Elderly Woman Collapses, Dies While Shoveling Snow
NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – An elderly woman collapsed Friday while shoveling her driveway in Westmoreland County and later died.
A mailman found her and immediately called for help in an effort to save her life.
Jenny Milo, 91, was almost done shoveling the walkway in her front yard on Harold Street in North Huntington Township when she collapsed.
Mailman Mike Lancaster remembers seeing her shoveling. A few minutes later, he found her lying face down in the snow.
"I called 911," said Lancaster. "I saw air coming out of her mouth. I said, 'Well, she's breathing.' It looks like she's breathing, but she's not responding."
Lancaster says a nurse came from a house nearby and tried to revive her until paramedics arrived.
Milo died a short time later at UPMC Monroeville.
"She was out here shoveling snow and she shouldn't have been," said Chuck Grudowski, Milo's nephew. "There's other people that could have done it. She could have paid to have somebody do it. Just to warn all the elderly not to be out here, even younger people not in good health."
Dr. Robert Amery, of Excela Health, warns that snow shoveling in very cold weather is dangerous for seniors and others with heart problems.
"Cold weather causes constriction of the blood vessels," said Dr. Amery. "An abrupt increase in activity levels like shoveling snow increases blood pressure, increases the heart rate, which subsequently puts stress on the heart."
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