Editor's Choice and the filler "An extreme failure of concordance"

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.35

Correction for BMJ 327 (7428) 0-g.
Correction for BMJ 327 (7419) 867.

BMJ 2004;328:35 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.35

Correction

Editor's Choice and the filler "An extreme failure of concordance"

In his Editor's Choice of 11 October, Richard Smith wrote aboutthe failure of communication between a Hmong family in Californiawith a daughter with severe epilepsy and the Californian healthcaresystem—as described in a book from which we publishedan extract in the same issue (as a "filler," p 867). Unfortunately,Smith said that Lia had now died. He was wrong to say this;she is still alive. Anne Fadiman, the author of the book (TheSpirit Catches You and You Fall Down) has asked us to make clearthat "Lia suffered profound neurological damage after an episodeof status epilepticus and that the parents thought that thedoctors and their drugs had injured her rather than helped."In the filler, we also misspelt the first name of the book'sauthor and introduced a rogue apostrophe into the word "fractions."We apologise for these errors to all concerned.