to http://scbe.stanford.edu.
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