Heart problems due to natural causes led to the death earlier this year of a 98-year-old former resident of a South Holland assisted living facility, a Cook County medical examiner’s office spokesman said Monday.
In addition to heart problems, dementia and chronic renal disease contributed to Leon Krynicki’s death on March 9, spokesman Frank Shuftan said. The medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy on March 10, and various tests had to be performed following the autopsy before Krynicki’s cause and manner of death could be confirmed, Shuftan said.
Krynicki and two other former residents of Holland Home, 16300 Louis Ave., died after an unexplained incident in which six of the residents were hospitalized the morning of Feb. 3.
Krynicki’s hospitalization on Feb. 3 may have been due to overmedication, Shuftan said, adding that any overmedication “did not contribute to death.”
The death of 98-year-old Dorothy Byrd, one of the other two residents who died after the incident, was ruled a homicide by toxic levels of morphine and hydrocodone, Shuftan said last month.
The cause and manner of death for Robert Rundin, 88, the third person who died following the Feb. 3 incident, have yet to be announced by the Lake County Coroner’s Office in Munster, Indiana, where his autopsy was performed.
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Police began investigating Holland Home after Byrd’s death, which occurred the day after the hospitalization.
South Holland Police Chief Greg Baker said he’s unable to comment on the investigation as it remains pending.
David Mills, CEO of Villa Health Care, which manages Holland Home, said last month that the facility’s employees have been “cooperating closely” with law enforcement and deferred all questions to South Holland police. He said the facility has been conducting an internal investigation as well.
Tara Kadioglu is a freelance reporter