Marilyn Mochel, a nurse and clinical educator at Sutter Merced Medical Center (now Mercy Medical Center Merced), who heads the hospital's cross-cultural program, said in 1999 that "The book has allowed more dialogue. There's certainly more awareness and dialogue than before. Both sides are teachers and learners."[10]
Lia Lee lived in a persistent vegetative state for 26 years. She died in Sacramento, California, on August 31, 2012, at the age of 30.[5] At that age she weighed 47 pounds (21 kg) and was 4 feet 7 inches (1.40 m) tall; many children with severe brain damage have limited growth as they age.[11] Outside of California her death was not widely reported. Fadiman said that pneumonia was the immediate cause of death. Margalit Fox of The New York Times said "[b]ut Lia’s underlying medical issues were more complex still" because she had lived in a persistent vegetative state for such a long period of time. As of 2012 most individuals who go into that state die three to five years afterwards.[5]
In 2019, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down was ranked by Slate as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction works of the past 25 years.[12]
