By Mara H. Gottfried
Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Subzero temperatures this week apparently led to hypothermia and death for two men in St. Paul, the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office said Thursday.
A 70-year-old man died Wednesday at Regions Hospital and a 77-year-old man was found dead outside his home in St. Paul’s North End on Tuesday, said Don Gorrie, chief investigator for the medical examiner’s office.
William Romell, 77, who used a walker, apparently slipped and couldn’t get up, Gorrie said.
The 70-year-old man, whose name hasn’t been released pending notification of family, was found leaning over the trunk of his car in the Summit-University neighborhood, said St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard. It appeared he might have been living in his car, he said.
The last deaths from excessive cold in St. Paul were in 2001, when three people died from hypothermia/exposure, according to a Minnesota Department of Health review of death certificate data. One such death occurred in 2000 and one in 1999, the data showed.
Local hospitals report seeing more cases of hypothermia and frostbite this week. People who work with the homeless are trying to ensure they have a warm place to go.
At the Harbor Light Center in Minneapolis, workers have been going out in a van at night and giving people “the option to come back with us,” said Envoy Bill Miller, the homeless shelter’s executive director.
“We tell them: ‘You can’t stay out here. You’re going to die,’ ” Miller said Thursday.
In St. Paul, the Dorothy Day Center generally closes twice a day for 90 minutes to two hours, to convert from day to evening operations and back again, said Rebecca Lentz, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis spokeswoman. When the temperature or wind chill is zero degrees or below, the shelter stays open and works around people, she said.
On Wednesday night, there were 240 people staying at Dorothy Day; the average was 196 in January 2008, Lentz said.
Thursday’s low temperature in St. Paul was minus 18 degrees and the low wind chill was minus 40 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The low on Wednesday was minus 15 degrees in St. Paul.
The 70-year-old man who died at Regions on Wednesday was found outside his car at Grotto Street and St. Anthony Avenue about 11:15 a.m., Zaccard said. He was “in profound hypothermia, had decreased consciousness and was mumbling to paramedics,” he said.
It was unknown how long the man had been outside, but he was rushed to Regions, Zaccard said. The man, who was apparently from Arizona, died at 1:05 p.m., Gorrie said.
The cause of death, pending further tests, appears to be hypothermia, Gorrie said.
Romell was found dead outside his home at 76 W. Rose St. at about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday, Zaccard said.
Officials gave conflicting information about how Romell was discovered.
Zaccard said a neighbor who usually shovels Romell’s sidewalks found him on the steps outside his home, next to his walker.
The information from the medical examiner’s office indicated Romell had been out with friends the night before and he dropped them off, Gorrie said. When the friends couldn’t reach him overnight, they went to check on him and found him lying outside his home’s front door, Gorrie said.
Romell died of hypothermia, he said.
In the last few days, during the current cold spell, Regions Hospital has treated five to 10 people a day for hypothermia, frostbite, slips and falls, and car accidents.
Hennepin County Medical Center treated 19 people between Monday and midafternoon Thursday -- 13 for frostbite, two for “frost nip” and four for mild hypothermia.
Judy Misencik, spokeswoman for Regina Medical Center in Hastings, said two patients have been treated for hypothermia during this cold spell.
She said neither was working outdoors: “They are just people who were out in the cold that shouldn’t have been.”
Nick Ferraro contributed to this report.