Another day, another death thread: Girl dies at one of the water parks

[BrianMonk]

I don't know where you heard this, but it is not True.
I am a florida paramedic and we can call patients as we need to. The only way an EMT can call a pt is if there is brain matter showing ordecapitation.

I always thought it has to be a doctor/cororner(sp) that will give an actual time of death?

A paramedic/EMT can not administ services based on certain criteria your state/local jurisdiction sets, but I didn't think they could call a time of death???? In our area - if decapitation, rigamortous (sp), and whatever it's called when blood is pooled in the body (someone help me with the technical term on this) then the paramedic/EMT does not have to start life saving services. Otherwise, in our area, they continue until releaved or exhausted - no matter what.

 

[lillygator]

What really bothers me about this story is the fact that it's always covered the same way. At the end of story, they meantion the little boy in MS. This is being covered as if Disney did have some culpability in these deaths. The 4 year old was tall enough to ride the ride and so far, I've heard nothing to indicate that the ride or any CM was at fault. The girl at TL; Haven't heard anything here that would indicate that any CM or ride was at fault. The girl at ToT; there was no way for her mother or Disney to know that she had an aneurysm.

Look at the daily average attendance of WDW. How much is that, 30K, 40K? So think of it as a community of 30,000. How many deaths in a year do you have in a community of that size? When you have a death in THIS community, each is covered as if Disney were at fault.

They really should change the name from the Happiest to the Safest place on Earth!

ITA

 

[Stitch1962]

Just reading through these posts, there are a few things that bother me. First is the insinuation that the wave pool had anything to do with this guest's demise. The autopsy showed no trauma, indicating that there was no accident caused by the wave pool attraction.

Second is talking about how Florida hasn't been that hot this summer. No, maybe not to those of us who live in the south and are used to days upon days of 90+ degree weather and humidity that lingers in the 90 range. For those not used to this, it can be very dangerous, as they may not know how to take care of themselves to prevent heat exhaustion. especially in a water park, where it is more difficult to tell because you can't feel the heat as readily. Remember... back in High school when talking about osmosis and cells? The water on the outside of the body, can pull water from the cells of the body, thereby increasing the chances of dehydration and heat exhaustion/stroke.

Also, blaming the parks for not having water stations is absurd. As others have indicated, any of the many food stands will gladly give anyone, whether they are buying anything else or not, a cup of water and ice at NO CHARGE.

And, as for the refillable cups someone mentioned that Water Country USA has at their water park... guess what? Both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach have them, as well. But, if those cups are only used to refill caffinated soda, then that also will increase dehydration, as caffiene pulls water from your body, and does not, in fact, act to hydrate you. Sticking to non caffinated sodas, or better yet, the non carbonated choices they have in the soda machines is the best bet, if water isn't your thing. Where can you find those refillable mugs? As soon as you enter the park, in the kiosk to your right.

Until further tests are completed, we will not know what the cause of this child's death is, so laying blame on the parks, the Castmembers, the paramedics, or the family is nothing but idle gossip that needs to stop until all of the facts are known.

 

[melaniemiller2002]

Unfortunately, our society pushes "juice" on kids from birth, so many little kids won't drink water, don't like it, or won't think of it at all. I see it all the time at our scout troop events, school events, etc. When kids need a drink, they always give them "juice boxes"--look in all the lunchboxes at school: juice boxes. What can they buy to drink? Milk or juice. Why won't our society give kids water? Most parents and teachers are amazed to see my dd request and prefer water over juice or milk. Ok, sorry for the slightly OT rant, but this is one of my pet peeves.

I agree with this 100%. Both of my stepkids (I'm a full time stepmom) drink mostly water. They don't get juice, except for a treat. Even when my SD was very young and had her "juice" in a bottle (around 1 1/2), it was apple juice that was watered down. They actually LIKE the taste of water. We are a water drinking family; my hubbie drinks about 1-2 gallons a day, I drink at least a gallon a day, and the kids go through 3-4 of their sport bottle waters. We do have milk at dinner, unless they haven't had their normal water for the day, then we do water. They know if their pee is anything less than clear, they are most likely dehydrated and will drink accordingly.

The hydrations packs we use when we are for the day work great at amusement/theme parks, especially since we are a bottled water family. We live in an area where the water is VERY clean and tasty....so when we head into the bigger cities, we have a hard time stomaching the water. I don't remember a whole lot from my short 1 day visit at WDW, but I DO remember the nasty tasting water. I couldn't even stomach the fountain drinks....bleech.

Have the results of the autopsy come back? Do they know if it was indeed dehydration?

Melanie

 

[tinkerbellmom31]

This happened while we were there. We were at Blizzard Beach that day. I have to say it was about 100 degrees everyday. We had to buy 2 refillable mugs there and carry them around. If it was dehydration I would not be surprised. When you are in the water all day like that you do not realize just how hot it is. I was sweating horribly everyday and night. I rarely sweat. We constantly had at least 3 drinks for our family of five. A few times it was so bad my head and face felt on fire. My 3 yo son made me nervous even though he was drinking alot, when he napped in the stroller his breathing was deep. I was constantly pushing liquids.How very sad for the family, they are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We were there July 1-15 and IT WAS HOT! I know we have been there in july before but it seemed worse this time. My son has had seizures in the past but was seizure free for 8 years. He had a seizure while we were on vacation. Looking back I wonder if dehydration had anything to do with it. We made a point to keep pushing the water and the juice but he has a problem with his body absorbing liquids anyway(he had a stoke and the portion of his brain that was damaged regulates body temp. Sometimes his body just dehydrates and starts taking water from his organs even though he is drinking...his brain doesn't register it...something with the mylin(sp?) covering and keytones) We are so careful about looking for signs we know just waht to look for.but he didn't seem to have any and his seizure was early in the morning after we had spent the previous day in the hotel room napping and having a quiet day not outside in the sun....I still think the heat may have had something to do with his seizure. When we went to the hospital I mentioned it to them but he didn't show any signs of dehydration so they did not give him and IV I did get him some water and apple juice and he drank most of it. I jsut wanted to add this so people keep drinking even if they are not out in the sun. I think you have to replenish what you lost throughout the day. Even if you or your family is not showing signs of dehydration you may be on the brink. BE CAREFUL!!! Drink WATER. The Celebration Hospital is beautiful and the people are wonderful but it not the place to spend your vacation.

 

[lauran cameron]

If you have water in your lungs, is it possible to tell the lifeguard that you're ok?

I guess it could maybe be like pnemonia where you have water in your lungs and you're still able to communicate, maybe she was just in shock or something But I deff. agree with you, if you're in distress and someone says "hey you need help?" then I would hope you'd say yes

my thoughts and prayers are with the family

 

[Bunch24]

It's quite remarkable that people can read one article (or probably not even read the entire article) and sumise that Disney is to blame because the lifeguards weren't paying attention and the wave pool is a death trap.

My goodness. Did any of you finger-pointers even read the story? SHE REFUSED MEDICAL ATTENTION and there were NO SIGNS OF TRAUMA!

Oh, and if you skipped over most of the thread to speak your mind, you probably missed the best post in this thread:

Here's my perspective on the deaths this year at WDW. A quote from ABOUT.COM on Disney crowd figures:

'The Magic Kingdom at Florida's Walt Disney World as the number-one most attended park in North America and worldwide, with over 15 million guests in 2004. Let's see...divide by 365, carry the 1, um...that figures out to a whopping 41,000 people per day all vying for a ride on Dumbo. No wonder the place feels a little crowded'

OK, an average of 41,000 per day at MK alone. Let's add a conservative 30,000 more per park for the other 3 and say 3,000 each for the water parks and we have and 'city' of 137,000 people. If your town is that size or smaller, read your newspaper's Obit section for a time. Ignore car fatalities and violent crime and you'll still see more than a few folks, of all ages, just dying. Unless foul play is suspected, you never hear about these cases again unless it's someone in your circle. Given well over 100,000 people, the heat and the stress of an active vacation, the surprising thing to me is that this doesn't occur every day. My heart goes out to the deceased and their families. With one exception all our trips include our extended family from my 79 yr old mom to my 3 yr old grand daughter. It's unthinkable to contemplate losing any of them, period, let alone at WDW. Yet, given the numbers above, these tragedies are actually to be expected.

Bill From PA

 

[geetey]

Unfortunately, our society pushes "juice" on kids from birth, so many little kids won't drink water, don't like it, or won't think of it at all. I see it all the time at our scout troop events, school events, etc. When kids need a drink, they always give them "juice boxes"--look in all the lunchboxes at school: juice boxes. What can they buy to drink? Milk or juice. Why won't our society give kids water? Most parents and teachers are amazed to see my dd request and prefer water over juice or milk. Ok, sorry for the slightly OT rant, but this is one of my pet peeves.

Just an OT reply to this... I *want* my kids drinking milk. That is the only choice I give them for lunch. Luckily in our school, kids are encouraged to have water at their desk and my kids go through several bottles a day. I don't even buy juice. Just don't want you looking at those milk drinking kids and shaking your head.

One thing I would like to point out as our family loves the Wave Pool at TL. The further in you go, the less rough the waters. I tried standing at the very edge of the pool and was literally knocked off my feet! We are all very strong swimmers and prefer to stick in the deeper water (at least chest high) where we can ride the wave and not be thrown around.

My prayers go out to this family. We constantly carry bottles of water with us throughout the parks. This summer we discovered the crystal light packets - those work great in those free cups of ice water! Kills that Florida taste.

 

[nanalisa]

Thirst is the first sign of dehydration.

A 12 year old is old enough to refuse medical help? I don't think so! If someone saw her and thought enough to see if she was alright, then medical help should have been summoned right away. 16 years old might be different but a 12 year old is a child. A child that was probably disoriented.

I certainly don't know what was wrong with her and I certainly wasn't there but I think there could be a lot of fingers pointed in this case.

 

[bigsis1970]

Hi all - I just wanted to add my prayers to the family and say we were at Disney from 7/2 to 7/8 and went to BB on 7/4 it could have been my children or myself dehydrated that day - we played all day in the water and didn't have drinks till Lunch time, no of us thought to be thirsty !!! I never gave it a thought as we were cool and wet. How horribly scary.. (FYI at all other times we had at least 1 or 2 drinks on us but swimming with a back pack or fanny pack just doesn't happen)

 

[eeyore0062]

I certainly don't know what was wrong with her and I certainly wasn't there but I think there could be a lot of fingers pointed in this case.

This is pointless. Let's just wait and see what the results state when they come back.

 

[CaseyJr]

Has anyone heard any more on the cause of death?

 

[safetymom]

Nothing more has been reported yet.