A 10-year-old’s dream of riding the biggest slide in a water park tragically turned deadly as she went into cardiac arrest while going down the chute.
London Eisenbeis, 10, had been looking forward to experiencing the Super Loop Speed Slide at Zehnder’s Splash Village in Michigan.
It was in February 2018 when London finally reached the slide’s height requirement, so she headed straight for the biggest slide and waited for her turn to plunge down the 273 foot-long chute.
What her family didn’t know was that London was suffering from Long QT syndrome, a heart condition that causes abnormal rhythms.
When she finally achieved her dream of experiencing the slide, her heart rate increased and she went into cardiac arrest.
Her mother, Tina, father, Jerry, and sister, Eden, have dedicated their time to raise awareness about the importance of a device called heart defibrillators as they believe it could’ve saved the life of their precious angel.
“There were no signs of the condition, she just dropped,” Tina expressed. “The day before she had been doing flips in the air.”
“You never know when it’s going to happen,” she added. “You never think it’s going to happen to you and this is not a club you want to be part of.”
In the video shared by Tina with The Sun, London tells the camera: “We’re going to get some footage of our water slides so stay tuned for more videos.”
Eden, London, and their dad departed for the big slide, which has a 48-inch minimum height requirement. Riders plunge down 273 feet within a 360-degree loop in only 7 seconds.
Tina stayed back and waited for her family to come back from the slide but things turned tragic when she noticed a whistle going off and children started evacuating the pools.
“I was like, ‘Oh, there’s probably kids messing around. But within maybe minutes I started seeing women looking terrified. One woman was walking with two children, grabbing them,” she told The Sun. “She said, ‘Somebody’s drowned over there.’ I kind of got nervous.”
Tina walked over to the area and saw every parent’s worst nightmare. “[Jerry] was looking down and there were sheets up and I knew it was one of my kids,” she said. “It was an awful thing.”
“The slide she went down has a heartbeat sound at the top that my husband said made it even scarier,” Tina added. “Who would have ever thought she would come out the bottom without one?”
London was rushed to Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw and airlifted to the University of Michigan’s children’s hospital.
“She fought for nine days in hospital… then she gained her angel wings,” Tina expressed.
Tina said she believed using a defibrillator could have saved London’s life. “I think people are afraid of defibrillators, but they’re very easy to use. They’re what is needed to bring back the rhythm.”
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