Three Montgomery County men died of hyperthermia

Jerry Snavely, 62, suffered from schizophrenia and barely managed to keep it together living in his small, dilapidated Norristown apartment. He loved soda and ice cream and liked to keep his place warm, with the windows closed no matter how hot it was outside.

And that's what killed him.

The Montgomery County coroner ruled this week that Snavely and two other men known or thought to suffer from mental illness all died of hyperthermia within days of one another this month - two in the same apartment.

Snavely and his friend John Malkasian, 53, were both receiving services from the county mental-health agency before they were discovered by their landlord July 9, officials said. Malkasian had been diagnosed with chronic mental illness.

"It was a hot day. The room temperature was 110 degrees. There was no air-conditioning, no fan, and the windows were closed," said Walter Hofman, the coroner.

In Pennsburg, John Snyder, 56, was found in his airtight third-floor apartment July 12 under similar conditions.

Hofman said Snyder may also have been a client of the county's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Eric Goldstein, administrator of the mental-health agency, said the deaths were under investigation.

Citing confidentiality rules, Goldstein declined to discuss the cases or answer any questions on the care the men were receiving or how closely they were monitored in the days before their deaths.

"It makes me want to cry," Goldstein said.

As the heat wave approached in early July, Goldstein's office alerted staff and agencies under contract to reach out to the clients and make sure they were safe.

"Instead of relying on Code Red alone, we're sending people out any time it's over 90 degrees," Goldstein said.

John Smull, who lives next door to Snavely's apartment, said he worried that his neighbor was not getting nutritious meals, so he would bring him dinner.

"He was an excellent guy, didn't bother nobody. He was slow, mostly kept to himself, but if he had to be somewhere, he'd be there an hour early," Smull said.

Snavely often waited outside the apartment building for the mail 45 minutes before it usually came. "He would just stand there like a soldier," said Smull.

Snavely was going to talk to the landlord July 9 about Malkasian's moving in, the neighbor said. But when the landlord went to meet with him that morning, no one answered the door.

"He knocked and knocked and then found them there dead," Smull said.

The apartment was a mess, according to both Smull and the coroner's office.

"You needed a gas mask to go in there," Smull said.

Malkasian was well-known at Positive Resolutions, a residence for the mentally ill. A staff member said residents could come and go as they pleased.

A county official said Malkasian was taking at least five medications, including zyprexa, geodon, depacote, celexa, and cogentin - some of which could have affected his perception of temperature.

"Some medications, such as antipsychotics, can affect a person's ability to sweat," said Diane Nelson, a resident psychiatrist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.