NBC News<\/a> wrote.<\/p>\nCNN reported that hundreds of other X2 riders came forward but were ineligible to sue.<\/p>\n
In those cases, the injuries were not brain related, or there was not proof of medical treatment.<\/p>\n
Dozens of injuries and hospitalisations<\/p>\n
Over almost two decades, the ride has been linked to more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalisations.<\/p>\n
Several of those injured suffered life-altering disabilities.<\/p>\n
Two women\u201426-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson and 40-year-old Pamela Guillen\u2014 fell unconscious after disembarking the rollercoaster and presented to the emergency department where they both underwent brain surgery within days of each other.<\/p>\n
The theme park\u2019s lawyers have fought against lawsuits from injured riders, saying that \u201cthere are inherent risks in the participation in or on any amusement ride or attraction\u201d, and arguing that the physical force is not strong enough to cause a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n
However, Californian neurosurgeons who treated the women in July disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our professional opinion, the severe brain injuries requiring emergent neurosurgical attention were the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since suffering from a severe subdural haematoma and brain compression, Ms Guillen has had to re-learn how to walk and talk.<\/p>\n
She did not regain consciousness for two weeks.<\/p>\n
Six days after the first incident, Ms Greer-Wilkinson experienced the same symptoms after riding the X2 rollercoaster and wound up in a coma, where she remains.<\/p>\n
The two women allege in their lawsuit that the amusement park \u201ccontinued to operate X2 without adequately investigating the cause of her injury or warning subsequent riders\u201d.<\/p>\n
The third suit was filed by Michael Wilk, who said he suffered brain bleeding after riding the rollercoaster in February and has had multiple brain surgeries.<\/p>\n
He told CNN he had been left disabled and regularly struggled with severe headaches, memory loss, and brain fog.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brain has difficulty processing the words, and so unless it\u2019s extraordinarily clear and loud, my brain gets the word wrong. I think I miss about half the conversations I\u2019m in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly hope that by coming forward, changes will be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six Flags declined to comment on the pending litigation, CNN wrote.<\/p>\n
Fatal rollercoaster rides<\/p>\n
In 2010, Hildar Farias, 28, died after riding X2.<\/p>\n
Her cause of death was believed to be a brain abnormality that ruptured because of the intensity of the ride.<\/p>\n
In 2022, a 22-year-old man, Christopher Hawley, died mere hours after riding the rollercoaster, despite being in excellent health prior to the ride.<\/p>\n
The neurosurgeon who treated him likened his injuries to \u201cshaken baby syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n
CNN revealed that in the three year\u2019s prior to Hawley\u2019s death, the park had received at least 70 reports of head and neck injuries associated with X2.<\/p>\n
Six Flags did not answer questions posed by CNN last month about the injuries, instead simply responding, \u201cthe ride remains closed at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 people have come forward, claiming they sustained brain injuries while riding a terrifying rollercoaster. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-903335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}