onecutemoose Bouncing Between Wonderland & Neverland
Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 6730
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:53 pm Post subject: This is very sad... Man dies on Everest 12/18/07
...I just read a report that a man fell unconscious and later died at Reedy Creek Medical Center. He was reported to be non responsive after riding Expedition Everest.
From Orlando Sentinel
Man dies after riding Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
6:06 PM EST, December 18, 2007
A 44-year-old man has died after riding the Expedition Everest roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom today.
Jeffrey Reed, of Navarre, was unconscious and unresponsive when his ride vehicle pulled into the unload area, around 11:25 this morning.
Another park guests who is a registered nurse and a Disney employee began cardiopulmonary resuscitation until Reedy Creek Emergency Services paramedics arrived and took over, said Assistant Fire Chief Bo Jones.
The man had no pulse when paramedics arrived, Jones said. There was no apparent trauma and "no obvious signs of any cause," Jones said. The paramedics transported him to Celebration Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Walt Disney World officials said the ride was inspected this morning and was operating properly, but is currently closed while Disney officials reconfirm the ride's status.
The Florida Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection and the Orange County Sheriff's Office were notified.
A Disney spokeswoman said the company has offered the man's family "our deepest sympathies" and offered assistance.
The death is the first associated with the roller coaster Expedition Everest, which opened in early 2006. That ride includes tight twists and turns and some backwards travel but is not a particularly fast or steep roller coaster and has no loops.
The death is the third death associated with a Disney attraction this year and the first since March, when a man died after collapsing at the Downhill Double Dipper at Blizzard Beach.
Mod Edit: Moved from ericpabear post in a duplicate thread, that thread has been deleted. _________________ Up or Down North, South, East, or West An Adventurer's Life is Best!
Joined: Feb 21, 2006 Posts: 4196 Location: Sanford, Fl
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:39 am Post subject:
Another death at Disney. This is horrible for the family. It is also more bad press for the parks.
(This was on ABCnews.com.)
A 44-year-old man died after being pulled unresponsive from a Walt Disney World roller coaster Tuesday. Jeffery Reed, of Navarre, Fla., showed no visible signs of trauma, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. Inspectors found the ride, Animal Kingdom's Expedition Everest, was working properly, but Disney kept it closed pending further review. Deputies said Reed appeared to be conscious 50 seconds before the ride ended, because his photograph was taken then. He was administered CPR by Reedy Creek Emergency Services and pronounced dead at Celebration Hospital. Authorities are investigating if Reed had a previous medical condition, said Jim Solomons, spokesman for the sheriff's office. An autopsy was scheduled. "We offer the family our deepest sympathies and will provide assistance to them during this difficult time," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said. Everest debuted in 2006, simulating a runaway train ride through the Himalayas. Riders meet a giant animatronic yeti, traveling both forward and back to avoid the monster and the train tracks it mangled. Everest has a 44-inch height requirement. Pregnant women and visitors with high blood pressure, heart, back and neck problems are warned not to ride. It was Disney's first big-ticket ride since Epcot's Mission:Space, which had been the park's biggest source of trouble in this area. Two people died after riding Space, though both had pre-existing health conditions. Disney has since built a tamer version of the ride. Everest was noticeably less thrilling from the start. Mission:Space is equipped with vomit bags, and puts riders through a force two times that of gravity on a simulated trip to Mars. Everest has an 80-foot drop, but doesn't turn riders upside down. Prior to Tuesday's death, at least 15 people had died at Disney's theme parks in Florida and California since 1989, some with previous health conditions.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Mod Edit: This is a post from Incredibles, posted in a duplicate thread, that has been removed. _________________ Up or Down North, South, East, or West An Adventurer's Life is Best!
Disney World death on Everest roller coaster blamed on tourist's heart condition
Christopher Boyd | Sentinel Staff Writer
December 20, 2007
The tourist who died this week on a roller coaster at Walt Disney World had a known heart condition and suffered from an enlarged heart, authorities said Wednesday.
Only three of the 500 portable heart defibrillators on Disney World property were in Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park when the death occurred Tuesday, and none was close to the Expedition Everest ride, where the man died. But Disney said its strategy for dealing with medical emergencies was sound.
"Our strategy is to put them [defibrillators] in a consistent place where guests and cast members can find them," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said. "We rely on professional paramedics to respond to emergency situations."
The Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday that Jeffery C. Reeb died of dilated cardiomyopathy, or an enlargement of the heart, that had no known cause. The report said Reeb, 44, had a history of cardiac arrhythmia -- an irregular heartbeat -- and died of natural causes.
Local medical specialists were unsure Wednesday whether quick use of a defibrillator would have helped Reeb because of his condition, though they agreed quick action could benefit someone in cardiac arrest without Reeb's problems.
Reeb, who was visiting Animal Kingdom with his family from the Panhandle town of Navarre, collapsed during the 3-minute Expedition Everest ride shortly before 11:30 a.m. He was unconscious and unresponsive when the ride pulled into the unloading station, though a camera inside the attraction showed he was conscious less than a minute before the ride ended.
He received immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a Disney employee and a registered nurse visiting the park. Paramedics responded within four minutes of the 911 call but could not revive him, according to Reedy Creek Emergency Services.
Defibrillator unavailable
"Everything we do is based on set protocol," Reedy Creek Deputy Fire Chief Bo Jones said. "He was unresponsive when we got there. We were wondering why what we did didn't work, but we didn't know about the underlying condition."
When a woman called 911 to first report a collapsed man at the Everest ride, an emergency dispatcher asked her about a defibrillator.
"Is there a defibrillator available?" the dispatcher asked.
"No, there is not," answered the caller, whose name was deleted from an audio copy of the call.
Medical experts said problems such as Reeb's can complicate emergency care.
"When you have a structural abnormality like a cardiomyopathy, the heart doesn't behave like a normal heart," said Dr. Salvatore Silvestri, associate medical director of Orange County Emergency Medical Services. "So it is less likely that the rhythm could be converted by a defibrillator."
Defibrillators shock the heart; when used successfully, they restore a normal heartbeat. But success isn't certain.
Still, Dr. Luis Alvarez, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Orlando Heart Center, said defibrillators can be useful even when a person suffers from a heart abnormality.
"We feel a defibrillator can be lifesaving in cases like this," Alvarez said. "Cardiac arrest is like an electrical storm in the heart -- it can be reprogrammed with a defibrillator."
Dr. Vidor Friedman, chief of staff at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, said that even when a defibrillator is used right away, reviving a patient with a heart condition can be complicated. Reeb was pronounced dead at Celebration Health.
"There may not have been anything that anybody could have done," Friedman said. "Somebody with significant cardiomyopathy would be much more difficult to get a response from than a person with a relatively normal heart."
Walt Disney Co. distributed 650 defibrillators in 2003 at Disneyland and Disney World and on Disney Cruise Line ships. Declaring last month that the defibrillators may have already saved as many as 40 lives, Disney announced its intention to install 250 more of them on its properties, including another 200 at Disney World. The company also has trained thousands of employees to use them, including 3,000 at its Central Florida resort.
500 workers to be trained
Finger, the Disney World spokeswoman, said the resort plans to train 500 more employees in CPR even as it adds the 200 defibrillators to the 500 already on resort property. Of the three units in Animal Kingdom, the company said Tuesday that one was at a first-aid station a couple of hundred yards away from the Everest ride, while another was on a mobile cart.
Disney World posts warnings at ride entrances that advise people they should be in good health and free of medical complications that include high blood pressure and heart, back or neck problems.
Alverez, the cardiac specialist, said any activity that raises the body's adrenaline level can trigger a cardiac crisis. He said he doubted the Everest ride caused Reeb's death but said the excitement from the ride could have contributed.
By Wednesday afternoon, many Disney customers had heard about Reeb's death. Still, long lines formed at Expedition Everest. Disney reopened the ride late Tuesday after determining it was working properly.
Stephen Wilkins, visiting from Columbia, S.C., said he had been looking forward to riding the attraction.
"We were hoping that it would be open," Wilkins said. "We were more worried about the ride not being open than anything."
Sara K. Clarke of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Christopher Boyd can be reached at 407-420-5723 or cboyd@orlandosentinel.com. _________________ When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.
--Walt Disney
First... this is a horrible thing for the Family, and I hope they are getting the attention they deserve...
Second... Disney posts all these signs and people just ignore them. I've already heard folks say Disney should have done more... What more could they do besides wiring you to an EKG prior to the ride or having you take a physical in line.
Third, These articles seem awful biased against Disney to me. What does the line about 15 deaths to date have to do with anything related to this article other than to make Disney look bad? Were those 15 on the same ride, were they members of the same family? Was there any connection whatsoever between then that makes that comment relevant?
This is 15 deaths in 51 years. While Tragic, that is not a poor track record, especially considering the number of people riding these rides.
This occurred because of someones health problems and extremely unfortunate events.
Joined: Feb 21, 2006 Posts: 4196 Location: Sanford, Fl
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:33 pm Post subject:
The articles by local news sources always have that tone. If it's not a PR event that Disney probably has paid for, they make it sound bad for Disney... It's par for the course and you get used to it when you leave down here... _________________ Up or Down North, South, East, or West An Adventurer's Life is Best!
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