Grieving husband of teacher killed in Texas school shooting has died, family says

Irma Garcia and her co-teacher Eva Mireles, as well as 19 other students, were killed at the school about 85 miles west of San Antonio.

According to the family, the husband of the teacher killed in the Texas school shooting this week collapsed and died Thursday while preparing for his wife's funeral.

Joe Garcia had been married to his high school sweetheart, Irma Garcia, for 24 years before she was murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday.

Christian Garcia, her son, said a law enforcement officer who was on the scene saw his mother shielding students during the rampage. Martinez stated that Joe Garcia "went to go deliver flowers for Irma at her memorial."

"When Joe got home, he was only there for three minutes after sitting in a chair with the family." He just collapsed. Nothing worked when they tried chest compressions.

The ambulance arrived, but they couldn't bring them back." Martinez stated that he found out about the news from his younger brother.

"He called and said something like, 'Please pray for Joe.'" That's all he said to me "Martinez confirmed. "'What happened?' I asked. And he said, 'I'm not sure.' We're not sure yet.' And then, no more than 30 minutes later, I get a call from him, crying and saying he didn't make it."

"From what has been described, it's a classic case of broken heart syndrome," said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"Either type of heart attack can be triggered by extreme emotional stress, such as hearing that their wife had died," Bhatt explained.

According to him, broken heart syndrome typically occurs immediately after a person has received shocking news.

However, some people may need time to emotionally process losses, so broken heart syndrome may not occur right away."It could be a day later in some cases." It could be the moment someone realises, 'Oh, wow, my loved one is actually dead.' 'They're not coming back,' said Bhatt.