Question about sad event that occurred at WDW...

[mommy*RN]

I was just reading in one of my WDW for Families touring books about a child that passed away after riding Mission: Space.

This is the quote:
"In the summer of 2005, a 4-year-old boy died while on Mission:SPACE. As we go to press, the cause of death is still unknown, but engineers have ascertained that the ride did not malfunction."
(Walt Disney World With Kids 2006)

Has anyone else heard anything else about this? Did they ever release the cause of death? This is scary. I wouldn't let DS ride this ride at 4yrs even if he is the required 44" height.

Just curious what happened here...

TIA!

 

[shelly3girls]

I believe that it was reported that the little boy was found to have an unknown heart defect. Hopefully someone else will have more info.

 

[KristiKelly]

Yes this happened last year, do a search here on the DIS and you can probably find quite a few threads about it. I let DS8 & DD5 ride last year. There is nothing wrong with the ride, I think the little boy did have some unknown health problems.

 

[mytwotinks]

I was in WDW last year on a girl's trip w/ my daughters and my sister and her daughter. I didn't hear anything about this until I got back home. It turns out that it happened on a day when I was at Epcot w/ my girls all day. We were by ourselves so it was just a really relaxed day of walking around and enjoying the sights. I was really surprised that I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. We were in WDW for another 6 days and I never saw or heard anything about it on t.v. even.

I think it turned out that he had a heart condition that his parents knew nothing about.

 

[tfiga]

It was found that the boy had a heart defect.

 

[Hannathy]

The boy had serious health problems that his family did know about. There have been a lot of threads about this. Even the neighbors knew he had health problems when they interviewed them.

 

[BusyMomto3]

Hi, I am new, and have been a "lurker" for quite some time. I needed to respond to this question. I'm an RN with a daughter who has a congenital heart defect. We are going to Disney in Sept., and my daughter insisted on asking her cardiologist about this ride. Her cardiologist said ABSOLUTELY NOT should anyone with any valve defects etc. ride this ride. (Including Mitral Valve Prolapse) Now that two people have died after this ride, I wonder if it's worth the risk for a "late diagnosis" for those who are unknown. It's not worth it to me.

 

[all4fun]

I agree with BusyMomto3. I have actually ridden M:S more than once but after hearing of these deaths I will probably forgo it in the future and hopefully when my ds is older he will understand and not want to ride it either.

Here's an article I found released after the latest incident:
http://www.space.com/news/ap_060414_missionspace_reopens.html
It does mention the 4-yr old died of an unknown heart defect "that a medical examiner said can cause sudden death in stressful situations."

ETA: Here's a follow-up story from Apr 15th on the latest death:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...apr15,0,7727481.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Apparently the preliminary results to the 49-yr old woman who passed away after riding M:S showed she had a stroke.

It says about the boy:

Concerns about its safety briefly surged last June after the death of Daudi Bamuwamye, a 4-year-old from Pennsylvania. His autopsy showed he suffered from a rare, undiagnosed heart ailment that was so severe that the startling sound of a popping balloon could have killed him.

Very sad. My heart goes out to both of these families.

 

[java]

Just an FYI to those afraid to ride.. They are now going to have stationary seats in the ride for people with any potential health issues. Ferlapeg posted about this on the Theme Parks board- it was in the local news(she is close to the parks)

 

[kanga24roos]

Interesting

" my daughter insisted on asking her cardiologist about this ride. Her cardiologist said ABSOLUTELY NOT should anyone with any valve defects etc. ride this ride. (Including Mitral Valve Prolapse)"



My son also has a congenital heart defect and every time we see his cardiologist he tells us he has absolutly no restrictions,can play any sport go on any ride...that said would I let him go on MS? probably not.... why risk it.

 

[BusyMomto3]

My daughter (she's 9) doesn't have any restrictions either........and when she first asked her cardiologist about this ride, he told her "you can ride ANY ride at Disney". I then proceeded to tell him about Mission Space.......gravity wheel, G-force etc. That's when he said that he was unaware of that ride (he hadn't been to WDW in a bit) and told us absolutely NOT. Why do people think that our astronauts have to go through such vigorous physicals and training? NASA needs to see if they can tolerate such stress on the body. I think that avoiding this ride is a given for those with known conditions, and as for me, we will avoid it with the rest of the "healthy" family as well. I'm not going to let Mission Space "diagnose" for me a condition that may have been lurking and not symptomatic. I'm not bashing those who love this ride, but as a mother and a nurse, I won't take the risk.

 

[makinorlando]

Here is a link to the story from last June. It was all over the local news here in Orlando when it occured. The boys family was from a town just a few miles from where I lived in PA. Very sad, but it was due to an undiagnosed heart defect.
http://www.local6.com/news/4605232/detail.html

Here is the information on the condition that was found during the autopsy.

Bamuwamye apparently died as a result of idiopathic myocardial hypertrophy with fibroelastosis of the left ventricle, or dead scar tissue and abnormally thick muscle walls in his heart. While it is a rare condition in the U.S., according to the medical examiner it affects a third of the children with heart disease in Uganda, the native country of the boy's parents. The heart condition is apparently so severe that those suffering from it are at risk of sudden death throughout their lives.

 

[BusyMomto3]

left ventricular hypertrophy is also a result of Aortic Stenosis (my daughter's diagnosis) and is quite common here in the US. Aortic Stenosis can go undetected until one is possibly in their 50's or 60's and start having symptoms of congestive heart failure. "Luckily" for us, my daughter's caused a heart murmur which was detected at 2 months of age. If her pediatrician had not caught the murmur, we would be in the dark today that she even had such a condition, as she has NO outward symptoms at this time.

 

[waltdisneyworlddreamer]

There is a story about the changes to MS on allears. Here is a link to the story:

http://www.allearsnet.com/news/hnews.htm#0502

 

[MinnieGirl33]

I believe that it was reported that the little boy was found to have an unknown heart defect. Hopefully someone else will have more info.

That was my unerstanding as well.

 

[Tam1067]

My DS9 has a heart murmur which we've been assured is nothing serious or dangerous and does not limit his activities at all; however, I just feel it's not worth the maybe very very very small risk of something happening, and so neither he nor anyone in our family will ride Mission Space on our upcoming trip. It's just not worth it. Plus, my other DS is prone to motion sickness (as am I), so there's another reason to avoid it. Just my 2 cents here.