Gurnee police were investigating the death of a 10-year-old girl who collapsed inside Six Flags Great America Wednesday evening.
The Gurnee 911 Center received a call about 6:18 p.m. about a girl who collapsed in the Yukon Territory section of the amusement park, according to a release from Gurnee police.
When Gurnee Fire Paramedics arrived at the scene, an anesthesiologist was performing CPR on the child, who was in full cardiac arrest. Gurnee Fire personnel continued to try and resuscitate the girl while they transported her to Condell Health Network in Libertyville, but doctors pronounced her dead at about 7:15 p.m., the release said.
The girl, from Arlington Heights, was visiting the amusement park with her 63-year-old grandmother and cousins.
Witnesses at Six Flags Great America stated that the girl had just exited from a ride in the Camp Cartoon Network area of the park -- possibly the Spacely’s Sprocket Rockets roller coaster, the release said. She was running to rejoin family members when she suddenly collapsed.
Authorities later learned the girl, whose name was not released, had a history of heart trouble. While her death appears to be of a medical nature, the exact cause of death is undetermined pending an investigation by the Lake County Coroner’s office, according to the release, which added that foul play is not suspected.
update from 8/17/06
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) - A 10-year-old girl who collapsed at an amusement park died of a congenital heart condition, a coroner said Thursday.
Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said the roller coaster she had just ridden did not trigger the heart attack that killed her, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site.
Jaclyn Silberman of Arlington Heights collapsed Wednesday night as she ran to rejoin her family after exiting the ride at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill. The girl, who police have said had a history of heart trouble, was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Police in Gurnee, about 40 miles northeast of Chicago, are not investigating, Cmdr. Jay Patrick said.
You've gotta feel for the family and poor girl. 10 years old...so young. Way too young.
[Please be sensitive in your posts below and try not to access blame or say things like, "at least the ride didn't cause it" as, IMHO, now is not the time.]
Last edited by Cryptkeeper on August 18th, 2006, 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
that is deffinately sad! here is another version of the story from Comcast...
Girl, 10, Dies at Six Flags in Illinois
By Associated Press
3 hours ago
GURNEE, Ill. - A 10-year-old girl with a history of heart trouble collapsed during a family outing at Six Flags Great America amusement park and died, police said.
Witnesses said the girl had just gotten off a ride in the Camp Cartoon Network area of the park Wednesday evening. She was running to rejoin her cousins and grandmother when she collapsed, Gurnee police said in a statement.
The girl's heart had stopped by the time paramedics arrived, and she was pronounced dead an hour later at a hospital, police said.
Police said the girl, whose name was not released, was from the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, about 20 miles south of Gurnee. An autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.
"At this point we don't have any reason to believe this was ride-related," said Jim Taylor, a spokesman for Six Flags. "We will certainly participate and assist authorities in any way they ask us to."
Six Flags Inc. runs some 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America.
In 2003, an 11-year-old girl from Gary, Ind., collapsed at the park and died after riding the "Raging Bull" roller coaster. A coroner's jury later ruled that a heart condition caused Erica Emmons' death
Yeah it has been a really rough year as far as deaths for theme parks. Seems like there have been so many deaths. I lost track of all of them after a while. Does anyone know how many deaths at theme parks there were this season?
Thats really sad. I was there but did not here about this incident until I watched the news. Really sad indeed. I feel really sad for her and her family.
God, this tears me up. I have a daughter who is only a year older than this girl so to hear of her death in this fashion breaks my heart.
To everyone here who is healthy or to any parents here that have healthy children, count your blessings and never take for granted what you have.
On the flipside though, this girl had a KNOWN condition so I do question why her parents would let her ride anything if the risk was there for possible problems.
Just getting a visual of this girl getting off a ride all happy and chearfull, and then out of nowhere she collapses just puts a lump in my throat.
My prayers are with her.
I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
This is a sad story. I agree with Chitown though. The girl should have never been allowed on a thrill ride-even one designed for children-if she had a KNOWN heart condition of any kind. Both of the recent Disney deaths involved people with heart problems. At least one of which was previously undiagnosed. That seems not to be the case in this incident. Apparently, the girl had a history of heart problems and those in charge of her well-being did not recognize the well known danger theme park rides pose to persons with heart trouble. I would imagine Six Flags will soon be contacted by attorneys blaming the park for negligence and assigning a dollar value to this tragedy. That makes a sad story even more depressing.
^Most definatly. I would hate to see anyone be blamed. A death is a death, no matter whos fault it was (unless homicide) Even though she was allowed on the coaster, was that really the parks fault? Also it said that her grandmother and cousins were waiting for her outside the ride. In my opinion, she should have been with her granddaughter. Although like i said, a death is a death, and in this case, NO ONE should be blamed.
Almost all the deaths at theme parks have little to do with the theme park themeselves.
Unless the death is due to a ride malfunction or operator error it is a sad situation but not the parks fault.
It gets alot of attentin because of the location of the death, but people die at malls/work/local parks etc and these deaths get little attention thought they are far more common.
Chitown wrote: Just getting a visual of this girl getting off a ride all happy and chearfull, and then out of nowhere she collapses just puts a lump in my throat.
It is terrible, but at least she was happy when it happened. With any luck, she had no idea anything had happened.
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking, isn't thinking of.