HEALTH WATCH: MARIO BACK AT WORK, PAT ON THE MEND

By Juan Montoya
We were talking to some friends at a local restaurant when the subject of illnesses and health problems came up.
'You know you're getting old when all you talk about is the weather and the health problems of your friends," lamented one of the wags around the table.
Well, we're happy to report that two of our favorite people have undergone serious surgery procedures and have emerged from the experience in good health.
Mario Villarreal, a former Brownsville Navigation District commissioner, an employee of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board at the very first year of its inception, and businessman who supplies maquiladors in Matamoros through his company Pesa, amazingly is back at work in his office after heaving undergone a triple bypass operation at the Heart Institute in McAllen.
Most people wait a few months to convalesce after such a serious operation, but Mario is a member of that generation that just can't stand to be lying around doing nothing. Less than three weeks after his operation, he was back in his 700 E. Levee building directing the supply of parts to his various clients. Welcome back, Mario.
And we have just learned that former city commissioner Pat Lehman, former trustee with the Brownsville Independent School District and a former member of the board of the Brownsville Housing Authority, is out of the woods after his quadruple heart bypass, also performed in McAllen. Pat was placed in the Intensive Care Unit for two days after he underwent surgery and is now recuperating in a private room. He is expected to return to Brownsville on Saturday after a convalescence period.
Lehman also owns the Valley Scooters of Texas and he probably years to get back in his shop to do business again.
Whether you agree with their business or their politics, we wish both of them well on their road back to recovery.