By Damian Gessel
HILADELPHIA — For days, Dr. Pedro Servano’s pager has been ringing.
At work, at home, during Thanksgiving dinner — at all hours of the day it buzzes against his hip. Each call, he knows from years of practicing medicine, represents a needy patient.
But recently, the buzzes have begun to mean something else.
“My patients are calling me to talk about our situation,” Dr. Servano says. “They call and talk a little about themselves, their medical needs, but then they talk about my family.”
The doctor admits the conversations usually end in tears. He and his wife, Salvacion, face deportation to the Philippines, and the patients Dr. Servano has treated over the years at his Selinsgrove practice have been outraged and devastated by the news. Many of them gathered in protest last week in Sunbury. Many more have signed petitions or written letters to the government imploring officials to let the Servanos remain in the United States.
And with each call, with each letter written, the Servanos are realizing their lives will never be the same — regardless of the outcome of their pending deportation. They have been the focal point of an entire community’s energy.
“We have so many things to be thankful for,” Dr. Servano says. “The community has given us hope to fight for this. We’re so grateful.”
This — the United States — is their home, the Servanos say. They love their country.
Dr. Servano begins to tell a story about a close relative who was taken as a prisoner of war fighting for the United States. But before he can finish it, he is overcome with emotion. His daughter, Shappine, puts a hand on her father’s shoulder. He reaches for a tissue.
Dr. Servano knows he must compose himself to field questions from a crush of television and print journalists. He must explain his story — his family’s story — yet another time.
With major media outlets from across the country clambering to tell the Servano’s tale, some say they have become poster children for what’s broken with U.S. immigration law.
But Dr. and Mrs. Servano say they simply want things back to normal.
“We just want to see the end of this nightmare,” he says. “We just want to return to our quiet life in Selinsgrove.”
And while Dr. Servano is thankful for and uplifted by his patients’ calls, he says he’s ready to go back to discussing medicine — and not his family’s tenuous fate — when his pager buzzes.
n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.
