A customer comes into the bookstore today, asks for me by name. An employee gets me out of the back office. The customer takes a sigh of relief... "oh thank God you're alive..."
Jeffery Reeb, a 44-year old Florida Native, passed away earlier this week in the Disney Animal Park Theme Park. I'll let the Associated Press tell the story:
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A pre-existing heart condition caused the death of a man who was stricken while riding a Walt Disney World roller coaster, the Orange County medical examiner's office said Wednesday.
Jeffery Reeb, 44, of Navarre, was unresponsive when removed from the Expedition Everest ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom on Tuesday.
He was pronounced dead at Celebration Hospital.
Following Reeb's death, the ride was reopened Tuesday afternoon after an inspection found it was operating properly.
Prior to Reeb's death, at least 15 people had died at Disney's theme parks in Florida and California since 1989, some with previous health conditions.
Jeffery Reeb, never knew ye. Hope the ride was worth the price.
JeffREy ReeD will be @ Disney (as part of the mystery vacation) December 27-31. I'm sure I'll take a stab at Expedition Everest while I'm there. And I'll be trying my best to stay out of AP while I'm on vacation.
Here's to not being #17!
And no, I'm nowhere near 44 years old. Hairline is. Physically not.
UPDATE: 12/20/07 - 8:07pm
PS - There's some confusion to this guy's real name. Some news sources are saying it's Jeffery ReeB, others are saying it's Jeffery ReeD. I dunno. But if it is ReeD, uh, maybe I'm not going on that ride next week.
On another note, it's pretty sad that a guy died a couple days ago... and we're still not sure what his name is!
Yeah. It is sad that they still can't report his name right. By the way, I heard this story and thought about you, sort of. See I know a guy at work named Jeff Reed....not kidding. But man, they thought you were 44? Thats tough man, you don't look a day over 40.
Posted by: Eddy | 2007.12.20 at 09:00 PM