EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) – A southwestern Illinois coroner says this week’s wintry weather may have played a role in the deaths of two women after their homes lost power.

Madison County Coroner Stephen Nonn says 63-year-old Sandra Brinker of Troy and 66-year-old Shirley Spruill of Alton died Thursday after the outages rendered electricity-powered oxygen machines they relied on inoperable.

Nonn says Brinker was found unresponsive Thursday morning at her home and later was pronounced dead at a hospital. The coroner says Spruill was found dead in her home that lost power later Thursday after a falling tree hit a transformer nearby.

Nonn says both women may have succumbed to their pre-existing, chronic medical conditions and not necessarily from losing their use of supplemental oxygen.

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