RadioOnFire.com - Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz died of cardiac arrest early Thursday morning at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center following an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old.
According to Baltimore County officials Kamenetz was at his home in Owings Mills, when he awoke at about 2 a.m. and complained of feeling ill. County fire spokeswoman Elise Armacost said either he or his wife then drove two miles to the Chestnut Ridge volunteer fire station.
Armacost said officials don't know why Kamenetz opted to go to the fire station rather than call 911 right away. It was in the station's parking lot where Kamenetz called 911 himself and complained of tightness in his chest, Armacost said. The call awoke two volunteer personnel sleeping at the station, who brought Kamenetz inside. He was conscious ans speaking as they began an evaluation and basic life support care, but quickly deteriorated and lost consciousness and didn't have a pulse, Armacost said. He never regained consciousness.
They administered manual and automated CPR and used an automatic external defibrillator, eventually restoring his pulse and administering an IV ahead of the arrival of Garrison Fire Station's Medic 19. Advanced life support efforts continued with CPR and three defibrillations. He was transferred to St. Joseph doctors at around 3 a.m., Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gail Cunningham said.
Cunningham said they were not told who the patient was, but were notified the patient was suffering a full cardiac arrest. She said he was suffering from ventricular fibrillation, a condition where electricity flows across the heart "very abnormally."
"This is a very common arrhythmia we see when someone has a cardiac arrest," she said.
Doctors pronounced him dead at 3:22 a.m., about an hour after his collapse at the fire station.
"That would be a significant amount of time to be doing CPR and to be putting somebody through the protocol of doing advanced life support, so I think as much was done as possible to advance his condition," Cunningham said.
After beginning his public service career as a prosecutor in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Kamenetz was elected in 1994 to the Baltimore County Council, where he served four terms. He was a former president of the Maryland Association of Counties and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.
He was first elected county executive in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.
A native and lifelong resident of Baltimore County, he attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He is survived by his wife, Jill Kamenetz, and two teenage sons.
Kamenetz was one of seven candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in the June primary to oppose Republican Gov. Larry Hogan this fall. He had chosen former Montgomery County councilmember Valerie Ervin as his running mate. Under state election law, Ervin now has five days to designate a new gubernatorial candidate, or to designate herself as the gubernatorial candidate and name one for lieutenant governor.
Baltimore County Administrative Officer Fred Homan will serve as acting county executive until the the County Council appoints an acting executive to serve out the remaining months of Kamenetz's term.
Sean Naron, Kamenetz’s campaign spokesman, said Kamenetz had been at a candidate forum Wednesday night where he was in good spirits.
Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, described Kamenetz as one of the top three Democratic contenders in the race, along with Rushern Baker and Ben Jealous. Kamenetz’s sudden death “has the potential to dramatically reshape the race” because many of his supporters may now look to the other four candidates, Eberly said.
Just last week, Kamenetz eliminated unhealthy foods in vending machines from Baltimore County government buildings.
"You know, as I get older, I worry about all my health issues, so I now have an app on my phone that counts the number of steps and these are kinds of prods and guides that encourage us to maintain a healthy lifestyle," Kamenetz said. "Now I will tell you, since it's an election year, I have been doing a lot of steps and I also really haven't eaten much, but my BMI [body mass index] is down to normal. I wouldn't encourage everyone to run for office, but I do encourage you to take those extra steps to maintain a healthy lifestyle."
Many of those close to Kamenetz said he was recently in good health and he took his health very seriously.
"The joke on the floor was if you were going to get a donut, you had to do it when (Kamenetz) wasn't looking," Chief of Staff Don Mohler, a longtime aide, said Thursday on WBAL News Now. "When you're on the run...going from event to event it is very easy to run in and grab some fast food...he would never do that, he was a granola, salad, yogurt guy."
Source WBAL
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