Elderly deaths increasing amid scorching heat

By Lee Kyung-min

An increasing number of senior citizens are being discovered after apparently dying of heat-related illnesses, police said Friday.

According to police, a man, 78, was found dead trapped under a cultivator in Yeongdong County, North Chungcheong Province. The man was found by his son, 48, who visited his father after receiving phone calls from a relative who said his father had been missing for three days.

Police said the man is believed to have died after suffering from heat exhaustion following hours of direct exposure to sunlight and heat amid midday highs reaching well above 33 degrees Celsius in the region.

Last Friday, a man, 79, was found dead by a social worker days after he passed away in his room in Jung-gu, Busan.

The temperature of the room, heated by the weather, reached 35 degrees Celsius at the time police visited. Without air conditioning, found next to the body was a small, old electric fan. Police said the cause of death was acute heat stroke.

Similarly, a man, 72, who went out to pull weeds, was found unconscious in his field in Incheon last Tuesday. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead the next day. He died of heat stroke, hospital officials said.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced that 15 people have died this year as of Friday from heat-related problems such as heat stroke.

More than 1,878 patients have visited hospital emergency rooms seeking treatment for heat-related illnesses since May 23, 1.8 times the figure reported the for all of last year. The figure is also the largest since the country started collecting weather data in 2011.