Child's Death at Epcot

[PixiePop]

My heart goes out to this family...I just can't imagine what they are going through.

 

[deelam]

Yes I am blaming and will blame Disney if in fact the child died because he was dehydrated and the spinning effect caused him to pass out and die. There are no signs that state this anywhere on that ride and if it can happen then they should post it and if they didn't know, then it's their responsibility to find out beforehand. Just because you don't blame Disney doesn't mean I can't. Don't pyscho analyze me, you are not qualified. Your logic is foolish, look at your examples, they have absolutely nothing to do with what has happened. Stick to the facts here, the story states that a four year old died after passing out on MS, what conclusion am I to come to? Don't go down the line with ridiculous "oh are you going to blame cars.." give me a break. You have your side, I have mine. If my dog bites someone, I am not going to blame the dog, I am going to blame myself because I am the owner of the dog. Disney is the owner of the ride, they make bazillions a year off it, if it's not fit for a 4 year old who is dehydrated then they need to post it. We are not even sure how he died, just that he passed out and died. You can take your four year old on any ride you want, I'll do the same
(although mine are 7 now, but you get my point). Have a great day.

WELL SAID!!!. Lets not forget we are talking about Florida here. Anyone can get dehydrated in that heat in no time. If dehydration is a factor, then that ride is too extreme for the weather conditions in Florida.

 

[magicmouse2]

It is a terrible shame that this is happened. I have taken my DD
on when she was 5 and she had no problems at all. I am keen to find out what happened. Poor child

 

[Simba's Mom]

The average kid can probably tell their parents they are thirstyQUOTE]

The problem is that by the time you're thirsty, it's really late in the dehydration process. Most people don't realize how dangerous "mild dehydration" is. Parents, PLEASE give your children lots of water in Disney World-I know you'll stop at every rest room, but think of the possible alternative. I can't beg you enough.
I know, the death of a child is something you never get over. My heart goes out to this family.

 

[Forevryoung]

Thank you for the link disneyfan62. Sellersville is only 20 min away from me.
I will be curious to hear what the autopsy shows. I love roller coasters but have been very nervous about attempting this ride. My teen son is the only one in the family brave enough to try it and loved it. He didn't feel it was intense at all.....but then again he just rode Kingda Ka at Six Flags, NJ last week and thought that was fine.
I feel so awful for both the family of this child as well as the family of the boy that died in the Vistana resort pool. Tragic.

Um when did that kid die at the Vistana pool? I feel jinxed... I was at Epcot yesterday around that time looking for a ride and we spent the week at the Vistana... Things were quiet yesterday afternoon at Epcot (I guess word didn't spread too fast...)

So so so sad-

 

[erikthewise]

The question to Disney should be how many people with "underlying health problems " are worth risking. If this child cause of death end up being say a brain anyerusm that was aggravated by this ride and its G force is it worth having??? The g force on M:S is advertized as the "same" forces as the astronaunt feel. However astronaunts are checked over medically with a fine tooth comb, not every guest walking thru a theme park is. The G force on M:S has been a "question" from the begining and right now this is all speculative but I am sure some statistician is saying "told you so" in Burbank.

I also remember Hulk at Universal also having some issues with "brain injuries" that had a occured with a few riders although they were minor.

I have to disagree. The G force on M:S is definitely far less than that experienced by astronauts; it is the "same" only in the sense that both are forces. Anyone standing up is experiencing this "same" force at a level of 1G. People in an excellent position to know have stated that M:S riders experience about 1.5G. Astronauts experience a sustained force of at least 3G, so the "excess" force (over standard gravity) is about 4 times as great. At Kennedy Space Center there is an "astronaut training" experience you can do where you do experience forces closer to what astronauts do; this is said to be far more intense than M:S.

The "ride-bashing" in this thread is pointless. If the child did die of a brain aneurysm, it might just as well have happened on Test Track, or on the "backward" part of Spaceship Earth.

Maybe it is time to go back and build family friendly rides like Walt did and try to quit competing with other amusement parks on who can build the most intense thrill ride. These new wave of rides are just becoming too much. At what point do they stop and say this is too much?!?

I agree completely Shan.

 

[Tiffster7]

This is my biggest issue with MS. When you ride with younger children- you cannot see them- you cannot touch them- you cannot hold their hand. You are completely shut off from them. If the child had a seizure or any type of medical emergency during the first part of the ride where the G forces are the greatest at takeoff you would not know how long they had been in distress. Maybe the CM's have cameras at MS that can view inside the cabin area. I am sure after this they will train the CM's better in recognizing an emergency if they are able to actually view people riding and do an E-stop. My 6 year old DD freaked when she went on because she could not see me. It wasn't so much the ride itself it was the fact that I was not next to her explaining the dynamics of the ride and assuring her she would be okay. I tried to tell her before we went on but it wasn't the same as having a reassuring face or hand to hold. I don't care about the height requirement. MS (in my opinion and my opinion only) is not suitable for any child under 10. I know I will get flamed for this. But generally ten -twelve years old is when theme parks allow kids to ride without an adult. In MS they are basically riding it ALONE.

 

[C.Ann]

I understand, but they are responsible, they put the height requirement down, most children don't know of a "pre-existing" heart condition because they are too young to relate the symtoms to their parents. So, we as parents need to take resposiblity too, however, Disney should just not allow kids under 8 or 10 to ride such an intense ride, no matter what the circumstances are. I would NEVER allow anyone in my family to ride that ride again, under no circumstance. The mother made a fatal mistake and allowed her young child to ride such an intense ride (no matter if it was a heart condition, chocking on vomit, dehydration, etc.) no matter what Disney signs stated. I made the mistake of letting my 6 yo's on and will never do that again.

This is such a tragedy, my heart goes out to that poor woman and her family, I just can't imagine how they feel at this moment, horrible, just horrible. I will keep them in my prayers.

I think if they don't shut it down, then they need to have paramedics or a doctor on scene if they are going to still allow young toddlers on this ride.

--------------------------

Are you saying that 8 or 10 year-olds can't suffer from undiagnosed, pre-existing conditions? Because if you are, then you are 110% "in the wrong".. Ditto for adults who may be suffering from undiagnosed pre-exisitng
conditions..

It was an accident - plain and simple.. Gosh - kids even drop dead on playgrounds from undiagnosed pre-exisiting conditions - and there's NO age limit involved that will keep them "safer"..

 

[MiaSRN62]

Um when did that kid die at the Vistana pool? I feel jinxed... I was at Epcot yesterday around that time looking for a ride and we spent the week at the Vistana... Things were quiet yesterday afternoon at Epcot (I guess word didn't spread too fast...)

Here's the link to a small article, Forevryoung :
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-loccfbriefs14061405jun14,0,4958838.story

 

[LoriZH]

The average kid can probably tell their parents they are thirstyQUOTE]

The problem is that by the time you're thirsty, it's really late in the dehydration process. Most people don't realize how dangerous "mild dehydration" is. Parents, PLEASE give your children lots of water in Disney World-I know you'll stop at every rest room, but think of the possible alternative. I can't beg you enough.
I know, the death of a child is something you never get over. My heart goes out to this family.

Yes that's what I thought, but I am not a medical expert. I agree, anyone can be dehydrated at anytime without knowing or knowing exactly what it is.

thanks!

 

[safetymom]

The child did not die in the Vistana pool accident. He is expected to make a full recovery.

 

[lllovell]

Such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Side note - a 4 year old is not a toddler. I understand you felt this child too young to ride this ride. The parents did not and they are also NOT responsible for this (imo) any more than Disney imagineers are that created the ride. It might not be mentally appropriate for younger children, but if they meet the height requitement, then it most certainly is not physically unsafe.

 

[JDarling]

I'll be interested to see what the autopsy says... and just about the pre-existing condition theory, I agree with it.

For example, a dear friend of mine was in great health. She was 30 years old. No kids. Recently married (3 years). She had a headache at work and within an hour, an ambulance was called because she was vomitting and passing in and out of conciousness. By the time they got her to the ER, her body was blue and she was was barely concious. All she chould say was "I'm cold, I'm so cold." The lining of her aorta suddenly gave up. They got her into the OR and her aorta completely ruptured once they got her open.

Most people don't survive that. We sat up all night with her husband, basically waiting for the doctor to say "sorry, we did all we could." Amazingly enough, she survived and is doing great now, 3 weeks later. Her recovery is almost as miraculous as her illness was sudden.

Turns out it was a congenital defect in her heart no one had picked up on (she went to the doctor regularly) and no one in her family had previously suffered from (they had all lived to be in thier 100's).

We are still only "practicing" medicine. We don't know everything about it yet.

It's very sad that this vacation turned into a funeral for them, but I don't blame the ride. Sometimes things just happen beyond our control. If she was holding the boy's hand, it wouldn't have changed anything.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Safetymom says : The child did not die in the Vistana pool accident. He is expected to make a full recovery

I'm not meaning to doubt you, but do u have another source safetymom ? I'm just going by what I read on Orlandosentinel.com This was also posted on the Orlando boards and lists local FL station 6 news as the source ?

article from Orlando Sentinel :

Cody was pronounced dead at Sand Lake Hospital.

 

[mking624]

You're right! The average kid can probably tell their parents they are thirsty, but some people don't know they're dehydrated until they pass out, it happens, unfortunately. I think it's two different things, but I am not sure. Once again, this was not my scenerio, someone just asked me "what if the child died of dehydration" this is not what I think at all, I was just answering what I thought that's all. I do not claim to be a medical expert. I asked my husband who is a paramedic and he said yes of course you can pass out and die from dehydration. Like I stated, I do not believe the child died that way, I have no idea how the poor little guy died, I was just answering someone's question. My main issue is why a 4 year old should be on a ride like that if it simulateds the G Force trained astronaunts are use to.

Once again, this was NOT my scenerio, you can go back and find out who's scenario it was, I believe it was Mary's so maybe you should ask her the questions and grill her about that kind of stuff.

Actually I wasn't the one who brought up dehydration initially. And I certainly wasn't the one who suggested that he died of dehydration. The scenario of dehydration was brought up before I even posted on the thread.

And for the record, a person cannot become dehydrated without knowing something is wrong. The very first clue is thirst. Even if they don't know it's specifically related to dehydration, there are signs of dehydration that indicate something is wrong.

 

[crazee4mickey]

My heart is breaking for this poor family ---how absolutely shocking to have this happen...you just don't think of things like this!
My first instinct when I heard was a pre-existing health condition which was unknown. DH and DS(18 yo) went on MS and both said that no way should our little ones go on, yet there were kids coming off who thought it was great.
How very, very sad.....my prayers and thoughts go out to the family

 

[married@wdw]

If an attraction is going to cause this kind of reaction, is it worth having at Disney World, the happiest place on earth?

OK -- no analogies here. In 2000, a woman died from an aneurysm shortly after riding Indiana Jones at Disneyland (very similar to Dinosaur at AK). Another woman died from an aneurysm on a Vegas coaster in 2000 and a 43-year-old man suffered a brain injury on RnRC that year. There was a death from an aneurysm in 2001 on a coaster at Magic Mountain, as well as one on a tea-cup style ride at Six Flags Marine World. In 2002, a woman died from an aneurysm on a coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. In 2003 a woman died on the Hulk coaster -- found unconcious when the coaster came to a stop. A woman suffered a heart attack while on a coaster at Kings Island in 2003.

In all cases, it was an unknown medical condition that killed the person, not the ride. I'm sure there are tons more examples out there -- I just pulled up a sampling from the last five years. It's quite possible these people would have died doing something else exciting -- bike riding, skiing, swimming, riding a motorcycle. Or even not so exciting -- mowing the lawn perhaps.

We don't know what killed this poor child, but to say the ride should be shutdown if it caused an aneurysm or some other fatal injury from a pre-existing condition is simply not logical to me. Thousands of people should be denied their vacation experiences in the hopes that one person might not die at that moment (but could quite possibly die from the condition at some other time, doing something mundane)?

The situation is so sad. I know you don't think you are rushing to judgement, but by saying Disney is to blame, as you most definitely did, aren't you absolutely blaming judging Disney?

 

[roberrl187]

I don't usually chime in on threads like this, but I think that we are all trying to make sense of things in our heads. The arguments over who is at fault and who is a medical professional are not helping. There are so many "what ifs" in this case that all we can do is offer our sympathies to the family and the CM's running the ride.

 

[lillygator]

The situation is so sad. I know you don't think you are rushing to judgement, but by saying Disney is to blame, as you most definitely did, aren't you absolutely blaming judging Disney?

Exactly.

 

[LoriZH]

OK -- no analogies here. In 2000, a woman died from an aneurysm shortly after riding Indiana Jones at Disneyland (very similar to Dinosaur at AK). Another woman died from an aneurysm on a Vegas coaster in 2000 and a 43-year-old man suffered a brain injury on RnRC that year. There was a death from an aneurysm in 2001 on a coaster at Magic Mountain, as well as one on a tea-cup style ride at Six Flags Marine World. In 2002, a woman died from an aneurysm on a coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. In 2003 a woman died on the Hulk coaster -- found unconcious when the coaster came to a stop. A woman suffered a heart attack while on a coaster at Kings Island in 2003.

In all cases, it was an unknown medical condition that killed the person, not the ride. I'm sure there are tons more examples out there -- I just pulled up a sampling from the last five years. It's quite possible these people would have died doing something else exciting -- bike riding, skiing, swimming, riding a motorcycle. Or even not so exciting -- mowing the lawn perhaps.

We don't know what killed this poor child, but to say the ride should be shutdown if it caused an aneurysm or some other fatal injury from a pre-existing condition is simply not logical to me. Thousands of people should be denied their vacation experiences in the hopes that one person might not die at that moment (but could quite possibly die from the condition at some other time, doing something mundane)?

The situation is so sad. I know you don't think you are rushing to judgement, but by saying Disney is to blame, as you most definitely did, aren't you absolutely blaming judging Disney?

Yes you are correct, I did rush to judge and blame disney, I'll admit it. I still think no matter what the cause of death was, that a 4 year old is just too young for an intense ride like this.

(just a side note regarding "toddler" it is considered up to 4 years old, but that is really not an issue, I don't think it matters toddler or not. I think 4 is too young for that ride.)