Yeseni Meléndez, a 36-year-old Venezuelan living in Columbus, Ohio, experienced a stroke on April 26 while attending a court hearing for a $100 traffic fine. She is currently fighting for her life in an intensive care unit.
Her husband, Joel Medina, aged 26, claims that chronic stress from the constant fear of deportation triggered the collapse. "We live in total uncertainty, and that stress is what caused my wife's artery to burst," he shared with Univision.
The Courtroom Incident
Yeseni had been apprehended for driving without a license while she was in the process of obtaining it. Authorities scheduled a hearing a week later, which she attended with an interpreter named Luis.
As Joel recounted in an interview with journalist Elián Zidán, everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly until the unexpected happened: "She attended the hearing, and things were going well. The judge was about to impose a $100 fine."
At that moment, Yeseni turned her head towards her interpreter, gestured with her face, and then collapsed.
Due to the seriousness of her condition, she was airlifted to Ohio Riverside Hospital in Columbus, where doctors had to perform emergency surgery to reconstruct a cerebral artery.
Joel Finds Out
Joel chose not to attend the hearing out of concern that if Yeseni were detained, their two-year-old son, Gael, would be left alone. "The hearing was causing us a lot of anxiety. We decided I wouldn't go, just in case she was taken, so our son wouldn't be left by himself," he explained.
He learned of the situation hours later when a friend of Yeseni's called him from work.
Upon arriving at the hospital, he discovered her intubated. "Imagine, from 8 a.m. to 11, three hours had passed, and she still hadn't responded," he recounted.
That was when the doctors confirmed, "The doctor came and told me she had suffered a stroke."
The Stress of Possible Deportation
The family arrived in the United States in 2023 on a humanitarian visa and holds Temporary Protected Status (TPS). They both work and pay taxes, yet the atmosphere of immigration enforcement has kept them in a constant state of vigilance.
"The alert is so high that we've decided only to go out for essential reasons like work or buying weekly groceries," Joel admitted.
Yeseni has been in the ICU for nearly two weeks. According to her husband, she has started to open her eyes: "Thank God she's a bit better. She's beginning to respond more and open her eyes."
Financially, the situation is dire. "I'm scared to see how high the bill will be. We're talking thousands of dollars, and we don't know how long she'll need intensive care," Joel acknowledged, having to take leave from work to care for young Gael. The family has started a fundraising campaign to cover expenses.
Joel points out that courts have become a trap for Venezuelan and other migrant communities. Although an appeals court declared the termination of Venezuelan TPS illegal in January, uncertainty remains.
As of April 4, 2026, 60,311 individuals were detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), marking a 75% increase from 2025, amid the Trump administration's intensified immigration policies.
This incident adds to a series of migrant detentions during standard legal proceedings, which civil rights organizations have condemned as systematic practices. Joel sums up his feelings with anguish, "I pray every day for my wife's recovery and that we can manage the hospital debt."
Understanding the Impact of Immigration Policies
What triggered Yeseni Meléndez's stroke?
Her husband believes that chronic stress from the constant fear of deportation was the trigger for her stroke.
Why was Yeseni attending a court hearing?
Yeseni was attending a court hearing to address a $100 traffic fine for driving without a license.
How is the family coping financially?
The financial situation is critical, and the family has started a fundraising campaign to cover the medical expenses from her intensive care.