Rider Describes Alarming Symptoms After Six Flags X2 as Two Women Suffer Severe Brain Injuries
Two women suffered life-threatening brain hemorrhages during the same week after going on a roller coaster at California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain last month.
Reports say both women underwent brain surgery. At the time this article was written, one remained in a coma.
The attraction associated with the devastating injuries is X2. The coaster reaches speeds as high as 76 mph, while its seats spin 360 degrees forward and backward as passengers plunge down a 200-foot drop and pass through several half-loops.
Six Flags promotes X2 as a rite of passage for the boldest thrill seekers. Online accounts, however, suggest that the ride has developed a troubling history involving numerous alleged cases of passengers sustaining major injuries.
Those reported incidents are said to have led to several hospitalizations and two fatalities across nearly two decades.
X2 has remained shut since mid-July 2026, although Six Flags has not disclosed the precise reason for the closure.
The latest riders to be seriously hurt were Pamela Guillen, a 40-year-old Hawaii resident, and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, from Los Angeles. Both required urgent brain operations after riding X2 only days apart during the first half of July.
Guillen already felt nervous about boarding the coaster, but she wanted to ride alongside her 16-year-old daughter. During the trip, her head repeatedly struck the headrest. She began vomiting when the car returned to the station and then lost consciousness soon afterward.
A photograph from May 22 shows Jacque Marquez and Sarah Martinez among X2’s first riders, captured during the coaster’s Media Day at Six Flags Magic Mountain on May 22, 2008, in Valencia, California.
A CT scan found that Guillen had severe bleeding beneath the skull and dangerous compression of the brain.
She emerged from a coma two weeks later. Her hair had been shaved and her scalp stapled, and she could not remember what had happened.
Only six days after Guillen was injured, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson rode X2 with her twin brother and younger sister. She also became unconscious shortly afterward and was taken for emergency surgery on her brain.
Her relatives say physicians warned them to expect the worst. More than a month later, she is still in a coma and breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Naomi’s mother, Artemis Greer, told CNN that her daughter should never, under any circumstances, have been allowed the option of boarding that ride.
Her father said the people responsible for deciding that X2 should continue operating have many questions to answer.
In an email obtained by CNN, the doctors who cared for both patients said they believed the X2 coaster directly caused the injuries.
The medical team wrote that, in their professional judgment, the critical brain trauma that demanded emergency neurosurgery resulted from the sudden and violent acceleration and deceleration experienced on X2.
They further explained that Guillen’s and Greer-Wilkinson’s injuries resembled the damage doctors would anticipate following a high-speed vehicle crash or a forceful fall.
CNN’s investigation also connected X2 with other reported traumatic brain injuries going back almost 20 years.
In 2021, Lucy Alvarez, 46, received a traumatic brain injury diagnosis after riding X2 and striking the back of her head forcefully against the headrest.
After returning to San Diego, Alvarez continued suffering from dizziness and pain in her head. A visit to the emergency room confirmed that she had a traumatic subdural hematoma.
Her lawyer says the injury compelled her to leave nursing school and has caused continuing memory difficulties, balance issues and chronic migraines. Her lawsuit is scheduled for trial in October 2027.
In 2022, 22-year-old Christopher Hawley boarded X2 with his brother and cousin. Each of the three riders hit his head against the seat while on the coaster.
Hawley said he felt lightheaded before he passed out. In later court testimony, his cousin recalled the terror in Hawley’s expression as his eyes shut, saying the moment would remain with him forever.
A CT scan at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital showed catastrophic trauma to Hawley’s brain. He died the next day.
Six Flags has said only that the attraction remains closed. The company has not explained what caused the shutdown or provided a date for a possible reopening.
