Hypothermia contributed to the death of a 51-year-old man Wednesday, bringing to 10 the total of cold-related deaths in Cook County since November, the medical examiner’s office said Thursday.
Marek Bobak was found dead in a portable toilet on the Northwest Side in the 2900 block of North Central Avenue, in Belmont Cragin, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. The causes of his death were listed by the medical examiner as atherosclerosis, or a buildup of plaque in the arteries, and hypothermia from cold exposure.
The others who died were six men and three women, ranging in age from 46 to 99, county spokesman Frank Shuftan said. In each case, cold exposure or hypothermia was the primary or contributing cause of death, he said. The medical examiner’s office measures “winter” according to the season’s first and last recorded hypothermia-related deaths. The first cold death this season occurred Nov. 20, Shuftan said.
“There are just different circumstances around every single case,” Shuftan said, adding that some but not all of the people were homeless.
The number of people who have died, when compared to previous winters, is not abnormal at this point in the season. In the 13 years before the 2013-14 winter, the average number of cold-related deaths for the full season was 18.
Last winter — during which Chicago had record-breaking low temperatures — 32 cold-related deaths were counted from Oct. 24, 2013, through April 3, 2014, Shuftan said.
Meanwhile, some Chicago-area hospitals said Thursday that their emergency rooms have not been flooded with cold-related injuries or illnesses despite the week’s subzero temperatures. In fact, patient volume at the ER often dips when it’s so cold, said Eileen Brassil, manager of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital emergency department.
“Like many hospitals, during extremely cold weather, our patient volume dips a little,” said Brassil, a registered nurse, in an email. “When temperatures fall below zero, people stay home from school and from work. They know the safest place to be is indoors. Then our volumes go right back up once things warm up a little.”
A spokesman at University of Chicago Medicine said the ER had seen little activity, though there was a woman in her 70s who suffered frostbite to her fingertips after taking her gloves off to try opening her frozen car doors for about a half-hour.
She was treated and released, said hospital spokesman John Easton.
Tribune reporter Alexandra Chachkevitch contributed.
Twitter @mmanchir
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