Doctor who died while hiking near Cave Creek leaves behind wife, 3-month old baby

A doctor died while hiking in the blistering heat near Cave Creek and his widow is devastated and has to raise their child alone.
Published: Sep. 7, 2022 at 7:46 PM MST
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CAVE CREEK, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- Earlier this week, firefighters say a doctor died from heat stroke while hiking near Cave Creek. Now, his wife is remembering her husband and warning others about hiking in extreme heat. The 32-year-old doctor, Evan Dishion, leaves behind his wife and baby girl.

The Dishion’s just had their baby girl, Chloe, three months ago and have been married for eight years. On Monday, Evan went on a hike, which turned into Amy Dishion’s worst nightmare. “He promised me he would turn around if it got too hot. I don’t know why he didn’t,” Amy said.

Now, Amy sits with her three-month-old girl, not knowing what their future looks like. Amy says her husband was hiking at Spur Cross Trailhead with a group of friends. Unfortunately, they got lost and ran out of water before calling 911. “I can guarantee you that if there’s one last sip of water left, Evan will not be the one to drink it. He’s going to make sure other people are OK,” Amy said.

Five other people were rescued off the mountain. Evan was rushed to a hospital but didn’t survive. During all this, Amy was worried at home, trying to get ahold of him. “I got a call at 4:30 from the hospital and the woman on the other line said Evan was brought to us by helicopter. He has passed away,” Amy said. “I started to scream and scream and scream and my neighbors heard and came to help.”

Evan and Amy are from Oregon but moved to Arizona three years ago. Evan recently began his neurology residency at Barrow Neurological Institute. He loved medicine, but his biggest goal was to be a father. “She looks just like him,” Amy said, referring to baby Chloe.

After four miscarriages, Amy said their dreams came true. Chloe was the final puzzle piece. “When he saw Chloe, the nurses told me he looked at her with this admiration and said, ‘I didn’t know I could love anyone so much. I just love her so much.’ He really did. He loved her so much,” she said. “So now I have a piece of him here.”

Tonight Amy has a message to hopefully prevent this from happening to another family. “He wanted to help cure things like stroke and Alzheimer’s, and he left all that behind to go on a hike, so I’d say, please don’t do that. Be careful. Nobody is invincible,” she said.

There is a GoFundMe to help with family expenses. You can find that here.