Former Mount Prospect mayor has medical scare at state of village address

Former Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek was taken away by ambulance Wednesday morning after briefly fainting during her successor’s state of the village address.

She later texted Mayor Paul Hoefert, telling him that doctors attributed the episode to dehydration.

“And apparently she has COVID,” Hoefert added.

Juracek said in a text Wednesday evening that she had no idea she had COVID until she was tested at the hospital. She said she is “drinking lots of homemade turkey soup.”

The medical scare occurred as Hoefert was speaking to community and business leaders during the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce’s Dynamic Year Breakfast at the Old Orchard Country Club.

Hoefert halted his address after seeing Juracek slump in her chair.

“Mayor Juracek? Are you okay? Arlene?” he asked.

“She was sitting in the chair and she looked unusual,” Hoefert said afterward. “She was holding her hands and shaking.”

Steven Polit, a former village board member who was seated at the table behind Juracek, said she slouched in her chair and her head went down.

Juracek was placed on her back on the floor, while Mount Prospect Fire Chief John Dolan, Deputy Fire Chief Tom Wang, police Chief Michael Eterno and police Deputy Chief Joseph Garris attended to her.

Once on the ground, Juracek began speaking and then stood up and walked out of the room, before the ambulance took her to a hospital.

“Thank God it wasn’t worse,” Hoefert said. “We were all, obviously, very shaken up by the whole thing.”