PORTLAND, Ore. — A Multnomah County court has approved a $375,000 settlement in the heat-related death of a woman during Oregon’s historic 2021 heat wave. She was one of nearly 100 Oregonians who died in connection to the June 2021 heat wave, where temperatures hung in the triple digits days on end.
Ashlyn Maddox, 36, was found unresponsive on a hot sidewalk, just 50 feet from the adult care home where she lived. Having battled epilepsy and multiple strokes, Maddox lived in the care home in Southeast Portland full-time.
That day, she’d been to the doctor. A medical transportation service, Ride to Care, drove her home. A neighbor’s nest camera shows the driver dropping her off at the curb in front of the house next door. Maddox got out and appeared to walk the other direction, instead of going into her home. The Ride to Care car then drives away.
Two hours later, around 5 p.m., at the peak of the day’s heat, neighbors found her on the sidewalk and called 911. But it was too late. A medical examiner later determined Maddox died of hyperthermia, meaning she overheated.
The temperature that day was a high of 116 degrees, a record in Portland.
After her death, the county and state launched an investigation into the ride service that dropped her off and the adult care home. Investigators honed in on whether someone was legally required to make sure Maddox got safely inside with the record heat. The evidence was found to be inconclusive, with no clear evidence of wrongdoing.
In September, Maddox’s family filed a lawsuit against the Ride to Care service for her wrongful death. The complaint accuses the driving service of negligence for failing to “use reasonable efforts” to safely transport Maddox to and from her doctor’s appointment.
According to court documents, Maddox was warned not go to her doctor’s appointment in the heat and misled her caretaker on her expected return time to go shopping after the appointment. In the two hours after being dropped off, she had walked to a shopping area near her home and suffered her hypothermic injury on her return.
A settlement was reached in early October. Court documents stated the case has delayed the ability of Maddox’s mother, Cheryl Hollins, to “emotionally recover from losing her daughter." Maddox was Hollin’s only child.
"Well, for one thing, I'm glad that we don't have to go to trial so I don't have to live it all over again, and I just want to get it over and done and closed," Hollins told KGW following the settlement. "I was praying that my mother would hold up to see justice had been served for my daughter and her granddaughter, and I want them to pay because it shouldn't have happened, and I don't want it to happen to nobody else."
Former KGW reporter Maggie Vespa and KGW investigative reporter Evan Watson contributed to this article.