Retired Santa Rosa teacher diagnosed with rare, fatal neurodegenerative disease
Carol Kovatch, a beloved Spanish teacher for nearly two decades at Rincon Valley Middle School in Santa Rosa, has been diagnosed with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease.
Kovatch’s family said she was diagnosed with the illness about a week ago, after enduring a monthslong odyssey of multiple lab tests, screenings and scans.
The news has been a devastating blow to family, friends and colleagues who know Kovatch for her warmth, infectious energy, kindness and love. Many who took her class over the years still call her, “Señora Kovatch.”
“She loved people and every person that she met along the way loved her — nobody was ever a stranger to Carol,” said Cindy Kingsborough, a longtime friend who has known Kovatch for more than four decades. “The first minute that you met Carol you just, you just saw her heart.”
Kovatch, 64, retired from teaching about five years ago, but has kept herself busy, traveling with her husband of 36 years, Mike, in their RV, hiking with friends and playing lots of pickleball.
“My mom is super energetic,” said Kovatch’s son, Riley. “My dad gets annoyed because every time they go into a store if she knows a bunch of people she h as to talk to everybody, and she knows a lot of parents from the school, she knows a lot of the kids, a few generations of kids from school.”
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Carol Kovatch, second from left, and her husband Mike, far right, with their children, from left, Riley, Keaton, and Victoria Norbe. (Family photo)
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Carol Kovatch, second from left, and her husband Mike, far right, with their children, from left, Riley, Keaton, and Victoria Norbe. (Family photo)
A few months ago, something began sapping that energy.
Riley, who lives in Florida, said in December his parents traveled to Chile, where his wife, Alexandra, is from. The trip was an opportunity for the two families to get together and visit with Riley and Alexandra’s new baby girl, Chloe.
After that trip, Carol and Mike set out in their RV with friends for the New Year’s holiday. It was after that trip that Carol started having severe insomnia, said Riley. Then her heart and blood pressure started spiking when she was just sitting still, making her feel nauseous and woozy, he said.
“My dad kept taking her to the ER, just because they were scared,” Riley said. “It seemed like it came out of nowhere. They went to the ER probably 15 different times over the course of the last three months.”
Riley said the doctor at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center started “throwing different types of meds at her” and conducted a battery of diagnostic tests, but nothing really helped or yielded a definitive answer to what was ailing her.
Then, last week, after another trip to the hospital, she was given a brain MRI.
“Then the doctor came back and said, ‘You have something called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,” Riley said. “It’s a brain infection. It’s a prion problem. You got three to six months.”
Riley said family and friends have been grappling with the news ever since.
Sporadic CJD
There are three types of Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The most common, sporadic CJD, the diagnosis for Kovatch, accounts for 85% of CJD cases, according to the Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation. Its cause is unknown and it affects mainly people over the age of 60.
Common symptoms include insomnia, rapid onset of dementia, ataxia (loss of coordination) and involuntary muscle spasms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the various types of CJD occur globally with an estimated incidence of about 1 to 2 cases per 1 million people. The CDC says the disease progresses rapidly and is always fatal.
CJD and related conditions are believed to be linked to changes with prion proteins, found in high concentrations in the brain and nerve cells. The disease causes “abnormal folding” of proteins in the brain, which quickly spreads and affects processes in the body, according to the CDC.
Riley said his mother can still walk and at times talk, but her sleeping has been severely disrupted, and she’s been unable to get REM sleep, essential for brain health.
“So basically my mom hasn’t really slept since January,” he said, adding that even though she’s now being given medications for rest and to comfort her, she’s not getting the type of sleep that’s key to mental and emotional health.
Kovatch’s family spent the week setting up hospice services for her.
“The hospice people have been helpful,” Riley said. “Part of it is we’re all scared and we’re still learning…basically, they’re just telling us you got to try to keep her comfortable. That’s what hospice is about.”
These days, Riley said, his mother “is pretty wiped out and there aren’t that many windows where you really think it’s her.”
“There was one (window) yesterday,” he said, his voice breaking. “And that was the first time I heard her say…this isn’t fair…I don’t want this to happen to me.”
Kovatch’s illness has deeply saddened many who knew her.
Amy Sather, a retired assistant principal at Rincon Valley Middle School, said she saw Kovatch in late February, after Kovatch called her and asked if she would go to lunch.
Sather said at that time, Kovatch was having terrible insomnia and heart issues and was losing weight. She said toward the end of lunch, Kovatach stood up and said, “I’ve got to go home.”
Sather, whose family is very close to the Kovatch family, said the hardest part is not knowing what to do to help. She encouraged the local community to give to a GoFundMe that’s been set up by the family to help cover the cost of 24-hour hospice and medical care Kovatch now requires.
Sather said Kovatch was no ordinary teacher and she touched the lives of many in her classroom.
“She changed lives, made connections, and was always loved by her students and staff,” Sather said in an email. “She was always involved in committees and supporting students, a very active teacher.”
Sather said even after she retired, she’s kept in touch with some of her students and continued to support them. She’s even attended some of their weddings, she said.
“She was THAT teacher, the one that everyone went to,” she said.
Sonoma County native
Carol Dawn Garcia was born in Healdsburg and went to Healdsburg High School. She graduated from Chico State and then came back to Sonoma County. A few years later, she married her husband, Mike Kovatch, when both were about 27 years old, Riley said.
The couple eventually bought a home in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood in 1989. They lived in the same house until it was destroyed in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. They’ve since rebuilt in the same location.
Kingsborough, Carol’s close friend, is sentimental when she thinks about the many years their families spent together. When the Kovatchs’ home burned down, the Kingsboroughs had them stay in a rental home they owned.
“Not many people are blessed with the friendship that I’ve had with Carol Kovatch,” Kingsborough said. “I’m one of the very lucky ones.”
Oldest son Keaton Kovatch describes his mother as selfless, courageous, protective and determined — “Every good quality that you could want in a mom,” he said.
Keaton, who lives in Santa Rosa, said his family is trying to make the most of the time they have left with her.
“She’s spending her last moments surrounded by loved ones,” Keaton said. “And she will be as comfortable as she can be in her last days.”
In addition to their sons, Riley and Keaton, the couple has a daughter, Victoria Norbe, and three grandchildren.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected].
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