ARIVACA, Ariz. — When the man walked in with fang marks on his leg, the volunteers knew the protocol: In the case of a rattlesnake bite, you call 911. But like all of the patients who end up here, his very presence in this desert clinic meant he had broken American law.
He’d been bitten sometime after he’d slipped across the southern border, while he was walking 12 miles through the arroyos and cactus-studded outcroppings in and around the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. He was hoping to reach his family in the United States; the last thing he wanted was for anyone to call the authorities.
That was the dilemma that greeted Dr. Norma Price when she picked up the phone. She is a retired physician who volunteers with a group called the Tucson Samaritans, and she doesn’t remember exactly where she took the call because she has dealt with hundreds and hundreds like it over the last 13 years. She has taken them at a salon called The Coyote Wore Sideburns. She’s abandoned her groceries at Safeway and Trader Joe’s to do consults in the parking lot, without the distraction of Muzak and other customers.
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