Terrifying Incident at Disney World: 5‑Year-Old Boy Goes into Cardiac Arrest on Rollercoaster

A Family’s Nightmare at Disney World

On Sep­tem­ber 21st, 2024, a fam­i­ly out­ing to Walt Dis­ney World took a dra­mat­ic turn when their 5‑year-old son, Ernesto Tagle, expe­ri­enced a life-threat­en­ing med­ical emer­gency on one of the park’s thrilling attractions.

Cardiac Arrest on the Rollercoaster

Ernesto and his par­ents, Ernesto and Chris­tine Tagle, were rid­ing Guardians of the Galaxy: Cos­mic Rewind, an enclosed roller coast­er in Epcot, when the unthink­able hap­pened. About 20 sec­onds into the ride, Ernesto sud­den­ly stopped breath­ing and start­ed seiz­ing, leav­ing his fran­tic par­ents fear­ing for his life.

“I was scream­ing, hit­ting him, and say­ing some­thing’s wrong,” Chris­tine Tagle told Fox 35 of the incident.

Heroic Efforts to Save the Boy

The Tagle fam­i­ly, who are Dis­ney passh­old­ers, quick­ly sprang into action. Chris­tine Tagle per­formed CPR on her son as soon as the 60-mph coast­er came to a stop. For­tu­nate­ly, the fam­i­ly was assist­ed by a pass­ing cou­ple, a nurse, an EMT, and a Dis­ney employ­ee who pro­vid­ed an auto­mat­ed exter­nal defib­ril­la­tor to revive the boy’s heart before he was rushed to the hos­pi­tal via helicopter.

Diagnosis and Recovery

After under­go­ing a series of tests, Ernesto was diag­nosed with a rare heart con­di­tion called cat­e­cholamin­er­gic poly­mor­phic ven­tric­u­lar tachy­car­dia (CPVT). This con­di­tion can cause life-threat­en­ing heart arrhyth­mias dur­ing peri­ods of extreme excite­ment or activ­i­ty, such as rid­ing a rollercoaster.

Doc­tors placed a device in Ernesto’s chest to treat his heart con­di­tion, and the relieved fam­i­ly report­ed that he is now recov­er­ing at home with no signs of brain or heart dam­age. The fam­i­ly expressed grat­i­tude for the quick-think­ing indi­vid­u­als who helped save their son’s life.

“We just feel so lucky this did­n’t rob us of his smile and ener­gy,” Chris­tine Tagle said.

This inci­dent serves as a sober­ing reminder of the impor­tance of safe­ty pre­cau­tions and emer­gency pre­pared­ness at theme parks, where thrilling rides can pose risks for guests with under­ly­ing med­ical con­di­tions. The Tagle fam­i­ly’s har­row­ing expe­ri­ence high­lights the need for con­tin­ued vig­i­lance and col­lab­o­ra­tion between theme park oper­a­tors, med­ical per­son­nel, and guests to ensure the well-being of all visitors.