{"id":811832,"date":"2024-12-11T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T04:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/chronic-health-problems-amplify-heat-risk-in-the-rio-grande-valley\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T04:21:08","slug":"chronic-health-problems-amplify-heat-risk-in-the-rio-grande-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/chronic-health-problems-amplify-heat-risk-in-the-rio-grande-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Chronic health problems amplify heat risk in the Rio Grande Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This article is a collaboration between the San Antonio Express-News and\u00a0<\/em>Inside Climate News<\/a>, and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/em>\n <\/p>\n

Something seemed amiss when police officer Oscar Lizarraga arrived at the Conquistador Apartments.<\/p>\n

Maria Ester Singh hadn\u2019t yet paid that month\u2019s rent, and the apartment manager said that was unusual. Singh\u2019s daughter, who lives outside Houston, hadn\u2019t heard from her since April. She asked a cousin in Brownsville to check in on her. Now it was May 8, and no one answered a knock at the door of unit 1012, which was latched from the inside.<\/p>\n

Joaquin Galvan, 82, Maria Trinidad Galvan, 78, and Singh, 60, lived in the apartment complex on Billy Mitchell Boulevard with three small dogs. Singh was the personal care attendant for Joaquin, her father, and Maria Trinidad, her aunt.<\/p>\n

Lizarraga checked the windows and doors for signs of forced entry. Finding none, he pried the door open. He saw a body slumped on the floor. He asked Maria\u2019s cousin and the apartment manager to wait outside.<\/p>\n

The three family members had been dead for days. A pathologist attributed the deaths to complications of diabetes and extreme heat. \u201cMultiple floor fans were in operation,\u201d according to the autopsy report. \u201cThe air conditioner was reportedly not in operation and the inside thermostat displayed a reading of 88 F.\u201d Temperatures had been in the 90s recently, and on the day the bodies were found, the mercury would hit 104.<\/p>\n

Police said the AC was turned on when they entered the apartment. \u201cWhether or not it was functioning properly is something that was undetermined,\u201d a Brownsville Police Department spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

<\/p>

Crime scene tape hangs from the doorway of unit 1012 at the Conquistador Apartments, where three family members were found dead on May 8.
\n Chris Lee \/ San Antonio Express-News<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Either way, the pathologist\u2019s conclusion was clear: the heat, along with their chronic medical conditions, was enough to kill all three family members.<\/p>\n

The case illustrates the latent threat of extreme heat in deep south Texas and the disproportionate impact of climate change and high temperatures on the elderly. It also shines a light on the outsized role isolation plays in heat-related deaths, especially among the elderly in America,\u00a0one-quarter of whom are considered \u201csocially isolated<\/a>,\u201d according to the National Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

The Rio Grande Valley has elevated rates of diabetes, heart failure and other chronic conditions. Now the population faces an additional threat: hotter days and nights, and more of them.<\/p>\n

Poverty and lack of health insurance magnify the risk of heat illnesses and deaths. Other aggravating factors: jobs that require people to withstand long hours in the hot sun and electric bills too high for low-income families to pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 104 degrees and frequently one of the hottest parts of the United States,\u201d said Dr. Ivan Melendez, the health authority for Hidalgo County, part of the Rio Grande Valley. \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous amount of cofactors coming together\u2026 It\u2019s just a total nightmare. It\u2019s a perfect storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danielle Arigoni, an urban planner and author of \u201cClimate Resilience for an Aging Nation<\/a>,\u201d said the elderly are often left out of climate change and disaster planning, even though they die at disproportionate rates during natural disasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more times do we have to see these headlines before we do things differently?\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a tragedy. Our older adults deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCompletely preventable\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Maria Trinidad and her brother Joaquin had spent their whole lives in Brownsville.<\/p>\n

Their first home was just a few miles from the Conquistador Apartments. The Galvan family lived at 1054 Roosevelt Avenue in 1950 when interviewed for that year\u2019s census. Their father, Alberto, was born in Brownsville and worked as a longshoreman at the port. His wife, Maria Trinidad, was from the town of Cuero, southeast of San Antonio.<\/p>\n

By 1950 they had seven children. Joaquin was the third, born in 1941, and Maria Trinidad the fifth, born in 1945.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joaquin wed Minerva Cervantes in 1964 when he was 22. The couple continued to live at the house on Roosevelt, where they had four children of their own. The Brownsville Herald reported the death of a \u201cbaby Alberto\u201d in 1973.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how Joaquin and Maria Trinidad wound up at the Conquistador Apartments or how long they had been there.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"A<\/p>

Their neighbors in the Conquistador Apartments in Brownsville rarely saw Joaquin Galvan, 82, his 78-year-old sister and his 60-year-old daughter.
\n Chris Lee \/ San Antonio Express-News<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Family members did not respond to requests for interviews. But publicly available records paint a picture of a family that scattered across Texas and beyond, likely leaving few relatives in Brownsville to help the aging siblings. The cousin who called the police told them she had not spoken with them in more than two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investigators have not determined the exact sequence of events leading up to the deaths. Months later, crime scene tape still hung from the doorway of the apartment. Brownsville police said their investigation is ongoing, and added, without elaborating, that they are looking into the possibility of elder abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Conquistador Apartments, a cluster of unremarkable two-story buildings painted blue and light orange, is managed by an Austin company. Rents for one-bedroom apartments start at $699. The unit where the three family members died is a two-bedroom and is currently listed for rent at $879 a month. The apartments at Conquistador have central air conditioning, and the walkways are shaded by trees.<\/p>\n

When officer Lizarraga entered unit 1012 on the morning of May 8, he found Singh\u2019s body in a front room and the bodies of Joaquin and his sister in two back bedrooms. The siblings both appeared to have fallen out of bed. All three bodies were in a state of decay.<\/p>\n

Lizarraga called animal control to take control of the three small dogs barking at his feet. He called a Justice of the Peace, detectives and crime scene investigators. Employees of two funeral homes arrived by midday. The bodies were transported for autopsies. Investigators started interviewing neighbors and family members.<\/p>\n

The autopsy report said the outdoor temperature was 85 degrees and the heat index was 96.8 when the family was found at about 9 a.m. that day. Heat index combines relative humidity and air temperature to capture how hot it feels under certain weather conditions.<\/p>\n

The pathologist determined that heat contributed to all three deaths. Singh died of diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA), complicated by heat exposure. DKA develops when the body doesn\u2019t produce enough insulin, and acids known as ketones build up in the bloodstream. Without insulin, Singh would have declined rapidly until she entered a diabetic coma. The combination of high blood sugar and heat were fatal.<\/p>\n

Maria Trinidad died of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism complicated by heat exposure. Joaquin died of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and elevated cholesterol, complicated by heat exposure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis family\u2019s death was completely preventable,\u201d said Jeff Goodell, an Austin-based journalist and author of \u201cThe Heat Will Kill You First.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that Texas has made no statewide effort to map vulnerable communities or reach the populations most endangered by excessive heat. He drew a contrast to the extensive governmental warnings and preparations that precede the arrival of a tropical storm or hurricane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens when you have a government, local and state, that is not taking this risk seriously,\u201d Goodell said of the Brownsville deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumbers that we have not seen before\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As diabetics, Joaquin, Maria Trinidad and Singh were at greater risk from the heat. The damage diabetes does to nerves and blood vessels inhibits the body\u2019s cooling mechanisms. When a person\u2019s blood sugar spikes, they are also at risk of dehydration because they will urinate excessively to expel the blood sugar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jose Vazquez, an internist in the Rio Grande Valley, explained that a diabetic\u2019s \u201ctemperature regulation system is already impaired.\u201d He said medications to treat diabetes can further blunt the body\u2019s response to heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exposed to high temperatures all year round,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cHowever, over the last few years we have reached numbers that we have not seen before \u2013 110, 112 degrees at the peak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n