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Girl's death at Disney not caused by trauma

By Anthony Colarossi and Jerry W. Jackson
Sentinel Staff Writers

August 5, 2005, 3:08 PM EDT

Jerra Kirby, the 12-year-old girl who collapsed while visiting Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Thursday and died, did not suffer a physical injury before her death, according to an autopsy conducted this morning.

The autopsy "revealed no signs of trauma," said Steve Hanson, chief investigator of the District 9 Medical Examiner's Office, covering Orange and Osceola counties.

"The cause of death is pending additional testing," Hanson said. "There was nothing that stood out as being the cause of death, anatomically. She didn't die from physical injury. That's what trauma is."

It could now take four to six weeks or more to conduct the more sophisticated testing required to determine the cause of death, Hanson said.

Jerra died after passing out at the wave pool at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. She was with a group of relatives from Newport News, Va. It was the third time in three months that a young person has suddenly fallen critically ill while visiting Disney.

Florida's chief investigator for rides and attractions said today that Walt Disney World reported the death of a 12-year-old girl to the state because of the "serious nature" of the incident, but the Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection likely will not investigate.

"From all we know at the moment it does not appear to be ride related," said Allan Harrison, chief investigator. The agency inspects water parks along with fairs and small attractions, but Disney and other major parks are exempt by state law, Harrison said.

Disney asked the state to check out the Tower of Terror ride in July when a teen from England collapsed and was hospitalized with bleeding in the brain after riding the simulated elevator ride. The ride was found to be operating normally.

In June, a Pennsylvania boy collapsed on Epcot's Mission: Space ride and later died. Disney's inspections showed no signs of ride malfunction.

Disney and other large water-park operators such as SeaWorld do file incident reports with the state, Harrison said, when water-park incidents are serious enough to warrant a trip to a hospital, just as the parks do for mechanical rides.

The most serious water-park incident reported to the state by Disney since 2001 was in February 2003 when a 31-year-old woman fell on the steps to a pool at Typhoon Lagoon, fractured an ankle and later died of a pulmonary embolism.

Three other Typhoon Lagoon incident reports were filed in recent years, including one 46-year-old male who had a stroke, according to family members. Five incidents were recorded at Blizzard Beach, another Disney water park, between 2001 and June 2005, according to the most recent state records. Most of the cases involved adults with bumps and sprains but one was an 11-year-old boy who reportedly suffered a seizure.

Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel

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