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British teen still critical, heads home
Associated Press
Published August 8, 2005
ORLANDO - The British teen who collapsed after a Walt Disney World ride last month was flown by air ambulance back to Great Britain, still in critical condition.
A spokeswoman for Florida Hospital Orlando said doctors and Leanne Deacon's family decided to take the 16-year-old home and left on Saturday.
"The family wanted to get back to Great Britain," Carrie Lockwood told the Orlando Sentinel . "There was nothing more that we could have done for her here that could not be done there."
Deacon suffered cardiac arrest July 12 after she rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World and has remained in critical condition since.
The Tower of Terror, opened in 1994, puts riders in an elevator that shoots up 13 stories and then plummets back twice. Disney warns riders they should be "in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness, or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure." Pregnant women are advised not to ride.
There have been two other tragedies at the resort this summer.
A 12-year-old Virginia girl, Jerra Kirby, died Thursday after collapsing in a wave pool at Walt Disney World water park. A 4-year-old Pennsylvania boy, Daudi Bamuwamye, died in June while riding Epcot's Mission: Space.
Florida law exempts large, permanent amusement parks that have their own safety inspectors from state oversight, but they agreed in 2001 to share safety information.
[Last modified August 8, 2005, 02:45:22]
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