Mayor Michael Collins hospitalized after coronary episode and car wreck

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins remains in critical condition at the University of Toledo Medical Center after suffering a cardiac arrest while driving in Sunday’s snowstorm.

Mayor D. Michael Collins, 70, crashed into a utility pole around 2 p.m. after going into cardiac arrest, Dr. Christopher Cooper, a cardiologist and dean of the University of Toledo medical school, said at a news conference. Cooper said it was too early to give a prognosis on Collins’ recovery.

A passer-by who saw Collins’ crashed SUV got inside the vehicle and gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation until emergency personnel arrived. Collins was not conscious at the time.

Councilwoman Paula Hicks-Hudson, who was sworn in as acting mayor, praised the unidentified passer-by who rendered first aid to the mayor.

“The act of this one person who was there at our mayor’s time of need shows this is a great city,” Hicks-Hudson said at the news conference. Officials did not take questions from the media.

Collins is a retired Toledo police officer who was elected to the City Council in 2007. An independent, he unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2009. Four years later, he beat incumbent Michael Bell, also an independent, by a comfortable margin. He took office as mayor of Ohio’s fourth-largest city in January 2014.

Collins’ first year in office has been tumultuous. Two city firefighters died while fighting an apartment fire weeks after Collins was sworn in. The city then endured the worst winter in its history.

Summer brought widespread, toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie that caused the city to cut off water service to 400,000 people in the Toledo area. And in October, it was learned that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles might move production of the Jeep Wrangler from Toledo to another U.S. plant when it redesigns the vehicle.

Agencies/Canadajournal