Two new cold weather deaths have brought the total number of confirmed or suspected Cook County weather deaths to seven since a snowstorm and frigid temperatures swept through the Midwest, officials said Wednesday.

       Police said Vanda Parish, 66, of the North Center neighborhood, was found unresponsive outside her home Tuesday morning and pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital. An autopsy found that Parish died of injuries related to a fall down the stairs and hypothermia.

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       Thomas Kapala, 62, of the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, died Monday night of heart disease, diabetes and cold exposure, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Police said that Kapala was initially found unresponsive in his garage.

       Authorities suspect that weather played a contributing factor to five other deaths since Jan. 11.

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       Richard Kellinger, 73, of Streamwood, died Jan. 12 of heart disease and complications of hypothermia.

       Robert Tuxford, 62, of Oak Lawn, died Jan. 12 of heart disease. Officials listed probable cold exposure as a secondary cause of Tuxford’s death.

       James Jernigan, 81, of South Shore, died Friday of heart disease, but the medical examiner also named cold exposure as a possible factor in his death.

       John Dryglaski, 86, of Elmwood Park, died Monday of heart disease and environmental cold exposure, according to the medical examiner’s office.

       Autopsies determined that all seven deaths were accidental.

       Andrew Siemionko, 60, was the first to die of cold exposure this year at his Schiller Park home on Jan. 11, just before the cold snap. Neighbors reported that Siemionko did not have heat or electric in his home where he was found after not answering messages or his door for some time. The medical examiner also found Siemionko’s death to be accidental.

       The cold began to ease its grip on Chicago and suburbs Wednesday, when O’Hare Airport recorded a high temperature of 19 degrees and a low of minus 7 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service’s high temperature forecast through Sunday ranged between 22 and 18 degrees, with lows dipping to 1 degree overnight Saturday.