Victoria Sanford and other interviewers of war crime victims absorb what psychiatrists call secondary trauma. A better word, perhaps, is found in the Mayan culture. "Susto" is what the women Sanford was interviewing called it when they noticed her struggling. She had "fright sickness.”
One morning, the women's diagnosis showed itself in a horrifying way. Sanford woke up paralyzed.
"I couldn't move my neck or sit up. I couldn't move. I thought 'Oh God, how am I going to get in the car and go to these interviews?' It was so absurd," Sanford said. "I had severe stress and my body was locking up, trying to save me."