Posts Tagged ‘hazing’

Death By Water

Hold Your Wee for a Wii Turns Deadly

Its an almost unbelievable story, a 28 year old mother of three is competing in a radio show contest to win a brand new Nintendo Wii for her children. She consumes massive amounts of water and literally dies the next day from water intoxication poisoning (also called hyperhydration). Hyperhydration is basically when your body consumes so much water that it puts your body out of its natural balance of water to electrolytes. When you perspire, you not only lose water but also electrolytes. To rehydrate, drinking water is usually safe for most of us, but massive quantities can be deadly as in the case with Jennifer Strange, who died January 12th of 2007 due to this radio contest. Even more troubling are the facts that KDND 107.9 was privy to many of the warning signs and had callers calling in warning of the dangers of water poisoning. The station was also was aware of an incident in 2005 at California State University where a college student died of this during a hazing incident due to hyperhydration. Unfortunately no criminal charges were brought up against the station but the FCC is investigating the incident.

Hyperhydration is also something to keep in mind with small children. In 2002 a 3 year old died from being forced to drink 3/4 of a gallon of water as a form of punishment by her babysitter. Fortunately there was some justice in this case as babysitter was charged with 1st degree murder. Children are more susceptible to water poisoning simply due to them being smaller than adults.

Marathon runners, other high performance athletes , and really anyone perspiring a lot during a real long work out also need to be wary of water intoxication. This is why Gatorade is such a popular item for athletes as it is loaded with all the ingredients which we sweat out. It is still smart to drink water if dehydrated, as the number of deaths by dehydration strongly outweighs death by massive water consumption, however one should always be aware of this in case they are in a similar situation to any listed above.

People who are ill also need to keep in mind that water intoxication is possible although in most cases it is out of our control. Well known artist Andy Warhol, known for his paintings of Campbell’s Soup, Coca-Cola and other famous American products and icons in the 1960′s, died in 1987 from water intoxication. Warhol was in the hospital for a routine gallbladder surgery, but due to the hospital staff mistakenly overloading him with fluids, he died of a heart attack caused by hyperhydration.

The actual odds of one dying by water intoxication is extremely low. Again if you are dehydrated, don’t fear drinking water as dehydration is responsible for at least 300 deaths a year in the United States alone and is surmised to cause 2 million deaths per year in the world. However, if you are in any of the situations listed above, it might be a good idea to have some Gatorade on hand just in case.