Please tell me this isn’t typical of how Disney treats their injured guests. August 14th 2008 started out as a great day at Blizzard Beach for Adam, but when he got stuck on a water slide, he severely injured his leg to the point where he couldn’t put any weight on it. What was Disney’s response? First it took over 15 minutes to get to him. (15 minutes? I could walk across Blizzard Beach twice in that time. It’s small) Then they simply handed him a brochure with some nearby ‘urgent care’ health locations.
Turns out Adam had broken his Fibula and injured his ankle. This is a pretty serious injury that you would think Disney would want to know about to, at the least, ensure the safe operation of their attraction and as a responsible operator, help Adam with his health care bills not covered by insurance. But according to Adam, Disney’s response was less than helpful.
The full story is on Consumerist. Hopefully someone might read this and follow up with Adam properly.
I had a similar thing happen to my family when my son suffered an injury after falling down at EPCOT. The nurses were at least nice and did what they could to help, including providing a voucher for a new t-shirt to replace our bloody one, before handing us the brochure. The closest urgent care location is just off property and we were well taken care off once we got there.
The sad thing is, since this didn’t result in an overnight hospital stay, it probably won’t even be reported by Disney on their quarterly injury report to the state.
Retweeting @doterati: take brand mgt seriously: http://tinyurl.com/5y35ro
in situations like this, i always end up feeling like i’m only getting one half of the story. some aspects of this just don’t add up… “i became ejected from my tube”. it seems as though if something like that were possible, it would have already happened and been corrected… i’d be much more willing to believe that this person had been somehow fooling around on the ride, using them in ways warned against all over the park’s signage, and found out the reason for those warnings.
“In the meantime, people kept coming down the slide and haphazardly running into my leg.” I also find this incredibly hard to believe, that they would keep sending guests down the slide knowing that there was someone stuck in it, or injured at the bottom and waiting for assistance. this makes no sense whatsoever, as it sounds like, by this time, he’d been pulled off to the exit pool’s steps already.
and as for them not providing him with extensive medical assistance? disney is not a hospital. they’re not equipped to deal with those sorts of health emergencies. giving him any sort of drugs, as they did, is already opening disney up to all kinds of liability. and in an over-litigicized nation such as america, good samaritans are hindered by thoughs of lawsuits from ungrateful individuals.
i’m not saying disney handled it as well as they possibly could have, but i’d prefer to hear the side of the situation who does *not* intend to go after disney for monetary compensation before i make any judgement or assumptions.
I agree that the reality of the circumstances surrounding such events can be very subjective, and often, those who are injured at Disney parks do so because of their own negligence and then bark at Disney to pay for medical bills.
The details of the waterslide incident seem one sided and don’t measure up to the scrutiny of the Lifeguard staff I’ve witnessed at Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s Pop Century resort where the staff NEVER take their eyes off of the water and are quick to act in any case of injury.
Often the problems I see at Disney parks are absent minded parents who do not correct their children for improper behaviour. This year while waiting in line for a character photo I watched as two young boys (5 and 6) climbed all over stone statues in the queue and were never coached by their parents, until a Disney Cast Member instructed the kids not to climb on the railings or figures, and instead of agreeing and correcting their kids, the parents quibbed about the rudeness of the cast member to speak to their children like that. These are the parents/children who fall in the parks and then cry foul that Disney was somehow responsible for the fall. Teach your kids not to run around like squirrels or climb on things they should not climb on and accidents will be reduced.
In another example from this year. We were in Typhoon Lagoon in the midst of the Wave pool waves and a young girl about 6 or 7 years old went under the waves and hit her head solidly…when the wave subsided I noticed her crying and went to her and my girlfriend as well, but she could not speak English…NO PARENT was anywhere near her as I tried every bit of Sesame Street Spanish I knew to see if she was okay…finally we escorted the young girl over to a couple of Disney Lifeguards who were nearby…We watched from afar as the Disney staff took good care of the little girl at the far end of the pool…it took about 15 – 20 mins for a FATHER to arrive…was this incident Disney’s fault? Not at all…and the staff were compassionate and attentive…the poor thing had a good sized welt on her head and my question is where were this young girl’s parents while she was in the middle of a gigantic wave pool with a major trust of force.
Self-responsibility seems to be a dying thing in our society. Our kids are out of control because of the teachers and goverment and television…not because of bad parenting skills. You fall in the subway, not because you weren’t being careful, but because the subway authority has to tell you not to run on damp floor tiles.
And if your child is running wild through the crowds at Disneyworld or acting stupid on a ride (contrary to posted rules) and gets injured, that’s Disney’s fault, not yours…accidents happen, if it’s due to someone’s negligence then fine, but if the fault is yours…accept it and stop complaining…
Lifeguards constantly tell people at the Pop Century pools not to put kids/teens on your shoulders, not to dive into the pools and parents standby and watch their kids do it over and over.
Strangely these are often also the parents who bring breakable bottles to the pool areas, smoke everywhere or let their kids eat foods near or IN the pools…these people need to look inward to see who the real children are.
i dont thinnk that is true.
i broke my neck at epcot and tehy came in 10 min. that is pretty good since we were in france
Comments are closed.