'Ever-increasing obstacles' Coroner releases 2020 report on deaths in pandemic

In her 2020 annual report, York County Coroner Pam Gay said she and other medical professionals sometimes get a little frustrated when people talk of COVID-19 death numbers being manipulated.

The truth is that determining an individual's cause of death can be a nuanced process, she said.

Here are some points to keep in mind for COVID-19 deaths:

• If someone dies due to trauma, such as a vehicular crash, then the crash is, obviously, the cause of death. But if they were stricken with COVID-19 at the time of the crash, the virus would be listed as a contributing cause or not at all.
• If someone "recovered" from COVID-19, then had lingering complications that ultimately brought about their death, COVID-19 would be a cause of death.
• And, if a person had pre-existing medical conditions and despite those had a baseline functionality, then caught COVID-19 and died, the virus would be their primary cause of death.

In York County in 2020, there were 19 COVID-19 deaths directly investigated by the coroner's office. On Tuesday, Gay said the total number of COVID-19 deaths in York County in 2020 was 419 and now is up to 643.

A more detailed explanation about COVID-19 deaths by Gay is at the end of her report.

A year like no other

To say 2020 was bizarre in terms of deaths would probably be considered an understatement.

Factors such as the already existing opioid epidemic, combined with COVID-19-induced isolation, unemployment and lack of personal contact for drug addicts, contributed to a sharp increase in the amount of overdose deaths in York County.

The number hit an all-time high of 196, according to Gay's report, released this week.

"It was almost a perfect storm," said Brittany Shutz, executive director of the York Opioid Collaborative. "What the overall county was experiencing, just multiply that for the recovery community."

Less people died at the hands of another — the coroner's definition of homicide — in 2020, Gay said.

In 2020, there were 12 homicides in the City of York and seven in the surrounding municipalities. Contrast that with 2019, when there were 17 in the city and five in the county.

Gay said that while every homicide is tragic for each victim's family, "we could be in a far scarier place," when looking at past years and the county's overall population growth.

Suicides in York County, contrary to other parts of the country, were down in 2020.

There were 60 suicides in 2020, 70 in 2019 and what appears to be a record-high 92 in 2018, according to Gay's report.

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"Sixty is still terrible," but a two-year decline is worth noticing, she said. "So we're thankful for that."

In her report, Gay highlighted the efforts of a local organization to decrease suicide and increase prevention awareness. 

"Suicide Prevention of York (SPOY) has also experienced some difficulty this past year in educating the community about suicide prevention and mental health awareness during the pandemic," the report states. "Coroner Gay serves on the Board and SPOY has had to get creative as they attempt to get their message of prevention out virtually as much as they are able."

Another category, home and play deaths — most commonly due to falls — increased in 2020. However, that number has been on the rise since 2015.

Gay's answer is that although York County's population is growing, it is also aging.

In addition, a portion of those deaths originated in neighboring counties, like Franklin, Adams and even Baltimore County, but the victims were brought to York Hospital and died there, she said.

Saying thanks

At the end of 2019, as York County Coroner Pam Gay was penning the introduction to her annual report, she never imagined that a year later, she would be writing about 2020, The Year of the Pandemic.

But yet, that is exactly what she had to do.

Gay's 2020 annual report provides statistics and other information on deaths her office investigated. In its introduction, she thanked her staff for their hard work during a most unusual year.

"When you have the right TEAM, you can face anything — even a pandemic," she wrote. "From the start, our small but mighty TEAM of staff and volunteers took on the ever-increasing obstacles that came our way."

And in an interview Tuesday, Gay also thanked the York County Office of Emergency Management, York Hospital and local funeral homes for their support and assistance during the height of the coronavirus.

Ted Czech is a multi-platform crime/emergency journalist with The York Daily Record. He can be reached at tczech@ydr.com, at 717-771-2033 or on Twitter at @TedCzechYDR