Disney parks are well known to be billed as the happiest places on earth, where dreams really do come true. So it would really put a dampener on everyone's day if someone died.
But now a man who says he is an ex-Disney World employee has fuelled a bizarre conspiracy theory that it's actually impossible to die at Disney. And although the urban myth has been proven to be entirely false, it still makes for a wild ride.
A viral video posted on TikTok by user @Tcruznc has been watched more than half a million times, as he captioned the clip: "Disney does not play, you can not die at Disney World if you wanted to!"
Speaking in front of a picture which he says shows his younger self working at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, US, he makes the bold claim: "No one has ever, or will ever, die inside of a Disney park or property. It is the happiest place on earth and you can't have your guests dying there."
Recalling the "super hot day" the photo was taken, he says a man had collapsed at the park and the emergency services were called while a doctor waiting in line attended to him, but the ex-worker says the man "was not breathing" the entire time.
"They were doing CPR on him, trying to revive him," he says. "No luck, [it was] 15 minutes before they finally got through the park to come help him out, stretchered him out, kept resuscitating him all the way until the end.
"I was like 'this guy is dead, why are they still trying to bring him back?' And the manager was like 'no one dies at Disney World, everyone is resuscitated or attempted into resuscitation until they're off the property. Then they're formally declared dead'."
However, the claim has been debunked by fact checking website Snopes which investigated the long-running urban legend that 'no one is ever declared dead while on Disney theme park property' due to the idea that people are removed from the park before being declared dead.
It said that due to protocols carried out by paramedics and the size of the park, which requires a helicopter to transport people to hospital as quickly as possible, it's very unlikely people would be pronounced dead within the park "regardless of how The Walt Disney Company felt about the matter".
The article reads: "It should be noted that in some jurisdictions once paramedics begin life-saving efforts they cannot discontinue those efforts until the patient has been transported to a medical facility, even if the patient is obviously dead; therefore, what someone might interpret as 'flogging a dead body' to delay a determination of death could actually be a legally required procedure."
And despite even this, it then cites various news articles where it has been reported that victims of accidents within the parks had in fact been pronounced dead at the scene, putting the whole claim to bed. You can read the full report here.
The Walt Disney Company has been contacted for comment.
