Girl dies from heart attack halfway down water slide

A girl suffered a heart attack while going down a water slide at a US park.

10-year-old London Eisenbeis, hailing from Michigan, was excited when she was queuing up for an 83m long water slide. She had waited two years to be tall enough to realise her dream of riding the longest slide in a water park.

The extreme excitement she felt caused her death.

Neither London nor her family knew that she was suffering from a heart condition known as Long QT syndrome, which can cause life-threatening irregular heart rhythms.

“London looked at her dad, gave two thumbs up and smiled, went down the slide and came out in cardiac arrest. The excitement threw her rhythm,” her mother Tina Eisenbeis said.

The girl was taken to hospital and put on life support, but nine days later she passed away.

Since the incident that occurred in 2018, Tina has been raising awareness about hidden cardiac conditions and also having more defribilators on hand, which she believes could have saved London’s life, had it been available.

“The slide she went down has a heartbeat sound at the top that my husband said made it even scarier. Who would have ever thought she would come out the bottom without one?” Tina said.