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Vermont Medicine Magazine

Caring for Doña Paulina

UVM medical student Peter Cooch ’14 developed a significant caregiver-patient relationship with an 85-year-old indigenous Mayan woman, Doña Paulina, whom he met while volunteering for a medical clinic in the highlands of Guatemala. These photos by Jessica Eve Rattner show Cooch and Doña Paulina in the midst of treatment for her ulcerated leg in 2008.

Doña Paulina is a woman in her late 80s who lives alone in a small hut in the village of Santa Cruz la Laguna in the Guatemalan highlands.

Peter Cooch is a native Vermonter, now a second-year medical student at the UVM College of Medicine. He first volunteered as a medical worker in Guatemala in 2008.

Doña Paulina’s small home in Santa Cruz la Laguna.

Doña Paulina’s hut is constructed mostly of sticks and dried mud.

Doña Paulina’s woodpile

The cooking area inside Doña Paulina’s home

During her extensive bout with a painful leg sore, Doña Paulina spent many hours on her small bed. Corn meal cooks on Doña Paulina’s wood fire inside her home. Doña Paulina waits for her meal to cook Peter Cooch points out Doña Paulina’s badly ulcerated leg Peter Cooch cleans Doña Paulina’s sore Doña Paulina’s leg, cleaned and bandaged Doña Paulina’s rosary and religious image in a tarpaulin-lined corner of her hut Peter Cooch and Doña Paulina share a quiet moment discussing her treatment

Last modified September 27 2012 01:46 PM