Too much water kills woman in 'wee' contest

[xXHalfSliceXx]

Too much water kills woman in 'wee' contest - World - Times Online

Too much water kills woman in 'wee' contest

A woman from California has died after taking part in a radio competition to drink as much water as she could without going to the toilet.

Jennifer Lea Strange, 28, was found dead in her Sacramento home by her mother at 2pm on Friday after taking part in "Hold Your Wee for a Wii", a competition to win the new Nintendo Wii console.

At around 9am that day, she had joined 18 other participants in a contest to see how much water they could consume without going to the lavatory in a competition being run by the radio station KDND 107.9.

The contest — during which participants were initially handed 237-millilitre bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes, and then given larger quantities if they lasted long enough — was around three hours long.

Ed Smith, the Sacramento County assistant coroner, said Ms Strange, a medical secretary, was likely to have died of the rare condition of water intoxication. He said that a preliminary autopsy could not determine exactly how much water Ms Strange had consumed, but it was "excessive". The woman had no life-threatening medical conditions and that her sudden death was "consistent with a water-intoxication death", Mr Smith added.

Water intoxication, or water poisoning, is a potentially fatal condition when a person consumes a large quantity of water and their bodily fluids become overly diluted, causing sodium levels to fall below normal. This can lead to brain swelling, seizures, coma and, in severe cases, death.

Even though the Sacramento sheriff's department has ruled out investigating the death as a criminal matter, John Geary, the vice-president of Entercom Sacramento, the radio station's owner, said staff were stunned by Ms Strange's death, and are "awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred".

According to Laura Rios, one of Ms Strange's co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento, she had called her supervisor on Friday shortly after she left the contest complaining of a headache, and said that she was going home for the day. "She was crying, and that was the last that anyone had heard from her," the colleague said.

Ms Strange's death is the latest accident to be associated with the Nintendo Wii, the new interactive console which has led to reports of injuries all over the world. Gamers pick up a controller and move their bodies in accordance with what's happening on the screen. In a tennis programe, for instance, players swing their arms to simulate ground strokes.

So many injuries have occurred that a website, Wii Injury.com - The Collection of Nintendo Wii Games Console Accidents, has been set up by enthusiasts to share each others' injury experiences, and advise on how to play more safely.

[xtraze]

I never knew that a gaming console can kill anyone, I don't know about Wii but I'm sure it's not worth dying for.

[TcM]

Well nothing is worth dying for! Hmm sad story, trying to win a stupid Wii and you die...

[xtraze]

And a bit funny as well, I can't drink water like that for anything. And I have to goto the ????? daily at least 1 time. lol

Even water can be poison if we drink too much.

[AfTriX]

Sad Story, When you drank too much out of the above "tankard" you were said to be "tanked" ... if you got so "tanked" that you passed out, there was a chance that somebody might think you had actually died. Since back then they didn't have experience with taking pulses, they often buried people alive who were actually in a drunken stupor or otherwise comatose.

[Kaabi]

And nobody wants to be buried alive. The claustrophobia in itself is more intoxicating then three martinis. Not four though, not four...

[xtraze]

Well, simply I must say that that girl is completely MAD.
Or a ???????????? ( I forgot the word, something they say for over addicted guys )

But many things happen in this world.

[sankarj]

I don't know why she would have drunk so much water. She could have just gotten Wii later. By now, it won't be hard to find one.

[WillB]

And nobody wants to be buried alive. The claustrophobia in itself is more intoxicating then three martinis. Not four though, not four...

Claustrophbia is one f***in nightmare too.