Elderly woman's death was heat-related

GALVESTON — The death of a woman, 89, whose body was found Friday in her home, was heat-related, authorities said.

Genevieve Peret, of Galveston, was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m. of natural causes, authorities said.

Her body was on a wooden bed frame with no mattress in a house where neither fans nor air conditioning were used. The temperature inside the house was 88 degrees at 1:30 a.m., authorities said.

An autopsy by the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office listed the cause of death as environmental hyperthermia.

Peret’s death was the lone heat-related fatality this year in the county. There have been 15 heat-related deaths reported statewide since 2009, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Peret was a native of Pawtucket, R.I., and moved to Galveston with family in October, her grandson, Bill Misiaszek, said.

Peret, her daughter, Susan Misiaszek, and Bill Misiaszek lived in their recently purchased house on Woodrow Avenue.

Although the house had air conditioning, Misiaszek said he didn’t trust the 1930s wiring to handle the electrical load.

Peret didn’t complain about the heat, her daughter and grandson said.

“We were here two days,” Bill Misiaszek said. “They were not hot days. We were monitoring the temperature.”

The family has an indoor temperature gauge, he said.

“When she came to Galveston, she was feeling like she would not live more than a year,” Bill Misiaszek said. “Most of her siblings had died in the last couple of years.”

People older than 65 are prone to heat stress, because they are more likely to have chronic medical conditions that change the body’s normal response to heat, according information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People older than 65 also are more likely to take prescription medications that impair the body’s ability to regulate temperature or inhibit perspiration, the center reports.