Fremont Township board member dies from scooter crash injuries
The 65-year-old Mundelein woman who fell off her scooter and landed on a spike in a railroad tie Wednesday has died from her injuries, authorities said Friday.
She was identified as Patricia Stejskal, a Fremont Township board member since 2018 and a dedicated volunteer who spent countless hours caring for people in her community.
Lake County Coroner Howard Cooper said his office performed an autopsy Friday and worked with Gift of Hope, an Itasca-based organ and tissue donation organization.
Fremont Township Supervisor Diana O'Kelly said she met Stejskal years ago when Stejskal was volunteering for the township's emergency and disaster preparedness program, CERT.
"She was an incredible human who was positive, optimistic and giving," O'Kelly said. "She touched so many people's lives in our community."
O'Kelly said when a vacancy came up on the township board in 2018, she and the other officials agreed Stejskal would be perfect.
"She was just a tremendous woman," O'Kelly said. "We miss her already."
Stejskal had retired from her job earlier this year, O'Kelly said, so she could spend more time doing the things she wanted to do, including volunteering.
She was volunteering with the Mundelein Local United Network to Combat Hunger program on Wednesday before her crash, O'Kelly said.
Nancy Cassell lived with Stejskal for 39 years after meeting one year earlier as teachers in Taiwan, where both were involved with missionary work.
"Pat was fully vested in whatever she was doing wherever she was," Cassell said. "So if she was volunteering for CERT or for the township, she gave it 100%."
Cassell said Stejskal worked for 19 years for the American Red Cross. She said she also worked at McHenry County College.
She said that a friend told her that when the college learned of what happened, "There was a pall over the entire campus, because of the loss of Pat. She just had a huge impact on everyone."
Cassell said she and her friend loved the outdoors and often canoed with a group of people in the wilderness in Minnesota. She said they also enjoyed birding in the local forest preserves.
Stejskal was leaving the parking lot of the Diamond Lake Village mobile home community near Mundelein on the 26200 block of North Route 83 when she drove slightly off the pavement and fell, according to Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Christopher Covelli. Covelli said her head struck a spike on a wooden railroad tie next to the parking lot.
Stejskal was rushed to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where she remained on life support until Friday.
• Daily Herald staff writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this report.