12-year-old boy dies on Disney's Rock'n'Roller coaster at Disney-MGM studios!!!

[k5thbeatle]

This reminds me of an email I received a few days ago from a friend. It is below

Although we do things more cautiously than we did back then, we can't protect our families from everything. This incident was nobody's fault.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no

lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.



We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Best Post on the whole site!

 

[Fitswimmer]

My guess is that you DO NOT have any children of your own. No parent would possibly make that comment upon learning of a child's death.

No, I guess you can't since you are incapable of liking or being concerned about anyone (other than yourself, i guess.)

Ok-that's a little over the top. People with children are NOT the only people capable of compassion or looking beyond themselves. That's a sweeping generalization that has no place in reality.

Yes, I feel sorry for the CM's TOO. Can you imagine going to your job today and having a child die in front of your eyes and not being able to prevent it??
And then having to go back to that job tomorrow? I feel sorry for the EMT's that came on the scene, the other guests in the area at the time-everyone involved is deserving of compassion. Yes, the loss that this family has experienced is off the scale, but having compassion for the family doesn't mean that you don't have any left for anyone else involved.

Just a thought-the next time someone makes a comment like that Planned Parenthood thing, can we just all ignore it ? If we engage in a debate, we're doing exactly what they wanted. It was off-topic and should be treated as such.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Cardiorespiratory arrests due to arrhythmias are relatively rare in children. I think whilst it would be useful to see a child's ECG (EKG for Americans) as a routine in advanced CPR, often there is not a "shockable" rhythm as opposed to adults who collapse with VF.

Sorry, but your post makes no sense. ECG Echocardiogram EKG Electrocardiogram are two completely different TESTS, one examines bloodflow, one examines rhythms. CPR cardio pulmonary resusitation is a life saving measure to provide circulation and oxygenation when someone is in cardiac arrest. I think you are referring to AED automated external difibrillators, where you inserted ECG and EKG.

If you are a doctor (which you very well may be since you used a term like VF ventricular fibrillation and shockable rhythm), evidentally medical teminology is VERY different in your area of the world.

I am not a doctor or a nurse or a medical professional.

 

[FOV]

I suspect they will never make a ride that intense ever again.

With all due respect I disagree with this statement. RnRC *is* a safe ride. I don't even think Disney was "pushing the envelope" with this one as there are many rollercoasters with more loops, inversions, g's etc... My guess is that in the years ahead Disney will continue to add more thrill rides as well as tame rides and attractions such as Pooh, Mickey's Philharmagic and Turtle Talk. I believe they will continue to make the parks enjoyable for all ages and interests.

I have an 11 y/o daughter who loves RnRC. This sad story sits heavily in my heart. I can not begin to imagine the pain the family is going through. It is too painful to imagine.

 

[Hannathy]

Sorry Becca I am a nurse and MM#1Fans post does make sense.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

CNN just reported that the boy had a congenital heart defect...

 

[LIFERBABE]

CNN just reported that the boy had a congenital heart defect...

I just heard this too.

My prayers are with his family

 

[lillygator]

> BREAKING NEWS Preliminary autopsy results found no injuries, but indicated congenital heart abnormalities in a 12-year-old boy who died after a Disney ride in Florida, according to a statement from the medical examiner’s office.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Sorry Becca I am a nurse and MM#1Fans post does make sense.

How can EKG and ECG be a part of routine advanced CPR? If you insert AED where he has EKG and ECG, the post makes a lot of sense. What he says about children not having arrythemias like adults also makes sense.

Maybe he's talking about in a hospital, where an EKG can show a "shockable" rhythm. I was under the impression we were talking about AED's at the Theme Park. Can you imagine CM hooking up leads and diagnosing cardiac arrythemias?

 

[Viki]

Here we go, from CNN, just released:

Preliminary autopsy results found no injuries, but indicated congenital heart abnormalities in a 12-year-old boy who died after a Disney ride in Florida, according to a statement from the medical examiner’s office.

 

[brivers222]

Another example of the ride not killing a person but underling pre-existant abnormailities causing death. Sad that it happened, but this once again isn't disney's fault. If no injuries were found AND the ride didn't malfunction, than Disney should be cleared of any and all scrutiny from this. Its a shame it won't get cleared and once again another black mark will be unfairly placed upon the rides at disney!

 

[ww52]

Saw the CNN report also. Just like with Mission Space, we have a situation where someone with an unknown pre-existing condition dies on a ride. The scary part - to borrow from another thread's title - is that it could be anyone - especially children. How many kids have full heart checks? How many adults for that matter?

I can see one unfortunate outcome of this - Disney being pressured to up their warning signs to acknowledge that even people with no KNOWN health problems COULD be at risk. Which of course essentially means everyone.

 

[ww52]

brivers222

It's nto that simple unfortunately. The fact is Disney has a ride (or several ) that can kill people with certain medical conditions. While Disney is legally off the hook, the fact is most riders do not have enough health information to be sure they are safe. So many people take a risk without enough information to really assess it.

As I said in my previous post - it may be that Disney (actually I shoudl say ALL theme parks) will have to acknowledge that people with unknown conditions may be risking serious injury or death.

If that ever happens, they may as well start asking people to sign waivers. I assume it's done for things like bungee jumping.

 

[jchop]

Flame-bait - someone who usually has very little of value to contribute to a thread and will often post inflammatory content just to sit back and watch it burn.

IMO - CaipiraBob is flame-bait.

In all fairness, I haven't been an active member of this board for very long but I have been following this thread fairly closely. Since I don't know this person nor have I read anything else he/she has ever written (nor would I care to now) I don't know if this is the usual MO or something new.

Best course of action is (we already know this already) to completely ignore flame-bait and they will get bored and move on to some other thread.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

brivers222

It's nto that simple unfortunately. The fact is Disney has a ride (or several ) that can kill people with certain medical conditions. While Disney is legally off the hook, the fact is most riders do not have enough health information to be sure they are safe. So many people take a risk without enough information to really assess it.

As I said in my previous post - it may be that Disney (actually I shoudl say ALL theme parks) will have to acknowledge that people with unknown conditions may be risking serious injury or death.

If that ever happens, they may as well start asking people to sign waivers. I assume it's done for things like bungee jumping.

It's called "small print" in the ticketing contract and in the ride warnings.

 

[daisax]

At least in the USA, EKG and ECG are interchangeable, and neither means echocardiogram.

As valuable as public defibrillators are, please know that surviving cardiac death is a long shot. If you have it in a hospital, survival is 15%. If you're defibrillated outside of the hospital, it drops to 10% chance of leaving the hospital alive.

Even if they had one every 15 feet in Disneyworld, it would probably very few lives long enough for them to get to the hospital and leave it alive. Definitely worth it to those people, certainly, but given the number of times they get used, you probably wouldn't see a huge change in death statistics, since they're so small to begin with.

They may be successful in that the person is revived and makes it to the hospital and lives a few days, but 85-90% of the time they still die before getting home again. Despite what you see on tv, where they're performed successfully for dramatic purposes all the time on people who never have another moment's health problem.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

I am so sorry for the boy's family.
I can't imagine how they must be feeling right now.
I agree that WDW SHOULD have AEDs at the exit of all rides, or at least all "rough" rides. I am nearly 34 years old and have been certified in CPR and First Aid for the past 18 years, and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone (especially parents). I have a friend whose husband literally saved their 2 year old's life after she fell into the swimming pool and could not be reached for a couple of minutes. She would not be here today if her father had not known what to do, since the ambulance would NEVER have made it in time. Call the Red Cross, your local hospital, maybe even a fire station to inquire about classes. Some employers also offer the certification on a voluntary basis, and there would be no charge to you in this case (they can count you as a first responder/member of the safety team if you are certified).

 

[SarahKate]

Daisax,
I do agree with you that survival rates are extremely low.

With that said, the survival rates are VERY HIGH in places where AEDs are being placed in numbers where there are large groups of people. Take O'Hare, with close to 80% survival.

AEDs are going to work only on VFib and VTach (for lay people: Vfib is an irregular "quivering" of the heart where blood can't pump effectively, Vtach is where the heart beats very fast and out of control). It is very possible that this 12-year old boy had a non-shockable rhythm. Unfortunately, no one will ever know. I read an updated article and it said that the AED was not attached until 7 minutes! Chances are not good if it's more than 3-5 minutes, chances go down 10% for every minute the AED is delayed.

If a person is in Vfib, and the AED is started w/i one minute (yes, that is not a big window BUT it is definitely do-able if it is onsite and CM is on the ball), chance of survival is near 90%.

The key is that AEDs are placed in busy places and that people are not afraid to start CPR immediately to keep the blood flowing. MORE defibrillators and MORE people trained in CPR = MORE lives saved!!!

With the new CPR guidelines, one of the big things they are emphasizing is that not ENOUGH people are getting CPR. And LESS than that are getting GOOD CPR. We have always known that CPR is important, but the new guidelines tell us that it's even more valuable than we thought.

Performing CPR and using an AED is not going to save EVERY life. Lots of people are still going to die from sudden cardiac arrest or other cardiac events. But if we can get more people trained in doing CPR and not being so scared of it, it's going to help.

Also, a few other posters were concerned about CMs using AEDs. It's not an issue, really. They are designed w/ the lay person in mind and all you have to do is turn it on and follow the voice prompts. Even children are taught how to use them and are able to do so competently. There's not TOO much you can do to mess up as long as you do what the prompts tell you. A person with NO prior training really could open one up and figure out how to use it.

 

[daisax]

Yup -- in one study 6th graders (in a test setting) were as successful as cardiologists!

80% of cardiac arrests happen at home as opposed to in public. So while defibrillators are great (and important for population-heavy environments like airports and Disney, which see literally millions of people pass through each year), you can see that the vast majority of people with these conditions aren't dying because they're on a roller coaster -- they're dying because they're doing laundry or yelling at their husbands or just sitting and watching television.

 

[#1MMFan]

Sorry, but your post makes no sense. ECG Echocardiogram EKG Electrocardiogram are two completely different TESTS, one examines bloodflow, one examines rhythms. CPR cardio pulmonary resusitation is a life saving measure to provide circulation and oxygenation when someone is in cardiac arrest. I think you are referring to AED automated external difibrillators, where you inserted ECG and EKG.

If you are a doctor (which you very well may be since you used a term like VF ventricular fibrillation and shockable rhythm), evidentally medical teminology is VERY different in your area of the world.

I am not a doctor or a nurse or a medical professional.

Yes, I am a doctor, and I work and reside in the UK, where we call electrocardiograms ECGs and echocardiograms "echoes", specifically why I put "(EKG to Americans)" in brackets. When we medics use a defibrillator we are reading an ECG (EKG) in order to decide if a cardiac (dys)rhythmia is "shockable", so my terminology is quite correct. Incidentally, medical terminology is not so drastically different; I come from one of the homes of medicine where the Glasgow Coma Scale, antiseptics, antibiotics and Ultrasound techniques originated (and proud of it)