After her husband’s death, a grieving widow has spoken out about the dangers of extreme hot after hiking with friends in triple-digit temperatures.
“If it’s hot outside, don’t risk your life for a hike,” said Amy Dishion, while holding the couple’s infant daughter.
When Dr. Evan Dishion went hiking on one of the hottest days of the year, Amy says she mentioned how hot it was, but didn’t push back, because the young dad had been so busy with his hospital residency.
“He’s been working and taking care of Chloe, and he hadn’t had time with his buddies, so I said ‘Please just turn around when it gets hot,’ and that’s just not what ended up happening,”Amy said.
The doctor was hiking with five of his friends outside Phoenix. Rescuers said they ran out water. They continued on the trail, and then got lost. Their cellphone batteries died, and temperatures rose to a scorching 109 degrees.
Amy said that her husband split from the group in order to walk to the car for help. However, he was overcome by heat.
“Evan went into cardiac arrest and he died there,”Amy said.
Dan Baird, a survival expert, says that every hiker can take lessons from this tragic event.
“The more we can do to minimize the stresses on us, the less danger we are going to be in. So going early is a great idea, doing that sort of stuff, minimizing the time out,”Baird claimed.
He said there was a water rule.
“My rule of thumb to make it really, really easy is that, I plan to use a third going out, a third getting back and I have one more extra, equal part in case I have an emergency. So if I get through a third of my bottle, whatever size it is, I need to turn around,”Baird claimed.
He warns that heat can also cause problems with your cellphone’s battery.
“Understand that hot and cold affect phone batteries. Your phone can overheat to the point where you can’t use it. It can also get so cold the battery drains out really fast,”Baird claimed.
A GoFundMe page has been started to help the doctor’s widow and 3-month-old baby girl.