The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. – A British teenager suffered cardiac arrest after she rode Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Tuesday, leaving her in critical condition and prompting Disney to close the ride and call in state inspectors.

Leanne Deacon, 16, exited the Disney-MGM Studios thrill ride at 9:50 a.m., shaking and light-headed, and soon afterwards lost consciousness. By the time she arrived in an ambulance at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, her heart had stopped beating, said Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Solomons.

Emergency workers revived the teen from Kibworth, England, and she underwent surgery, Solomons said. She was transferred by helicopter to Florida Hospital Orlando late Tuesday for specialized treatment, said Samantha O’Lenick, a spokeswoman for the Florida Hospital system. She did not release further details.

Reached by O’Lenick on Tuesday night, the girl’s family declined to comment.

Tuesday’s incident comes less than a month after a 4-year-old boy from Pennsylvania collapsed on Epcot’s Mission: Space ride June 13. The boy, Daudi Bamuwamye, later died.

Officials found no indication of mechanical malfunction on Mission: Space and the ride re-opened the next morning. Autopsy results are pending.

An initial investigation by Orange County Sheriff’s investigators found no sign that Tower of Terror malfunctioned Tuesday. The Florida Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection will monitor further ride safety inspections.

Deacon complained she had a headache and was light-headed just as she and her mother were exiting the attraction, four oversized elevators that spring and plunge through giant elevator shafts. They returned to sit on a bench inside an air-conditioned room, Solomons said.

Disney employees noticed the sick teen and asked if she needed help. She declined, but an employee called Reedy Creek Fire Rescue anyway, Solomons said.

Deacon’s condition worsened as time passed. A caller told an emergency dispatcher the teen was so weak she clung to her mother for support, according to a recording released by an official for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney’s governmental arm.

“She’s very shaky, she’s holding on to her mother. I’d given her some water but she hadn’t drank any yet,” the caller told dispatchers. Reedy Creek officials did not release the name of the caller.

Paramedics arrived at 9:57 a.m. When Orange County deputies arrived less than five minutes later, they called for homicide investigators. They believed Deacon was so ill she might die, prompting a death investigation, Solomons said.

On the way to the hospital, Deacon’s heart stopped. Medical personnel worked to start it. They rushed her into the care of a neurosurgeon, Solomons said.

Disney officials shut down the Tower of Terror for the investigation, and the state bureau of ride inspections dispatched two senior managers to Disney at the company’s request, said Terry McElroy, a spokesman for the State Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection. They will review Disney safety procedures.

Officials will determine whether to reopen Tower of Terror on Wednesday.

“We just want to run it through the paces and test it to make sure it’s completely operational,” said Walt Disney World spokesman Bill Warren.

This isn’t the first time a medical emergency has prompted investigators to scrutinize the Tower of Terror.

The ride, which opened in 1994, simulates five minutes in an elevator gone haywire. Passengers ride in an elevator car that shoots up toward the top of a tower, then plunges back to earth in drops as steep as 13 stories. The tower is the second-highest point on Disney property.

In September 1998, one of the elevator ride cars malfunctioned, and seven people were treated at hospitals for back and neck pain.

An inspection by Reedy Creek found that two of three bolts that guide the elevator cables broke, allowing the car to drop one floor before an emergency brake stopped the descent.

Park workers replaced all of the bolts on the attraction’s four elevator cars. The incident showed that the emergency braking system worked as designed, inspectors said.

A 1999 redesign increased the number of major and minor drops from three to seven. It also added a bit more “air time,” letting riders experience weightlessness for a longer period.

The state Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection received three reports of medical problems involving Tower of Terror riders during the past three years. The most recent was in May 2004 when a 62-year-old man complained of chest pains shortly after riding Tower of Terror.

In June 2003, a 45-year-old woman complained of chest pains. In June 2002, a 47-year-old woman said that anxiety from claustrophobia caused an irregular heartbeat, according to state records.

Disney and other parks with 1,000 or more employees are not required by state law to open their rides to state inspectors. The state’s 15 ride inspectors focus instead on Florida’s 155 smaller amusement parks and more than 222 traveling amusement companies that set up at fairs, carnivals and festivals.

These major theme parks signed an agreement with the state to voluntarily report ride-incidents serious enough to require a hospital visit, and to sign off on annual inspections provided by on-staff or contract engineers and inspectors.

While Disney officials did not invite state inspectors after Daudi’s death on Space Mountain, they have done so after other past accidents, Warren said.

The last instance company representatives could recall calling in the state was in November 2000, when a 37-year-old man climbed out of a Splash Mountain boat and died when he was struck by other boats.

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