Laura_Martínez_de_Carvajal
Laura Martínez de Carvajal
Cuban physician
Laura Martínez de Carvajal (1869–1941) was the first female doctor in Cuba.[1] She was the oldest daughter of a rich Spanish family, and learned to read and write at age four and finished high school at age thirteen.[2] Because she was a woman, when she studied medicine she was not able to dissect corpses at the same time as her male classmates, but had to do so by herself on Saturday and Sunday.[3] She graduated in medicine at age 19 in 1889, at the University of Havana.[3] She also married in July 1889.[2] She worked as an ophthalmologist; her husband, Dr. Enrique López Veitía, also worked as such and she became his chief assistant and cared for his patients when he could not.[2][3] She also collaborated with him on many papers and three volumes of "Clinical Ophthalmology".[2] She had seven children.[3] Her husband died of tuberculosis in 1910 and she died of tuberculosis in 1941.[3]