Posted on 08/28/2026 12:12:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Pamela Guillen, 40, told CNN she was visiting Magic Mountain to celebrate her daughter’s 16th birthday and they decided to make X2 the final ride of the day before heading to dinner.
During the ride’s 3,600-foot course, Guillen repeatedly struck her head against the headrest and, when the train returned to the station, needed assistance exiting her seat and began vomiting, according to ambulance records obtained by CNN.
She lost consciousness and became unresponsive after sitting down on a bench.
“Mommy, please wake up,” her daughter, Marquez, recalled saying to her mother. “I kept rubbing her thigh and kept shaking her to wake up and she wouldn’t.”
Guillen was rushed to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, where a CT scan revealed a severe subdural hematoma and brain compression, her family said. She underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain, a procedure that required surgeons to remove part of her skull.
She woke up in a hospital bed two weeks later and could not remember what had happened.
“You go in as yourself, and then when you come back, you’re a medical emergency. Like I still can’t wrap my head around that,” Guillen said.
Six days later, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson of Los Angeles lost consciousness shortly after riding X2, according to her family. She also was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and underwent emergency brain surgery.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
I have a bad memory of that park but nowhere near what others in this article suffered through. In 1984, we went to Magic Mountain figuring with the Olympics in town, it wouldn’t be terribly crowded. I don’t remember if it was or not. It was just MISERABLY HOT and I got heat prostration..I couldn’t get enough water to drink - just wanted to find a patch of grass to lie down....Only time in my life that ever happened.
There wouldn’t be enough money to get me on that cotton pickin’ amusement ride in this report....I loved roller coasters in my young years but even that one would be too much for me. The best was in Santa Cruz....
And Action Park was given the name “Traction Park”.
A Humans head weight is between 8 to 10 pounds multiply that by ‘G Forces’ and before long you Have Lost Your Noggin.
Considering all the people who have ridden the X2 and we get 2 people with serious injuries, I would guess the victims had weak blood vessels(congenitally or disease related), or a coagulation problem, disease or drug related.
Should be warning at the ride.
“Don’t take this ride if you are 60 years or older, or have or suspect you have medical problems. Rarely, a rider may sustain life changing, life threatening, or fatal injuries.”
But....thrills over safety....FOMO is important to lots of people.
Thank you, brother. I tried my hand at a number of different things in my youth - had a bit of wanderlust and tried hard to sate it without much success until I started turning the big wheel.
the other organs same thing. Stuff I never knew.
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