I was quite upset reading this - what a horrible way to die. The last thing anyone heard from her was her crying on the other end of the telephone. She did it for her kids. HORRIBLE way to die too!
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Wow, there's now end to the ways people can die. I've never heard of water intoxication. Sad that it was mother though, those kids will be traumatized beyond belief.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
So...did they give the kids the game or no? Five bucks says they only got one controller with it.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
another five says they got the fishing game with it.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I actually just read this story on the msn website about an hour ago. I knew that you could get sick from drinking too much water, and that it was used as a torture device in midieval times, but I didn't know you could die from it.
I don't think the DJ's knew either or they wouldn't have gone through with it. They must feel pretty rotten right about now.
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: Wow, there's now end to the ways people can die. I've never heard of water intoxication.
That's actually what kills a good number of the people who die at raves and such. They take Ecstasy, so they drink too much in too short a time, and the water leeches out the salts from their bodies. In the meantime, they're too out of it and having too much fun to notice or care.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Reminds me of Tycho Brahe. Supposedly he died because he refused to leave the table at a banquet to use the bathroom, thinking it bad manners. So his bladder ruptured and he died of massive infection.
Posted by Dat (Member # 302) on :
Let's see if I can give a clearer summary of the events... seeing as it happened in my city...
The contest was held by one of our local radio stations... 107.9FM "The End". It was drinking as much water as you can without having to go to the restroom. If you do, you're disqualified. The last one remaining would win the Wii the station was giving away. The lady in question who had passed away was not the winner. She was the last one to drop out. Throughout the contest, the station did receive calls saying it could be dangerous. One call came from a nurse who specifically identified the danger as water intoxication. Station personnel and contest participants said they understood the danger even as station personnel said standard release forms were signed and so the station could not be held liable. However, audio from the contest suggests that everyone laughs off the potential danger, even the one who died. The lady who had died who had started to feel the effects told she could go on while personnel suggested that she stop. They didn't do anything further. Half an hour later, she left the contest and five hours after that had passed away. The morning radio show has been cancelled, 10 people from the station involved with the show, including the DJs were fired. The local sheriff's department has initiated an investigation and will pass on the findings to the DA's office even though there's little chance of a criminal lawsuit. A lawyers group has already filed a civil suit on behalf of the widower.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
My thoughts: It may have been a relatively stupid contest to offer, but I think it's reasonable to assume that all the participants were rational, thinking adults. Based on Dat's summary, it sounds like they were even aware of the danger. Therefore, it's the woman's own damn fault.
I'd say that she held her wee for that Wii a wee too long! (Sorry.)
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
When has personal responsibility EVER prevented someone from suing? Don't you realize that anything bad that happens to you is a direct result of someone else's negligence and therefor actionable?
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Complete and total lack of medical oversight in a contest like this == criminal negligence. You know, the kind that people sue over.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I know drinking too much water is bad for the body as a habit, makes you piss out vital minerals from the blood, but I didn't know those things about the swelling of the brain and water in the lungs from acute overdrinking. Not many people know that, I'll wager.
Bang80:
quote:and that it was used as a torture device in midieval times
Screw 12th century, it's being used as we speak in North Korea. I saw a clip on 60Mins IIRC, about a middle-aged woman who fled to SK a couple of years ago and told of being arrested for some political or ideological charge and sent to an interrogation center where they put a contraption down her throat that would let them pour water right down her belly and still have her breathe freely, and they poured on until the stomache and all of the intestines were full, then laid her down, put a plank over her midsection and started weighing on it.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's incredible that her body did not just release her bladder automaticly before death occured- there's all sorts of hardwired prevenetive measures in us to prevent serious bodily damage from out idiocy.
She must have had some serious willpower (and possibly some sort of unforseen kidney condition) to have held on for so long.
quote:Complete and total lack of medical oversight in a contest like this == criminal negligence. You know, the kind that people sue over.
Add to that, the various callers warning of just such a thing and the DJ's on tape actually joking about another case where a person died of water intoxication will cinch it.
OTOH, total lack of common sense is why boxes of nails have labels reading "Harmful or Fatal if swallowed".
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"It's incredible that her body did not just release her bladder automaticly before death occured..."
Obviously she urinated sometime after the contest. Otherwise, she would have won, no? The problem wasn't an excess of water in her bladder. It was an excess of water in all the other parts of her body.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Indeed. Water intoxication isn't a bladder problem; its just having far too much water in your body. You upset your osmotic pressure balance horribly, and toxins and wastes in the tissues can't be absorbed into the blood (too much pressure the other way). In addition, water leeches into the tissues, pooling and bloating and filling the lungs, the brain, other hollow areas....
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: OTOH, total lack of common sense is why boxes of nails have labels reading "Harmful or Fatal if swallowed".
And why Tim throws every other nail away because it has the head on the wrong end.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
Dammit, Wiz! Those are for the other side of the structure!