Sheriff Looks Into Water-Drinking Death (Radio Contest Stunt)

[RamboLiberal]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2803239

Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a woman believed to have been killed by drinking too much water in a radio station contest.

On a tape of the Jan. 12 show, disc jockeys on KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" joke about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, at one point alluding to a college student who died during such a stunt in 2005.

A listener called the show to warn the DJs that the stunt was dangerous and that someone could die.

"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them said.

Another DJ laughed: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."

[BattyDem]

1. Am I the only person who didn't know that ...

drinking too much water was dangerous? :shrug: Seriously ... I never heard of such a thing. How did that information slip by me all these years? That's really scary.

If they knew it was dangerous and possibly fatal, I think they're in big trouble.

[Bjornsdotter]

2. Pssst

I didn't know either. I must have been in the bathroom when we covered this in school.

Cheers

[Kagemusha]

3. It's an extreme case thing.

Thanks to this unbelievably stupid, reckless stunt in the face of a similar incident having happened less than two years prior, more of us know about this.

But it's a general medical principle that too much of anything will kill you.

[melnjones]

5. water intoxication...

Happens with patients who have polydipsia. If you drink too much water it throws off the electrolyte balance of the body, which can kill you. Don't worry, the only people who know about this are a select few who have worked with people with addictions or diabetes. When I worked with addicts in a group home setting, we had to weigh some of them twice a day to check how much weight they might have gained in a short period of time from excessive thirst.

[pnwmom]

11. Actually, MANY Californians were educated about this because of a

case a couple years ago that got lots of media attention. My son told me that it was even part of freshman orientation at college the next year.

[JoFerret]

16. Sometimes happens to athletes - marathon runners

- who drink too much water and become disoriented. Observers often think they must be dehydrated and ply them with more water.

[progdonkey]

8. I only learned about it by experiencing it myself...

I only know about this stuff because I ended up in the hospital myself due to severe hyponatremia when I was going through Army basic training. I had developed severe pneumonia, which killed my appetite, so my electrolytes were already precariously low. Since Army drill sergeants apparently lack the intelligence God gave the shovel, their response to everything is "drink more water." Of course, this was only making me more and more hyponatremic as the days went on, which eventually culminated in my falling into a three hour coma and being in the hospital for a week after. (One of the other privates found me crawling on all fours in the bathroom in the middle of the night, making gasping noises, with my eyes staring ahead at nothing. Fortunately, I don't remember any of this!)

Over-hydration is in effect just the same thing as not replenishing your body's electrolyte levels (the main purpose of Gatorade, for instance, along with providing sugar to replenish that used by the muscles during exercise). You're just approaching the same problematic result from two opposite directions.

Whether you drink too much water or take in too little salt, the end result is hyponatremia--your body ends up in a state of a major imbalance between the levels of electrolytes and water in your body.

It's kind of like if you have a bowl and you put a dry sponge inside it (the sponge behaves like salt in the body by retaining water, and the bowl is like a cell). If you begin to poor water on it at a nice, measured pace, the sponge will readily soak up the water and there won't be any (or just very little) water anywhere else in the bowl. You have a nice, wet sponge in the middle of a dry bowl--everything's balanced.

If you either start increasing the amount of water, past the point where the sponge can retain it, or you cut the sponge in half (or remove it entirely) you end up with a bowl filling up rapidly with water and eventually overflowing. Your cells are literally drowning and the cell walls will eventually break down due to the pressure.

As you can see, even if you have perfectly good electrolyte levels, if you start taking in way too much water, or you fail to adequately replenish your electrolytes after you sweat them out, etc., while maintaining the same level of water intake, you can very easily end up in a hyponatremic state, which can be quite deadly. I was especially lucky that I didn't flat out die and "only" ended up in a short coma, as I was approaching it from both sides: not only was my food intake low because my appetite had disappeared due to the pneumonia, but my water intake increased due to pressure from the drill sergeants.

(I hope my utter contempt for Army drill sergeants--save a distinct few--isn't too obvious. ;-) )

[Squatch]

17. Forced hydration is a old Army tradition.

Fortunately, we now issue electrolyte powders/solutions that soldiers can add to their canteens:

[Raine]

10. I didn't know

this either...but sure I do now. :-(

[RamboLiberal]

4. I was involved in martial arts for 25+ years

Reading about exercise nutrition, hydrating, etc., and it was only a few years ago when a story about a military recruit death from this that I learned about the danger. So don't feel bad.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Is this DJ a lawyer?

There are common law rights you CANNOT sign away in a waiver of liability.

So he is wrong. That station is gonna get sued and the nurse who called in and warned them is gonna be called to testify.


Kiddies, can you say "Wrongful Death Lawsuit"????

[RamboLiberal]

7. Yep the family said today they intend to sue

Hope they get a big settlement from these fools at the station. Dumb stunt.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Correct. Assumption of risk will not apply to this case. n/t

[Clovis Sangrail]

9. should make them support the kids

I don't know that it could be worked out, but those DJs should be financially repsonsible for the 3 kids that were left motherless.

[pnwmom]

12. This is a risk of swimming lessons for babies. I first heard about this

almost 20 years ago. A baby that swallows too much water in the pool is at risk.

http://www.stlouischildrens.org/tabid/88/itemid/166/Water-Intoxication-in-Infants.aspx

In fact, according to pediatricians like James P. Keating, MD, medical director of the St. Louis Children's Hospital Diagnostic Center, too much water dilutes a baby's normal sodium levels and can lead to seizures, coma, brain damage and death.

Breast milk or formula provides all the fluid healthy babies need. If a mother feels her baby needs to take additional water, it should be limited to two to three ounces at a time and should be offered only after the baby has satisfied his hunger with breast feeding or formula.

Dr. Keating also recommends that parents avoid participating in infant swimming lessons. "Repeated dunking of infants can cause them to gulp water and has caused seizures in the infants at the poolside," he says.

Since the brain is the organ most susceptible to water intoxication, a change of behavior is usually the first symptom in older children. They may become confused, drowsy or inattentive. They also may suffer from blurred vision, muscle cramps and twitching, poor coordination, nausea and vomiting, irregular breathing and weakness. If you notice any of these symptoms, call your pediatrician.

[pinniped]

14. Ya, moronic D.Jerks.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/18/NEVIUS.TMP

Told by another DJ that "We got a guy who's just about to die," one of the jocks had a quick response.

"Make sure he signs the release," he chortled, setting off gales of laughter in the studio.
----
"There was a girl on the floor," says Campos, who made it to the final five. "She must have been there for an hour with her teeth chattering. They were heckling her."

"Your body is 98 percent water," one of the hosts remarked to his on-air audience. "Why can't you take in as much water as you want?"

[Berry Cool]

15. If for any reason you're in a position to learn about potential hazing rituals

that might be used by fraternities, sororities, sports teams, etc., that could be fatal, then yes, you do know that too much water can be fatal.

Lots of colleges and universities are enacting anti-hazing policies that forbid organizations from forcing new members to ingest too much of anything, from food to alcohol to water, as part of an initiation ritual--in part because some of them, forbidden to force pledges to drink alcohol, sought alternatives. And, of course, one alternative is to force them to drink lots and lots of water until they feel like vomiting. Oh, and then put them in a position where relieving themselves is difficult.