Woman Dies After Water Drinking Contest

[mrtonguetwista]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday.

Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.

"She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad," said Laura Rios, one of Strange's co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento. "She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her."

It was not immediately know how much water Strange consumed.

A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith.

John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station's owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange's death.

"We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred," he said.

Initially, contestants were handed eight-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.

"They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy," said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland. "They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."

Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. "My bladder couldn't handle it anymore," he added.

After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.

"I was talking to her and she was a nice lady," Ybarra said. "She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for kids."

[jeromechickenbone]

damn, fuck that.  I've never heard of that shit before...

from Wikipedia:

Body fluids contain electrolytes (particularly sodium compounds, such as sodium chloride) in concentrations that must be held within very narrow limits. Water enters the body orally or intravenously and leaves the body primarily in the urine and in sweat. If water enters the body more quickly than it can be removed, body fluids are diluted and a potentially dangerous shift in electrolyte balance occurs.

Most water intoxication is caused by hyponatremia, an overdilution of sodium in the blood plasma, which in turn causes an osmotic shift of water from extracellular fluid (outside of cells) to intracellular fluid (within cells). The cells swell as a result of changes in osmotic pressure and may cease to function. When this occurs in the cells of the central nervous system and brain, water intoxication is the result. Additionally, many other cells in the body may undergo cytolysis, wherein cell membranes that are unable to stand abnormal osmotic pressures rupture, killing the cells. Initial symptoms typically include light-headedness, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, headache and/or malaise. Plasma sodium levels below 100 mmol/L (2.3g/L) frequently result in cerebral edema, seizures, coma, and death within a few hours of drinking the excess water. As with alcohol poisoning, the progression from mild to severe symptoms may occur rapidly as the water continues to enter the body from the stomach or intravenously.

A person with two healthy kidneys can excrete about 1.5 litres of water per hour at maximum filtration (other studies find the limit to be as little as 0.9L/h [1]). Consuming as little as 1.8 litres of water in a single sitting may prove fatal for a person adhering to a low-sodium diet, or 3 litres for a person on a normal diet. However, this must be modulated by potential water losses via other routes. For example, a person who is perspiring heavily may lose 1 L/h of water through perspiration alone, thereby raising the threshold for water intoxication. The problem is further complicated by the amount of electrolytes lost in urine or sweat, which is variable within a range controlled by the body's regulatory mechanisms. Water intoxication can be prevented by consuming water that is isotonic with water losses, but the exact concentration of electrolytes required is difficult to determine and evolves over time, and the greater the time period involved, the smaller the disparity that may suffice to produce electrolyte imbalance and water intoxication.

[swangin and bangin]

i live in SAC, 1079 is a cracka staion they bump justin timberlake and jo jo all day, fuck em

[Nutty]

How common is this water intoxication thingy

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Anyone who knows anything about ecstasy will tell you that too much water can kill you...I'm surprised these idiots even allowed a fucking contest like this to go on.

[Bedford Iz Active]

Anyone who knows anything about ecstasy will tell you that too much water can kill you...I'm surprised these idiots even allowed a fucking contest like this to go on.

True, i heard about that, some next biatch took ecstasy pills and drank tooo much water killing her in the news or something over in the UK, sounds like a stupid contest when they didn't know too much water can kill you lol.

[Suffice]

Fuck man, this sucks. R.I.P.

[mrtonguetwista]

Fuck that, who won the Wii? 

[I.B. BLVD]

They should give her the Wii anyways for her kids.

[Mr. O]

fuck that..sue the station.

[swangin and bangin]

fuck that..sue the station.

why?
she signed a release fourm, bitch should have read it.

[Mr. O]

fuck that..sue the station.

why?
she signed a release fourm, bitch should have read it.

Yeah, but I don't think they realised that it could kill someone.

[MontrealCity's Most]

she must of drank a shitload of water. My dr told me about this once but again it had to be a shitload

[Chief]

Anyone who knows anything about ecstasy will tell you that too much water can kill you...I'm surprised these idiots even allowed a fucking contest like this to go on.

yep i was about to say the same thing.

[Scarfacetony]

Fuck man, this sucks. R.I.P.