Cedar Rapids man who died after cold exposure had ‘heart of gold’

CEDAR RAPIDS — At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Christine Ralston got up to prepare her Iowa City home for family members coming to celebrate Christmas. As her brother was the only vegetarian in the family, Ralston said she was making him a special leek soup.

'While I was making soup for my brother, he was alone in a ditch not 30 miles away,' she said. 'That's really hard for me to reconcile those two truths. Those are truths that don't appear to go together. They wouldn't make it past workshop in a novel.

'It's literary tragedy.'

Jacob Hayes, 39, of Cedar Rapids, was found next to his PT Cruiser around 7:48 a.m. Sunday, according to Cedar Rapids public safety spokesman Greg Buelow. The temperature at the time was 11 degrees below zero. Although Hayes was breathing, he was suffering from 'severe hypothermia,' authorities said. He later died at Mercy Medical Center.

Buelow said Hayes' vehicle was found 20 to 30 yards off the road near Memorial Drive and McCarthy Road SE. Police believe Hayes' car slid off the road and hit a sign sometime overnight and that Hayes started walking and most likely slipped.

His death remains under investigation.

Sue Cohoon said her son had 'a heart of gold.'

'He would drop everything to help a friend or someone he saw in need,' she said Tuesday. 'He was always like that.'

Cohoon said her son grew up in Burlington and attended Coe College, double majoring in religion and psychology and minoring in philosophy. After college, Hayes worked as a counselor at Four Oaks and REM Iowa as a counselor. But, his desire to help people extended beyond work, Cohoon said.

'He took in a homeless guy once,' she said. 'He let a woman and her son live with him when they were having trouble finding a place to live.'

Hayes was an avid rugby player, a sport he picked up as a high school foreign exchange student in South Africa. He played for the Cedar Rapids Headhunters rugby team for 'many years,' Cohoon said.

'They all called him 'Veggie' because he's a vegetarian,' she said of his teammates.

Headhunters coach Ron Salow said he knew Hayes for at least 10 years. Salow said Hayes was always the guy who would take new teammates aside and welcome them to the team.

'He was an animal on the field,' Salow said. 'But, the first guy to shake your hand and say, 'Well played game' and give you a beer. There's not a bad bone in the guy's body.'

Salow said members of the team met Monday night to have a few drinks and talk about Hayes.

'Like he would have liked it,' he said.

The team plans to frame Hayes' rugby jersey and present it to his mother. They are also going to establish the Jake Hayes Award and give it to one player each year in recognition of that player's hustle and commitment to the team.

According to his obituary, Hayes 'was a rugger, a joker and a philosopher' whose dreams, worries and 'voracious appetite for knowledge' were fueled by books.

Ralston called her brother 'delightfully odd, not in a way you run away from him, in a way you lean toward him.'

Carlos Villalobos, Hayes' partner, described the couple's 10-year relationship as 'feisty.'

'We'd both be pretty stubborn, but in the end, we always worked it out,' Villalobos said. 'He was old-school. He like music but thought it was best on vinyl records. He liked reading, but wanted nothing to do with e-books.

'There was only one of him and there was certainly only one of him in Cedar Rapids.'

Hayes was preceded in death by his father, Douglas Hayes and his grandparents. Aside from his mother, youngest sister and Villa, he is survived by his stepfather Dennis Cohoon, stepmother Margaret Hayes, brother Patrick Hayes and sister Kelly Marshall, among other family and friends.

A visitation is scheduled from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Prugh-Thielen Funeral Home, 3940 Division St., Burlington. The family is to receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. that day.

On Tuesday, Ralston repeated the facts of her brother's death as if still coming to grips with a new reality.

'I have never had such disdain for the past tense,' she said. 'How could you not hate the fact of your brother freezing to death alone on the side of the road? People aren't supposed to freeze to death. If it had been a day before, he wouldn't have frozen. If it had been a day later he wouldn't have frozen.'

She urged those wishing to honor Hayes to read a book, ask questions of yourself and of others and to be inquisitive.

As for the soup, Ralston said she and her family are savoring it.

'That soup is sacred,' she said.

Hypothermia Facts

• Hypothermia occurs when the body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature falling below 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

• When the body's temperature drops, the heart, nervous system and other organs can't work normally. Left untreated, hypothermia can lead to heart failure, respiratory problems and death.

• Signs of hypothermia include shivering, dizziness, hunger, nausea, trouble speaking, lack of coordination, fatigue and increased heart rate. When hypothermia is severe, symptoms include loss of consciousness, shallow breathing and weak pulse.

• People more at risk of hypothermia are the elderly, babies, those who remain outdoors for long periods and people who drink alcohol or use drugs.

• According to a 2015 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 13,400 hypothermia deaths in the United States from 2003 to 2013.

Source:

Mayo Clinic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

l Comments: (319) 398-8238; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com