Morgan alleges the grandmother suffered cardiac arrest and died a few hours after seeing the snake bite the boy, CBS News reports.
Morgan said he plans to file a formal lawsuit against Disney for the injuries the boy sustained and for the death of the boy’s grandmother. He added that family member’s names aren’t being revealed at this time, WKMG Click Orlando reports.
He said the incident happened at the Walt Disney World theme park in Oct. 2014.
Morgan said the family alleges the snake escaped the park and entered an area reserved for the public. He also added that the family claims the snake dropped out of the tree and bit the child.
Jacquee Wahler, a Disney spokeswoman said the allegations are a mischaracterization of what happened, The Associated Press reports.
Disney, however, said the snake was wild and not part of an Animal Kingdom exhibit. Further, no one called for an ambulance for the grandmother after the incident, Disney contends, adding that the family returned to the park after the boy was treated with a Band-Aid.
The woman’s family said she started having breathing problems immediately after witnessing the incident, WKMG reports, WKMG reports.
Morgan said the woman was in her late 80s or early 90s and was in a wheelchair and added that she was taken to the hospital a day later. She died two days after the child was bitten, he noted.
The theme park is Disney’s largest at more than 500 acres. It opened on Earth Day, April 22, 1998, and it’s the fourth most-visited theme park in the U.S., Theme Park Insider reports.
Animal Kingdom was specifically located further away from Disney’s other theme parks and developments to provide a more isolated environment for the animals, although it’s not all that isolated — it draws over nine million visitors each year.
Note: Some reports say that the woman was the child’s great-grandmother.
