A tragic incident unfolded in Montreal as an 87-year-old woman, Sheila Padmore, succumbed to severe hypothermia after enduring 36 hours without power during a significant outage in January. The Quebec coroner’s report shed light on the heartbreaking events that led to Padmore’s untimely death.
Padmore was discovered on the floor of her apartment in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on January 25 during a routine wellness check by the police. She was swiftly rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital but sadly passed away the next morning.
Coroner Marie-Claude Boutin determined that Padmore’s demise was a result of prolonged exposure to the cold within her residence post-power outage, deeming her death accidental.
The power outage, initiated by an equipment malfunction at Hydro-Québec’s Hampstead substation on January 24, left approximately 15,000 customers in the dark, with some enduring over 48 hours without electricity.
Upon being attended to by paramedics, Padmore exhibited signs of confusion, extremely cold extremities, and labored breathing. Her core body temperature upon arrival at the hospital was a chilling 24.5°C, indicative of profound hypothermia as per the coroner’s assessment.
Boutin highlighted how Padmore’s advanced age and frail physique rendered her particularly susceptible to the harsh cold, with remaining on the floor exacerbating her heat loss.
While the report refrained from assigning blame to Hydro-Québec for negligence or legal culpability, it outlined the measures taken by the utility post-incident, including transformer replacement, enhanced capacity on distribution lines, and expedited work on a new Côte-Saint-Luc substation.
Padmore’s death was one of two fatalities investigated in connection to the outage. Miriam Foox, a 66-year-old woman, was also discovered deceased during the blackout period, but subsequent analysis concluded her passing was unrelated to the power failure. The report disclosed that Foox likely succumbed to acute deterioration of chronic respiratory failure on January 23, the day preceding the outage, despite battling severe respiratory distress and declining a recommended hospital visit.
