The snowstorm that whacked the Chicago area this week was unusual in many ways, except one–it took the typical, heavy toll in the number of people who died of heart attacks.
By late Tuesday, county officials across the metropolitan area had counted at least 13 people who had died of heart attacks as they tried to dig out from a blanket of snow that was especially wet and heavy, though nothing very unusual for this climate.
Using a snowblower was no guarantee of escaping harm–three of the victims died after clearing their driveways with snowblowers, which doctors say can be almost as strenuous as shoveling.
With ages ranging from 43 to 83, most of the residents had little in common besides a need to clear the sidewalk or driveway during the heaviest snowfall of the year.
The storm seemed to be just an opportunity to try out a new snowblower for Joseph Czech, 68, a retired salesman from Cary, who died while taking a break from his chore.
“He was kind of fanatic about keeping his driveway clean,” said Czech’s stepdaughter, Lee Wilson. “It was his new toy and our first real snowfall.”
Local health officials could cite no studies that showed how many people typically die of heart attacks after heavy snows. But emergency room staffers said this week’s storm brought only the usual steady flow of victims that follow a big snowfall–which only underscores the warnings doctors give about the dangers of clearing snow.
Heart attacks are the worst hazard among many risks that go along with major snowstorms. Every heavy dusting brings hospital emergency rooms more cases of hypothermia, bones broken and ankles sprained from slips on the ice–even fingers amputated as people try to remove obstructions from snowblowers.
The risk of heart attacks increases during cold weather in any case, as the heart must beat more energetically to keep the body warm. But a storm like this week’s brings a combination of dangers for people with heart problems, said Dr. Lloyd Klein, a cardiologist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center.
“This snow was the worst kind of all,” Klein said. “Light, fluffy snow is not hard to move around. But this snow was especially wet and heavy. One gets tired very quickly under those circumstances.”
Charles Brougham, a 30-year Chicago police veteran, made it a point to stay in shape, visiting the gym three times a week. His job, as a sergeant for a special police unit that handles crises such as hostage situations and tense negotiations, made him an expert at keeping his strength up and stress low. He hadn’t called in sick in more than 20 years.
But late Monday, after returning home from work, Brougham’s name was added to a growing list of casualties blamed on digging out from the storm.
Police officials and family friends said Brougham, 52, had pulled out his snowblower Monday night to clear his driveway in Beverly. He made only one trip down the driveway before collapsing near the curb.
“We used to talk about this. I always thought that he would bury me because of the physical specimen he was,” said Jim Ryan, a longtime friend of Brougham’s.
Routine as shoveling snow may seem, studies have shown that it puts at least as much strain on the heart as an intense aerobic workout.
“It’s like running full speed for three minutes without stopping,” said Dr. Mark Cichon, director of emergency medical services at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood.
Although using a snowblower provides some relief, Cichon said, “it takes a considerable amount of effort and stress just to operate that machinery.”
The effect of cold on the heart can be so strong that doctors used to employ it as a heart test in the age before angiograms, said Dr. Steven Taller, an emergency physician at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet. In what was known as the “cold pressor test,” the doctor would simply put a patient’s hand in cold water–if the patient suffered chest pain, that was a rough signal that the heart was under unusual stress.
After working behind a Kane County snowplow for about 10 winters, Glenn Meyer was no stranger to blizzardlike conditions. And, at 83 years old, he was also familiar with heart problems, having just had a pacemaker replaced about a month ago, his family said.
Meyer seemed to be in the clear on Tuesday after a neighbor with a snowplow cleared his driveway. But the last remaining drifts and chunks of ice nagged at Meyer, who worried that his wife or a visitor might slip on them.
So Meyer, a retired farmer from the Elburn area, picked up a shovel and headed outside. He suffered a heart attack soon thereafter and was pronounced dead about 11 a.m.
“He didn’t think he was exerting himself,” said Meyer’s daughter, Phyllis.
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Meyer’s widow, Violet, said she thinks her husband’s experience should be a warning to other older people who are active. Snow shoveling, his daughter said, “is just a little more strenuous than they realize.”
Andres Nunez refused to go to the hospital Monday morning despite complaining of chest pains after he cleared snow in front of his Northwest Side home.
Nunez, 43, had moved to the United States in the early 1970s in hopes that his earnings could improve life for his family back in Mexico. He was a live-in caretaker for Maria Morales, a nurse assistant who met Nunez in the 1980s while he was recovering from a disabling lawn-mowing accident.
Nunez collapsed and died soon after he shoveled the driveway Monday morning, as he was brushing the snow off Morales’ car with a broom.
Monday night’s blizzard was not enough to stop James Hill, 79, from trying to keep his habit of eating dinner at the Apartment Lounge, a jazz club on 75th Street. A neighbor discovered Hill at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, about six hours after he had shoveled a walkway from his South Side house to the garage and was attempting to clear a path in the alley for his car.
Hill, a World War II veteran and retired construction worker, already had braved the elements once on Monday afternoon, said his brother, Cleophus Hill.
“I reprimanded him for going out in that snow,” Cleophus Hill said.
One of the best indications of how dangerous snow removal can be may come from the personal choices of cardiologists who see heart attack victims every day. Lloyd Klein, co-director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Rush, said he made a conscious choice to stop shoveling snow when he turned 40.
“I work out four times a week, but I’m not willing to take that kind of chance,” said Klein, 48. “When you work out, you’re under control–you know what you can and can’t do. But when you get out there, it’s not under your control.”
People with a history of heart disease, diabetes or hypertension should be especially cautious, experts said. Anyone who does remove snow should take frequent breaks, skimming off just a few inches at a time. The safest method, doctors said, is to push the snow using relatively strong leg muscles, rather than lifting and throwing with the less-developed upper body.
“Come July the snow will be gone,” said Loyola’s Cichon. “If you have an underlying medical condition, you may just want to pay the neighbor boy who wants to make a couple of bucks.”