Disney Death Linked To Health Woes

An autopsy shows that the German woman who became ill this week after riding one of the attractions at Walt Disney World died a day later from bleeding in the brain.

The medical examiner's office in Orlando says the woman had severe and long-standing high blood pressure.

The statement says there was no evidence of trauma.

But it will be several weeks before the official cause and manner of death is made available.

State officials say the 49-year-old woman felt dizzy and nauseous after riding "Mission: Space" on Tuesday. She was taken to a hospital, where she died a day later.

Disney reopened the attraction Thursday after engineers found it was operating properly.

The $100 million Epcot space ride, one of Disney World's most popular, was closed in June after the death of a 4-year-old boy, the son of a United Nations worker from Uganda, but reopened after company engineers concluded it was operating normally.

An autopsy found he died of an irregular heartbeat linked to natural causes.

One warning sign posted in 2004 in front of the ride read: "For safety you should be in good health, and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness or other conditions that can be aggravated by this adventure."

"Mission: Space" spins riders in a centrifuge that subjects them to twice the normal force of gravity, and is so intense that some riders have been taken to the hospital with chest pain.

Two adults in poor health and a 12-year-old Virginia girl died last year at Walt Disney World, out of the millions who visit the park each year.

In February, a 70-year-old man was injured while attempting to board the park's Peter Pan ride. A 16-year-old British girl who suffered cardiac arrest July 12 after riding the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at the park was still in critical condition when she was flown home by air ambulance in August.