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One of the recent victims of Six Flags' X2 rollercoaster has spoken out about her experience after suffering a brain injury.
The controversial ride in question has left two people dead and many others injured, but following the two latest incidents, the ride has been shut down, 25 years on from its opening.
Experts warned about the safety of the attraction over the years, as cases of injured visitors started to pile up.
X2 has remained closed since July 12 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California.
The latest incident involved Hawaii resident Pamela Guillen, 40, and Los Angeles resident Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, who both needed emergency brain surgery after riding X2 in July.
While the latter remains in a coma, Guillen and her family have spoken out about what they have gone through.
Speaking weeks after coming out of a coma after an X2 ride, Guillen admitted: “I’m very lucky to be alive.
“I’m taking it a day at a time to not overwhelm myself and to not go into a dark hole of mourning who I was and what I was able to do before this,” she added.
Reflecting on the incident, the 40-year-old last remembered riding X2 in July and how anxious she felt before riding the iconic attraction.
But her daughter, 16, desperately wanted her to join her on the coaster, as Guillen told herself it'd be the last ride of the day and be over in a matter of minutes.
Little did she know that the effects would last far longer than that.
The mom was looking forward to a nice dinner with her family, where they would be celebrating her daughter's birthday, she told CNN.
On the ride, which dipped and swerved several times, Guillen hit her head numerous times on the headrest, according to ambulance records.
They also stated that when her car pulled back into the station, she had to be escorted from her seat and started to throw up.
Guillen's daughter, Camille Marquez, said that her mom's eyes and mouth remained open, like she was still in shock from the ride.
The mom had lost consciousness as soon as she sat on a bench, with ambulance records showing that paramedics found her unresponsive, while her pupils looked unequal and 'sluggish'.
Looking back on the harrowing situation, the teen remembered telling her mom: “Mommy, please wake up,
“I kept rubbing her thigh and kept shaking her to wake up and she wouldn’t.”
The mother was placed on a ventilator in the back of an ambulance, with a CT scan revealing that she had a severe subdural hematoma and brain compression.
Doctors made the decision to intubate her, taking her straight into the operating room.
Her family waited for news as the surgical team worked to remove park of Guillen's skull to release the pressure on her brain.
Luckily, Guillen woke up in a hospital bed two weeks later with her head shaved and 20 staples in her scalp.
She had no idea what had happened, and could only speak one word at a time.
Guillen explained: “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,
“There’s a difference between being jerked around and brain damage.”
The mom had to slowly learn to talk and walk again, saying that she struggles with headaches and brain fog, with medication needed to prevent seizures.
