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Family sues Disney for $50K after man finds fiancee unconscious at the end of Humunga Kowabunga water slide

Laura Reyes-Merino is seeking $50,000 in damages over alleged injury on giant water slide

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Friday 24 May 2024 23:21 BST
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Walt Disney Parks has been sued by a woman who alleges she lost consciousness and suffered a brain injury after riding a slide at Typhoon lagoon
Walt Disney Parks has been sued by a woman who alleges she lost consciousness and suffered a brain injury after riding a slide at Typhoon lagoon (Disney)

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Walt Disney Parks has been sued by a woman who alleges she lost consciousness and suffered a brain injury after riding a giant water slide at Typhoon Lagoon.

Laura Reyes-Merino is seeking $50,000 in damages and claims in court papers that the park was negligent for failing to maintain the ride.

Lawyers for Ms Reyes-Merino state that she was injured when she rode a tube on the Humunga Kowabunga ride on 11 May at the Florida theme park.

It is described in the lawsuit as a 60-degree angle, 214-foot, downhill and enclosed body slide. She alleges that she fell unconscious on it due to the “banging inside the slide.”

Court papers state that her fiancé and his mother found her limp body at the end of the ride and “frantically asked the attendants to help.”

Those attendants said that they were not lifeguards and would have to find someone to help. Meanwhile, the woman’s fiancé pulled her from the water while that help was on its way.

“Eventually a lifeguard came and said they couldn’t help or touch Plaintiff either and called an ambulance,” court documents state.

“Had Defendant had lifeguards at the end of the ride to watch and help guests coming off the ride, Plaintiff’s brain injury would not have occurred as she wouldn’t have been drowning in the water coughing up blood.”

The Independent has contacted Walt Disney Parks for comment.

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