Recent story about Heather's accident from the Orlando Sentinel
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-prem-bz-disney-epcot-injury-20210503-fnjuluoy5ncqxm5scl7ymxromy-story.htmlShe was supposed to perform in an Epcot show at Disney. Instead, a brain injury upended her life.
By GABRIELLE RUSSON
ORLANDO SENTINEL
MAY 03, 2021 AT 1:04 PM
Heather Morrow, 47, suffered a traumatic brain injury while testing a kite at the Kiteman site off Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway, according to Orange Circuit Court documents filed against her employer after Morrow and her mother sued in January 2020.
Heather Morrow’s father bought her a kite when she was young, and that hobby eventually morphed into a career that took her around the world performing aerial wonders.
Her next show was to be at Disney World at the Epcot Forever nighttime fireworks spectacular debuting in October 2019.
“She was very passionate about what she did and fell in love with kites a long time ago and wanted to share her passion,” said Bruce Flora, president of Orlando-based Kiteman Productions where she was working in summer 2019.
Tragedy struck about two months before the Epcot show kicked off.
Morrow, 47, suffered a traumatic brain injury while testing a kite at the Kiteman site off Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway, according to Orange Circuit Court documents filed against her employer after Morrow and her mother sued in January 2020.
The folksy, upbeat woman from Colorado who loved Tango dancing and yoga slowly relearned how to walk while she racked up $5 million in medical bills from 10 brain surgeries and months in rehabilitation, according to her attorney Patton Youngblood.
But in the past few months, Morrow, mother of a teenage son, has suffered major setbacks. She had surgery on her ankles because she couldn’t lift her feet after spending so much time lying down. Her family has considered calling hospice, her attorney said.
“It’s really enraging to see her as she is now when she was really making progress. They literally had her standing and walking and now she’s just laying in bed trembling ... in a lot of pain,” Youngblood said.
Her family had started a GoFundMe page to help with her expenses, which have largely been covered by Medicaid.
Morrow was in Orlando to start getting ready for the Epcot show when she sat in the back of a vehicle’s cab, facing outward with the door open, as she held onto her kites’ handles on July 27, 2019, according to court documents.
Normally, flyers steer the large kites while they are harnessed to both the kite and attached to a vehicle or a boat so they won’t be lifted in the air, the lawsuit said.
But on this day, Morrow wasn’t secured into the truck, the lawsuit said, accusing the driver of not checking to make sure Morrow was safe first before starting.
“Watching the 8-foot to test the tails,” said a man filming as Morrow climbed in and took the handles with the kite propped up the vehicle. “Heather is flying.”
A female voice can be heard counting down, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!″ and then the truck zoomed down what looks like a private road in an industrial area by a long white warehouse.
For about a second, the white kite jerkily popped up only a few feet off the ground and then fell back down again. Morrow, a small figure in the distance, can be seen hitting the pavement as she fell from the truck.
“Oh my God!” the man on the camera exclaimed and the video cuts out.
The lawsuit further described what happened.
“Unfortunately, as the vehicle moved and the rope/cord tightened and pulled the kite, the force pulled Ms. Morrow out of the back of the vehicle and she fell out of the vehicle, landing on her back and head, causing her to suffer a severe head injury,” court documents said.
The kite was “heavier than everyone thought it was going to be,” Youngblood said. “You wouldn’t think a kite of this size would give you that much pullback. The way it snapped when the rope tightened and that little, unexpected tug that was just enough to pull her out of the truck.”
Morrow’s injury was not reported to Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said agency spokesman Eric Lucero.
By law, employers are required to report when employees are hospitalized within 24 hours from a work-related incident to OSHA. However, OSHA, which investigates workplace injuries and issues fines as penalties, has a statute of limitations of six months from an incident to issue citations on previously unreported cases.
Morrow and her mother sued Kiteman, alleging employees weren’t properly trained or supervised and Morrow wasn’t given a helmet. In March, Morrow was awarded $200,000 in settlement money.
The settlement came from both State Farm, which insured the man driving the vehicle during the accident, and underinsured motorists insurer, USAA, according to a judge’s order filed March 25. Sixty thousand dollars went to attorney fees.
Flora said he wanted to stress Disney was not connected to the incident.
“We were doing some testing,” he said. “It was not for the Disney show.”
He’s known Morrow for nearly 30 years, remembering when he hired her to perform at Epcot when was about 19 years old for 1991′s Surprise in the Sky daytime show that ran for a year at the park.
“We love her dearly... We really miss her and wish she could have been a part of the things we were doing,” Flora said. “Mostly we’re just sad this happened and are very sad there wasn’t a more positive way to work through this.”
Flora’s kites that appeared in the Epcot Forever show had a shorter than expected run when the pandemic canceled the special nighttime entertainment.
grusson@orlandosentinel.com
Kite flyer who was injured in 2019 accident dies at age 49
By GABRIELLE RUSSON
ORLANDO SENTINEL |
MAY 18, 2021 AT 2:32 PM
Heather Morrow
Heather Morrow died last week after suffering a brain injury in 2019 when she fell out of a moving vehicle while flying a stunt kite, her family confirmed Tuesday.
Morrow, a Colorado native, was in Orlando and testing the kites in July 2019 when the accident happened at Kiteman Productions, an Orlando-based business that has performed shows in the theme parks.
Morrow was set to perform with Kiteman within a few months for the Epcot Forever nighttime show that debuted in October 2019.
But instead of performing in front of the Disney crowds, Morrow underwent several surgeries and months of rehabilitation to relearn how to walk and regain her motor skills, according to a lawsuit her family later filed against Kiteman. The case was later settled in March for $200,000.