Another Valley death attributed to weather

STAFF REPORT

POLAND — A third snow-related death has been reported in Mahoning County in recent days.

Donald J. Walsh Jr., 65, of 6923 North Lima Road, Poland Township, died Sunday in St. Elizabeth Health Center.

After a 911 call at 11:14 a.m. Saturday, Western Reserve Joint Fire District emergency medical technicians found Walsh inside his residence, after he had complained he didn’t feel well after shoveling snow, said Fire Chief David C. Comstock Jr.

The EMTs used a defibrillator on him in his residence after his wife, Carol, performed CPR on him, Comstock said. A Rural Metro ambulance took him to St. Elizabeth in Boardman.

“People have to be careful exerting themselves with these weather conditions, and keep in mind that, if there is an emergency, whether it’s fire or medically related, weather conditions slow down the emergency personnel’s response. We just can’t get there as fast as we would like to,” Comstock said Wednesday.

Two EMT squads responded to the Walsh residence, in seven and 11 minutes, after the call, Comstock said.

“The snow was deep. Trying to get there, we couldn’t go fast,” said Comstock, who arrived at the Walsh residence with the second EMT squad.

Funeral services for Walsh, who was the founder of Walsh Mechanical Contracting, will be at 11 a.m. today at Cunningham-Becker Funeral Home, Poland, where friends may call from 10 to 10:45 a.m.

In another case, police found an 84-year-old man dead outside of his East Pine Lake Road condominium in North Lima.

Carl Frost, Beaver Township police chief, said police were called about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday to the home of William Halter.

Family members called neighbors, asking them to check on him. The neighbors called police.

Halter was found on the front porch, and it appears he had been dead two days. It’s unknown if Halter had been shoveling snow, but police didn’t find a shovel. An autopsy indicates Halter had a chronic cardiac condition.

It was the second incident in the Mahoning Valley in two days.

On Sunday night, friends of George Harris, 63, of Boardman reported him missing. On Monday morning, volunteers searched for the Woodview Avenue man.

A cadaver dog alerted on a snow embankment at the home, and Boardman police found Harris’ body within the snow along with a shovel. Preliminary results from an autopsy performed on Harris indicate that he died of natural causes related to cardiac problems.