Woman sues Disney for injuries sustained on water slide

My first thought was, ugh, really? But then I read this...

“She experienced immediate and severe pain internally and, as she stood up, blood began rushing from between her legs.”

Not gonna lie, I always wondered if something like that was a thing. Apparently it is. I don't understand why these slides are still a thing. Anecdotally, I don't know a single person who thinks they're fun. I did one at Geauga Lake in my teen years, and that was enough for me.

Posted a dupe in general, please remove.

I'm curious, is the slide still in operation? You're right that those injuries sound pretty horrific, but also wondering if there was something about this particular woman, as thousands of others seem to have ridden with no issues?

Is this why we’re advised to keep our ankles crossed?

Yes it is, although apparently either she didn't follow directions or that doesn't work.

Without knowing anything about the plaintiff's situation, it reminds me a bit of the time Rudy Giuliani, while still mayor, had jury duty. Not really an incident I would want to be in the news for.

Jeff:

. I don't understand why these slides are still a thing.

What slide was it? I couldn't tell (unless I missed it) from the article.

EDIT: Nevermind. I must be blind.

This is the type I thought it was. I actually really like these; the one at Dollywood (Fireman's plunge, I think?) is the one I most recently went down. I've never not kept my legs crossed, and they always really super-emphasize this at Dollywood. I guess I know why now.

I guess we will (or won't) find out more, but if the rider did not follow the riding instructions, how is the park at fault?

There's an article on CNN (just put 'cnn wedgie' into google news) that has a bit more detail, apparently she tried to maintain legs crossed but went airborne and banged around at the end, causing the spread and subsequent inrush.

That's what I was going to suggest, that it's kind of wild and you may involuntarily "unbundle." But you know that this is going to settle out of court. I don't think it's reasonable to anticipate "gynecologic injuries" and surgery from riding a water slide, and Disney doesn't want details of the injury in the public record.

Complaint:

https://www.sfgate.com/file...89-Doc.pdf

If you ride any of the super speed slides or even watch other people riding them, you can see the risk is there. And from what I have seen, its not uncommon for ankles to become uncrossed and/or arms to flail at some point on these types of slides.

Interesting that from what I have seen, this slide doesn't seem to be one of the tallest/fastest out there (complaint says top speeds are 40mph). Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach is taller/faster. Would expect this isn't the first time something like this has happened? Maybe the others settle before anything goes public/complaint gets filed with other instances.

This reminds me of the McDonald's coffee incident... Which was not as frivolous as a lot of people made it out to be.

Most slides like this have very rough edges between slide segments. Some of them have made my back sore and red. That's the reason I don't ride them anymore. I've never had a major problem with a wedgie, but everyone is different. You see people getting off the slide picking their wedgie all the time.

Yeah, if I’m going to ride body slides I’ll put on a tee shirt.
That’s why I prefer rafts and tubes.
And actually I prefer no water slides at all. I used to be a hound but not anymore.
In riding those straight drop slides I always had to really fight to not put my feet out as a braking measure. I think it’s instinctual, especially if there’s any kind of surprise sensation that a novice might not anticipate. I always felt sorry for the fellas that made the mistake and never realized that the gals might be in danger too.

LostKause:

This reminds me of the McDonald's coffee incident... Which was not as frivolous as a lot of people made it out to be.

Thought of this too. That's been so many people's go to for frivolous lawsuits for years, think there was a Netflix doc that covered it. The woman only sued to have her medical damages covered. The jury awarded her much more because of how reckless it was and how McDonald's legal handled it and treated her.

This one sounds equally awful. I don't like these slides either. But what's weird is this type of slide has been around for a really long time like 30 years or more. Can't think of this ever happening before now.

Remember on Der Stuka, at Wet n Wild staff at the bottom would say something like "please exit to your right, now pick your wedgie".

Le Monster:

Can't think of this ever happening before now.

I was born with thinner-than-normal blood vessels in my nose. I used to get nosebleeds a lot when I was a kid. This made me stop picking my nose, actually. But in my adult years, a hard booger in the winter with the dry furnace heat can poke the blood vessel and give me a slight nose bleed.

My point here is, everyone is different, and have different body types and health issues. Maybe her parts were better suited for this kind of injury than other people.

A few more details of what happened in this article. Sounds awful. I have never ridden one of these slides, and being a guy, I have not given it any thought as to what the water can do to a woman.

Good lord, this does sound terrible, and I’m pretty sure I am never riding a body slide again now. Not really a fan anyway, but I certainly would like to keep my intestines inside my abdominal cavity and not slipping out a perforation into my vagina. Eesh! Did I really just read that?!

In all honesty, I still thought maybe she had some sort of pre-existing condition she didn’t know about and the slide was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back, but reading Shades’ article, it sounds like something common enough that gynecologists aren’t even really batting eyes at it. I’m kind of shocked, even with being a nurse living so close to Dorney/Wildwater. You’d think that would kind of be a general, “Hey, words of wisdom, don’t do such and such slides because we see this type of injury…”. Now I need to ask friends in the ER if this has ever occurred there.