“Emotionally, I couldn’t understand why no one was there yet,” Ball said. “And the biggest thing that kept running through my mind was, ‘What am I going to do without her?’”

When Talvy arrived, after being called over the radio by the animal control officer, Collins had turned a red-purple color.

“To me, she appeared to be dead,” Talvy said.

Talvy contacted the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office and requested a helicopter.

The department said it would inform Health Care Innovations (HCI), the ambulance service provider for Northern Cochise County.

Talvy was denied his request for a helicopter, and was told that the paramedic with HCI would decide if a helicopter was necessary once she arrived.

It took about 45 minutes for the ambulance to get to Collins, Ball said.

“They weren’t even (driving) with their lights on or anything when they came by City Hall,” said Mike Carrafa, owner of Six Gun City.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Collins was breathing on her own again, but was taken to Tucson soon after to get a pacemaker.

Collins’ catastrophe raised concerns about the status of Tombstone’s emergency services and their ability to quickly respond.

But these problems are not unique to Tombstone, or Arizona for that matter.

In 2008, Arizona ranked 48th in the nation in the most weighted category — access to emergency care — according to the American College of Emergency Physicians’ National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine. Factors contributing to its failing grade include the state only having 7.1 emergency departments and 1.1 trauma center per one million people.

In the case of a 9-1-1 emergency like Collins’ a few weeks ago, Tombstone is truly at a disadvantage.

Without a hospital in town and with residents still waiting for the health clinic promised to open months ago, Tombstone relies on communication with other agencies for medical support. But in Collins’ case, that communication buckled than broke.

“(Talvy is) the Marshal of this town and he was denied a helicopter,” Ball said. “That really ticked me off.”

And Ball is not the only one frustrated with the failed communication.

Talvy said he filed concerns with both the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office and HCI.

After meeting with HCI, Talvy and the agency came to an agreement on helicopter requests.

“If there are no medics and one of my officers knows we need a helicopter, they will send one.” Talvy said. “(We will) make sure we’re working together and not against each other.”

But problems with emergency services are not new to Tombstone, and Collins’ case is unfortunately, not a one-time deal.

Dawane Harris, an actor at O.K. Corral, experienced a similar incident four years ago when he dropped to the ground on Allen Street with a heart attack. Witnesses made a 9-1-1 call to HCI, who arrived 35 minutes later.

While working as a security guard at Crystal Palace Saloon, Harris watched a man fall and hit his head on the boardwalk. After 50 minutes of waiting, an ambulance still failed to arrive on scene.

While these daunting stories did not end tragically, that may not always be the case.

Many Tombstone citizens are not satisfied with the current access and response to emergency care.

“I don’t think it’s a high priority for anybody,” Harris said. “In this town people say they’re going to do a lot of things but unfortunately they generally don’t.”

Collins said she does not want to be ungrateful but she thinks the town needs to work to prevent these problems.

“I think that we should step it up a little as a community,” Collins said.

Ball said he was not concerned about Tombstone’s health services before he witnessed Collins’ emergency, but his confidence in the town’s services has lowered.

“I had no idea of how incapable we are,” Ball said. “Everyday I pass by the firehouse I think to myself, ‘Where the hell were they?’”

Harris said that since Mayor Dustin Escapule took office things around town have gotten even worse. Medical assistance and response is no exception.

“We’ve always been a unique town but a lot of goofy things have been going on around here lately,” Harris said.

Harris admitted feeling apprehension toward the mayor even before he took office. More than a year ago, Harris suggested to him that they turn Tombstone a fire district, meaning the firehouse volunteers would be trained and paid.

“His response was ‘Why should the city pay them when we have them for free now?’” Harris said. “I remember thinking ‘Did he just say that out loud?’”

But Escapule recently said that getting involved in day-to-day emergency activities is not part of his job as mayor.

But it is part of Talvy’s job as Marshal.

The Marshal’s office is currently open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but it is being transformed into a full-time dispatching office.

Talvy said his goal is for the office to become full-time by May 1. That means dispatchers will be available full-time Monday through Friday and part-time on the weekends.

Talvy said the change was brought by an increased need, with Collins’ recent emergency shining light on the issue even more.

“We were lucky to have this young girl alive to this day,” he said. “It’s important that we collectively get together to resolve those issues.”