Radio Contest Dies During Radio Stunt Trying To Win A Wii

[NedNickerson]

http://au.news.yahoo.com//070114/2/1228q.html

Woman Dies Of Water Intoxication

A 28-year-old woman has died of water intoxication after taking part in a Californian radio station's water drinking contest.

She was in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" competition trying to win a Nintendo Wii video game system.

Assistant Sacramento County Coroner Ed Smith said a preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death".

Jennifer Strange's mother found her daughter's body at her home on Friday in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, California, after Strange called her supervisor at her job to say she was heading home in terrible pain.

"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."

Earlier Friday, Strange took part in a contest at radio station KDND 107.9 in which participants competed to see how much water they could drink without going to the toilet.

Initially, contestants were handed 220mL 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, California.

"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."

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.

 

[trydegrau]

Dieing for a stupid game console that will be obsolete in two years...Wow.

 

[ladygrey]

That's really very sad.....

 

[swerve]

Who would have thought you could die from drinking WATER....

Having said that...

It was still a STUPID contest for a SILLY prize....

 

[mike_n_herrin]

it's very sad. but if i recall from my toxicology course, there is a LD50 (or lethal dose where 50% of the population will die at that exposure) for virtually everything out there. so that should mean that some individuals will die from a lower dose.

it's still very sad. i feel for her family.

 

[Soilwork]

Too bad she didnt' die of stupidity before she passed her genes on.

 

[eddielee]

I wonder if the're going to hold the radio station liable? I smell a lawsuit.

 

[gayteentn]

why do I feel sooo bad for laughing at that?

Too bad she didnt' die of stupidity before she passed her genes on.

 

[NedNickerson]

The article says she left before the end of the contest, so that means there were others who stayed after she left. I wonder what happened to the others...? And the winner...? What became of him/her?

I've read about people dying of water intoxication while on diets or while trying to "flush the body of impurities..." Since the contest was publicly announced, I'm surprised that no one thought to notify the radio station on the dangers of the contest... Surely a doctor or nurse heard the publicity...? Also, there should have had medical personnel on duty to monitor contestants... But then, again, the contest should not have been allowed at all...

 

[ixthrock]

before being so quick to jump on the station and the people that came up with this contest, think: there are eating contests all the time; coney island still hosts a hotdog eating contest every year and i have never heard of anyone dying from it. most people just don't think that just plain water can do them in like that.

however, one of the more surreal events from my ever-surreal childhood was my dad's chicken-eating contest. There was a pair of totally hot, strapping identical twins that decided they were going to enter (my dad owned a barbecue restaurant), and that if they won 1st and 2nd place, they would split the prize money ($100 and $50, so $75 each). One of the twins looked at my dad's scoring system (so many points for so much weight of bbq chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, garlic bread, or iced tea (or other beverage)) and decided he would have a better chance of winning by drinking his way through the contest. He picked water because he figured it would be less harsh on his system, i guess - no sugar or diuretics like caffeine. He won 2nd place, i think, and his brother won 1st, but i remember very clearly him talking to me about it afterwards, about his car ride home, and how frightened he had been. This big formerly jovial guy that the whole family was on friendly terms with seemed cowed; like something had totally changed his perspective on life.

so, yeah, if only i had been there to warn them, i cant help thinking.

that's an incredibly sad story but please remember, terrible accidents happen blamelessly sometimes. i'm sure if anyone at the station realised something like this might happen they would not have had that contest. i just feel so terrible for everyone involved, even the sponsors of that contest. they were simply ignorant, and what a horrible burden to bear.

im not even going to get into the guy that was buried alive as a publicity stunt at my dad's restaurant. him and his crazy schemes.

 

[dr_beat]

why do I feel sooo bad for laughing at that?

You and Soilwork aren't the only ones who feel that way. Don't worry.

 

[BoiIntrigue]

Hey, that was here in Sacramento. If I recall, about two years ago a boy died in Chico during a hazing ritual involving the same thing.

 

[Andross]

You can die from drinking too much water? That's new to me. What happens when you drink too much water? Do the cells burst or something?

 

[seven_sins]

I expect the family to sue the radio station. The management is probably conferring with lawyers now.

 

[swerve]

A lot of you guys got it wrong. You CAN'T die from just drinking too much water, you die if you drink too much water and hold it in instead of throwing up or peeing, causing your bladder to explode or other damages in your body.

SO.......

I'm NOT a scientist of ANY kind.

BUT me thinks they should have used....

BEER.....

 

[NedNickerson]

You can die from drinking too much water? That's new to me. What happens when you drink too much water? Do the cells burst or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia

Most patients with chronic water intoxication are asymptomatic, but may have symptoms related to the underlying cause.

Severe hyponatremia may cause osmotic shift of water from the plasma into the brain cells. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headache and malaise. As the hyponatremia worsens, confusion, diminished reflexes, convulsions, stupor or coma may occur. Since nausea is, itself, a stimulus for the release of ADH (the water retaining hormone), the potential for a vicious circle of hyponatremia and its symptoms exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

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 (0.39 gallons) of water per hour at maximum filtration (other studies find the limit to be as little as 0.9L/h (0.24 gal)[2]). Consuming as little as 1.8 litres of water (0.48 gal) in a single sitting may prove fatal for a person adhering to a low-sodium diet, or 3 litres (0.79 gal) 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 (0.26 gal) 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.

Sodium is not the only mineral that can become overdiluted from excessive water intake. Magnesium is also excreted in urine. "Magnesium deficiency can cause metabolic changes that may contribute to heart attacks and strokes."[3] Intravenous magnesium is used in cardiac care units for cardiac arrhythmias.[4]

 

[duroc5088]

I heard about that on the news earlier. that's the craziest thing ever.

Dirk

 

[mike_n_herrin]

A lot of you guys got it wrong. You CAN'T die from just drinking too much water, you die if you drink too much water and hold it in instead of throwing up or peeing, causing your bladder to explode or other damages in your body.

that doesn't appear to be correct based on the definition of "water intoxication."

Water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by a very rapid intake of water.

Too bad she didnt' die of stupidity before she passed her genes on.

i'm constantly surprised that you can make a comment that is even less tasteful that you last.

 

[ixthrock]

lots of fascinating stuff

thanks, Ned. I had only a very generalized idea of what goes on in that sort of situation; this post put a lot of meat on the bones of my knowledge. The guy in my dad's contest DID mention having to pull over and puke a lot on the way home. At least it probably wasn't too painful coming back up, being mostly water.

I HATE puking when i've drunk too much alchohol; my throat winds up feeling so raw. Good thing experience has been such a great teacher

 

[NedNickerson]

It took me awhile to find this story
so I could post this update:

I just saw this online.

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=11409967

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Sacramento County jury has awarded $16.5 million to the family of a 28-year-old woman who died after participating in a radio station's water-drinking contest.

Jennifer Strange, a mother of 3, died of acute water intoxication in January 2007 after the challenge to see which contestant could drink the most water without using the restroom. A Nintendo Wii video game was the prize for winning the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest.

On Thursday, jurors found Entercom Sacramento LLC, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp., liable for the actions of its employees at Sacramento radio station KDND-FM. The station fired 10 employees after the death.

This link has video with photos of the woman:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ktxl-news-waterstation1029,0,3555439.story?track=rss