Local teacher suffers stroke over the holidays

HARLINGEN — They were returning home from dinner when Debbie Menchaca complained of a headache.

Menchaca, her husband Mario and their two children were spending the holidays with her sister in Davenport, Iowa. The problems started with the headache but soon she began throwing up and Mario Menchaca had to pull over.

That was just the beginning, said Menchaca’s mother-in-law, Minnie Alvarez.

“After that she said, ‘OK, it’s over, let’s go home,’ because that’s where they were going to her sister’s house,” Alvarez said at her home here in Harlingen.

Once they arrived, the Austin Elementary School teacher’s symptoms became much worse.

“When they got there, she started up again, her head was really hurting her,” said Alvarez, her voice shaking.

The whole family got in the car and sped toward the hospital. Fear struck the family even harder when Menchaca, 42, began convulsing. They pulled over to the side of the road and called an ambulance, which quickly arrived and rushed her to the hospital.

Initially the family was told Menchaca had suffered an aneurysm. After two surgeries on Friday and Saturday, plus an MRI, doctors determined she’d suffered a stroke with no permanent brain damage. However, she still has a long road to recovery.

“Her left leg and her hand are a little weak,” Alvarez said. “My son said today that he talked to her, and of course she’s having a hard time trying to talk because she’s weak. But she’s trying and he said that the doctor said the left leg looked like it’s getting stronger, that she could move it. So she’s coming along.”

Menchaca is expected to be in Iowa about a month before returning home. In the meantime, faculty and staff at Austin Elementary where she teaches critical skills were taking donations for the family.

“She’s a very loving teacher whom all the kids adore,” said Principal Magda Gonzalez. “We want to help with her medical costs and also taking care of the kids.”

The school was open to receive donations yesterday afternoon but more donations can be sent to the school.

Alvarez was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her grandson Ezra, a junior at Harlingen High School, and granddaughter Peyton, a sixth grader at Memorial Middle School. One uncle drove them from Iowa to Oklahoma, she said, and another uncle and aunt picked them up in Oklahoma for the long drive home. They were expected to arrive at about 7 p.m. last night.

“The kids are tired,” she said. “I’ve been texting them. My granddaughter is the one that talks more. She’s expressing herself more. They’re scared because they’ve never been away from their parents like this. I know they are traumatized because they saw everything, the way she got really fast.”