Area victims died shoveling or waiting for medical help
By Chris Barge
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
As many as 12 people in the metro area may have died as a result of the holiday blizzard, coroners and other authorities contacted in 10 counties said Tuesday.
Several of the victims died while shoveling snow or waiting for an ambulance slowed by the storm.
For some, including a retired Colorado State University professor found dead in his backyard Saturday under a blanket of snow, the cause and manner of death had not been determined Tuesday.
“We’ve got the potential of five deaths that are related to the snow,” Denver chief deputy coroner Michelle Weiss-Samaras said. “Either they were found in the snow or there was a delay getting them somewhere.”
Two of the people who died in Denver might have been saved if medical response hadn’t been slowed, Weiss-Samaras said.
“They were both very sick people, so I can’t say for sure. But the potential exists so it’s under investigation,” she said.
In one case, the ambulance had trouble getting a patient to the hospital because the roads were so bad, Weiss-Samaras said. In another, the medical specialists that might have saved the patient were not able to get to the hospital in time to help.
Denver’s three other possibly storm-related deaths include a person who was found dead Friday in an abandoned house with no electricity or heat and two people found dead Tuesday out in the snow, one of whom had been there for more than a day.
The Denver coroner’s office would not release more details on the deaths because they were under investigation.
Details were also scarce Tuesday on how retired CSU linguistics professor James Garvey, 62, could have died eight feet from his back door.
An elderly next-door neighbor was the last to hear from him, when Garvey called to check on her as the snow started falling Wednesday, Fort Collins police Lt. Hal Dean said.
She called Garvey on Friday, worried because she hadn’t seen him out and about, Dean said. On Saturday, she and her son went next door and found him in his backyard, his head propped up against a wood wall as if he had fallen. Snow covered him up to his chest.
“There is no indication of foul play, and at this point they don’t know what the cause of death is,” Dean said.
Garvey taught linguistics for 34 years before retiring in 2005. He recently endowed two scholarships for linguistics students.
“He was an excellent teacher, very well-respected and loved by his students and respected by his colleagues,” said Bruce Ronda, chairman of the school’s English department. “He will be missed, and we’re all saddened by this sudden death at this time of year and under these circumstances.”
In Thornton, a sheriff’s deputy found Leonard Swanson, 70, dead in his snowy backyard Friday, laying facedown atop a snow shovel.
His family last spoke with him by telephone Thursday evening, Adams County Coroner James Hibbard said. They said they would help him shovel the snow around his house Sunday.
When Swanson did not answer his phone Friday, his family asked the sheriff’s office to check on the man who lived alone.
Swanson probably died of a heart attack brought on as he shoveled the walkway in his backyard, Hibbard said.
Swanson’s death mirrored those of three Weld County men who all died of heart attacks Wednesday after shoveling snow, Weld County Chief Deputy Coroner Tom Shimp said.
Michael Mlinar, 53, of Greeley, died after complaining of chest pains that began after he had shoveled snow in front of his house.
Donald Gustafson, 72, died the same way. His family tried to resuscitate him.
But he was dead an hour later, when a snow-plowing road grader finally arrived at his farmhouse in Keenesburg, followed by an ambulance.
And Alejandro Garfio, 69, died at his Fort Lupton home in the 20 minutes between when the ambulance was called and when it arrived.
“Usually we have one or two a year, for the whole winter; so having three in one day is unusual,” Shimp said.
The Jefferson County coroner’s office also is investigating “one or two cases” in which people suffered blizzard-related deaths.
“They involved people who were shoveling snow, but we have to get more information,” chief deputy coroner Triena Harper said.
Authorities in Boulder, Broomfield, Elbert, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties said they did not have any storm-related deaths to report.