The death of an 81-year-old Evergreen Park woman this week was the eighth cold-related death this season in Cook County, prompting officials to offer several tips to stay warm as a life-threatening bitter cold snap grips the Chicago area. Additionally, the city of Chicago has several warming centers listed here.
Mary Savisky, 81, was at her home in the 9600 block of South Francisco Avenue when she died on Monday afternoon, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Tuesday determined Savisky’s primary cause of death was cold exposure with a secondary cause listed as heart disease.
Savisky’s death was determined to be accidental, as it was for seven other people in Cook County have died recently, at least in part, due to cold exposure:
- On Dec. 12, a 90-year-old man of the city’s South Shore neighborhood died in his apartment in the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue, officials said. His primary cause of death was environmental cold exposure.
- On Dec. 14, a 23-year-old Oak Forest man died at his home in the 1100 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, according to the medical examiner’s office. The Oak Forest man died of alcohol use and cocaine toxicity with a contributing cause listed as hypothermia due to environment cold exposure.
- On Dec. 6, a 38-year-old Chicago man died mainly of drug use but hypothermia and cold exposure was a secondary cause of death, in the 9300 block of South Halsted Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
- On Nov. 28, a 68-year-old woman died of hypothermia, cold exposure and heart disease in the 6900 block of West 111th Street in the southwest village of Worth.
- Also on Nov. 28, a 54-year-old Des Plaines man died primarily of chronic alcoholism, with a secondary cause listed as hypothermia due to environmental cold exposure, according to the medical examiner’s office.
- On Nov. 1, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin man died in Chicago in the 4700 block of South Talman Avenue in the Brighton Park on the Southwest Side. The cause of his death was complications of chronic alcoholism, with a secondary cause of death being “probable cold exposure,” the medical examiner’s office said.
- The first cold-related death of the season was a 59-year-old man of the 700 block of North Avers Avenue in Humboldt Park, who died at his home, mainly of heart disease, with a secondary cause listed as “probable cold exposure” and recent cocaine use.