Naomi Greer-Wilkinson remains on a ventilator two months after suffering catastrophic injuries on Six Flags Magic Mountain’s X2 roller coaster.
Greer-Wilkinson, 25, has been hospitalized since collapsing at the Southern California theme park in July, her parents, Artemis Greer and Joshua Wilkinson, said Los Angeles. Photos show her surrounded by medical equipment with a breathing tube running from a tracheostomy in her neck, while another image captures her wearing a cervical collar.
“When we got there, they told us to prepare for end of life,” Greer said Los Angeles. “She is in a respiratory hospital trying to get off a ventilator.”
Doctors who treated Greer-Wilkinson and another injured rider said the brain injuries stemmed from a “traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event” experienced on the ride. The family alleges the coaster caused a severe traumatic brain injury that left Greer-Wilkinson in a coma and required emergency brain surgery.
Her case emerged just six days after Pamela Guillen suffered a similar medical emergency on the same attraction. Guillen had been celebrating her daughter Camille Marquez’s 16th birthday when she became confused and disoriented after disembarking X2.
“I remember seeing the fear in my daughter’s eyes and how scared she was,” Guillen said.
Guillen later woke in a hospital to learn she had undergone emergency surgery for a brain bleed. She described her experience in detail.
“I had suffered a traumatic brain injury and needed emergency brain surgery to stop the bleeding and had to be intubated. I was in a coma. I spent almost a month at the hospital.”
Marquez recalled the immediate aftermath of the ride.
“We got off the cart and we saw my mom. She looked lifeless. Not a thought behind her eyes, nothing.”
“She had a brain bleed. My mom had a really bad brain bleed.”
Guillen ultimately regained consciousness and has been undergoing rehabilitation, while Greer-Wilkinson’s condition remains far more precarious.
The X2 features seats that rotate 360 degrees as riders plunge down drops of up to 200 feet at speeds reaching 76 mph. The attraction has been shut down since shortly after Greer-Wilkinson’s injury in July.
Attorneys representing injured riders say more than 100 people have come forward in recent months claiming they suffered some form of brain injury after riding X2. The latest lawsuits against Six Flags allege the coaster has design and safety problems dating back to its opening in 2002.
Six Flags has previously maintained in court filings that X2 undergoes daily inspections and that a rider using the attraction as instructed should not suffer a traumatic brain injury. The company has declined to comment on pending litigation.