Death Punctuates Poor’s Growing Use of Folk Healers : Medicine: Officials say many who cannot afford insurance or spare time for clinics are using untrained medical practitioners. Police seek a Reseda woman in whose home a 22-year-old man died after an injection.

Choking back tears, Carlos Sandoval said he knew something was horribly wrong when his mother’s patient fell into convulsions after an injection for a sore throat.

At that point, his mother--Refugio Sandoval--could do little more than pray, he said Tuesday.

Although she had treated scores of patients for illnesses over the past two years in her Reseda home, Refugio Sandoval--who is being sought by police--had no training or license to practice medicine in the United States.

Authorities say the death Sunday of 22-year-old Jesus Nicholas Anchondo in Sandoval’s home underscores a growing problem among immigrants and the working poor.

Many who cannot afford to buy health insurance or spend a workday waiting for treatment at a low-cost clinic are seeking help from unlicensed, untrained medical practitioners, officials say. They say those providing such services range from the folk healers, such as Sandoval, to swap-meet vendors prescribing brand-name antibiotics smuggled from Mexico.

“It is a matter of economics,” said Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, local administrator for the state Department of Health Services, “and some of it is cultural. A lot of people come from countries where the primary health care practitioner was the local pharmacist, who would give injections on the spot.”

The practice is understandable, said Abarquez-Delacruz, “but it can be deadly.”

Authorities say the illegal prescription and sale of restricted drugs has become a widespread problem among Latinos and Asian immigrants in California, many of whom come from villages where the practice of medicine follows different standards and customs.

State inspectors have identified more than 700 products being sold illegally at swap meets, bakeries and butcher shops. They include cures for pain, colds, heart conditions, insomnia, arthritis, anemia and kidney infections, authorities say.

Los Angeles police say they found what looked like a pharmacy stockpile in Sandoval’s home, including many drugs that appear to have been manufactured in Mexico. Investigators say they have recovered the substance used to inject Anchondo, but they would not say what it is. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

Neighbors said Anchondo, who grew up in Pacoima, sought the help of the woman largely because it was affordable and convenient.

Enforcement of laws controlling the sale of drugs and the practice of medicine falls to different jurisdictions, prompting the practice to go largely unpunished, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg, head of the division that prosecutes those practicing medicine without a license, said he knows of only one prosecution involving a so-called curandero, or folk healer, in the past 10 years.

In that case, officials said, an ailing infant died after being given an injection of aspirin solution. But experts were never able to determine the exact cause of death, and malnutrition was suspected. As a result, no charges were filed, Kelberg said.

Prosecution also is hampered because customers are seldom willing to report the practice to authorities. Some may fear deportation if they tell, and in general, cases are reported to police only after a person dies.

Carlos Sandoval said Tuesday that his mother had studied medicine in Mexico.

“She was only trying to help people,” he said. “She was scared. She didn’t want it to happen.”

He said his mother worked as a nurse for those too poor to afford traditional medical care. The crowded entryway of the family home served as a waiting room. Patients needing privacy were seen in her bedroom, which was furnished with a white daybed and a white dresser that served as a medicine cupboard.

Carlos Sandoval said he was sitting at the family’s dining table when he heard Anchondo’s wife scream. He jumped up from his seat and saw the man in convulsions on the floor.

One of his brothers called 911 and an ambulance was sent. An hour later, Anchondo was pronounced dead.

Neighbors said Refugio Sandoval was well-known for her treatments, dispensing penicillin to cure colds, even treating a man for a broken ankle.

Martin Carbajal, 28, of Reseda said that on Monday, the day after the death was widely reported, as many as six cars containing families seeking treatment stopped by the Sandoval home within half an hour.

During an interview in the home Tuesday, several calls came in, all of them from patients calling for medical help.

“We are just saying forget about her,” her son said.

Times staff writers Jack Cheevers and Josh Meyer contributed to this story.