Wii Kills Woman

[Makita]

Water overdose kills woman in Wii challenge (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1991038,00.html)


A Californian woman died of water poisoning after taking part in a bizarre drinking contest to win a computer games console, according to US authorities.Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead in her home in Rancho Cordova, California, on Friday after drinking as much water as she could without going to the toilet
A preliminary investigation by the local coroner determined that her death was "consistent with a water intoxication death". It is not yet known how much water she drank. (...contd) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1991038,00.html)



Or not going Wii killed her.
I can understand companies getting caught with their pants down and not having enough product at launch, but sometimes I almost think they short the supply to help create more Buzz (free marketing) to promote their products.

[Faerie]

Yeah, we were actually listening to that contest at work... It's sad, she had 3 kids that she was trying to win the Wii for. =(

[JohnJr]

Her last words: "Wii me?"

;)

-John {is going to hell, yada, yada}

[JETarpon]

Hey John, do you know that "Wii" is pronounced "We" not "Why"?

[Warren]

this is only an issue cause it was video game related!

[Pendragn]

I got water intoxication a couple of years ago, it's no fun. Obviously it didn't kill me though. :D I was suffering pretty bad for three hours or so. I got too weak to fight with my wife and she talked me into going to the ER. Once I was there they poked me with a saline bag and I was fine in about 5 minutes. I'd never heard of it before that. I thought I was just dehydrated and I kept drinking water.

tk

[mercurial]

I got water intoxication a couple of years ago, it's no fun. Obviously it didn't kill me though. :D I was suffering pretty bad for three hours or so. I got too weak to fight with my wife and she talked me into going to the ER. Once I was there they poked me with a saline bag and I was fine in about 5 minutes. I'd never heard of it before that. I thought I was just dehydrated and I kept drinking water.

tk

Let's be honest. You were too cheap to buy booze and you heard the term "water intoxication" and decided to go for it...

[Pendragn]

It's cheaper than antifreeze too!

tk

[mercurial]

Next time, just try sterno...

[Otto]

Hey John, do you know that "Wii" is pronounced "We" not "Why"?
Bah. That is only because the Japanese don't understand English. :p

[mercurial]

Bah. That is only because the Japanese don't understand English. :p

Wyy not?

[doom1701]

Or not going Wii killed her.


Well, then it's not really her not going--but the overabundance of wii that killed her. She did so much for a wii, but if only she had looked inside herself, she would have found all the wii she needed.

[Gai-jin]

I read that the station fired the 3 hosts and 7 other people, and wondered at first whether the people involved likely knew it was possible to die from drinking too much water.

Then I listed to these clips from the show:
http://www.sacbee.com/static/newsroom/kdndslides/

Yup, the management did the right thing.

[mercurial]

Yikes.

[Otto]

See here for more info: http://www.mainsquare.org/showthread.php?t=714

Might want to merge the threads? Mods?

[Skittles]

See here for more info: http://www.mainsquare.org/showthread.php?t=714

Might want to merge the threads? Mods?They're merged now. :)

[trojanrabbit]

To the DJs it all sounded like one big joke.

Words to the effect of "they signed a release, we're OK". "Anybody dying back there?"

:shocked:

[Otto]

To be fair, the odds on water intoxication are way long. The problem with such a contest was not the amount of water drank, but the speed at which it was drank. Drinking too much water too quickly will fill the blood with water faster than the kidneys can remove it, leading to lower salt concentrations in the blood. This causes the brain to swell, which is why she probably had headaches. Eventually it swells too much, and you die.

If she had drank the same amount of water over a period of a day, she likely would have been fine. The kidneys would remove it over time and dump it in the bladder, where it would have been perfectly safe until she ran out of room and had to expel it.

I generally go through 1-2 gallons of iced tea every evening, which is basically water with minor amounts of flavoring and such. Doesn't hurt me a bit. But I do have to whiz a lot, because tea contains a diuretic (caffeine). It generally causes the kidneys to produce more urine by working them a bit faster/harder. Thus reducing the level of water in the blood.

[sonnik]

I generally go through 1-2 gallons of iced tea every evening...

Holy F***! That much caffeine at night?

What kind of time range are you talking? Why so much?

[Man In Black]

Holy F***! That much caffeine at night?

What kind of time range are you talking? Why so much?


Sheesh! Why tea? Takes way too much to get enough caffeine.

[Otto]

Holy F***! That much caffeine at night?
What kind of time range are you talking? Why so much?
From around 5pm to midnight or so. I just drink iced tea more or less continually at home. And it's not a lot of caffeine. I would guesstimate that the entire gallon contains no more than 300 mg of caffeine.

Sheesh! Why tea? Takes way too much to get enough caffeine.
I happen to like iced tea. It's not because it has caffeine in it, though it does.

[Faerie]

To the DJs it all sounded like one big joke.

Words to the effect of "they signed a release, we're OK". "Anybody dying back there?"

:shocked:



I used to listen to these DJs on a daily basis... Their banter and commentary don't really surprise me... I seriously doubt that any of them thought for a moment that the contest would actually kill someone.

My take on it? The situation sucks. That woman signed up for a contest, she signed a release form and she was allowed to back out at any time. If she wasn't feeling well, she should have perhaps gone to a doctor.

A lot of people have never heard of water intoxication. I only heard about it because of the incident at Chico State here in California a few years back where some hazing incidents caused a kid to die due to water intoxication. If I hadn't heard about that, I likely would never have thought that something as seemingly innocent as water could have the effect that it did on this woman.

It sucks. I feel so sorry for this woman and her family. But I also feel bad for the DJs - I seriously doubt that they thought their contest would turn out this way and that there was any intention on their part to kill someone or even cause any discomfort beyond a headache and perhaps throwing up.

[trojanrabbit]

I'm waiting for "The Smoking Gun" to have a copy of the actual release she signed.

One caller did plant a seed in the DJs heads that someone could die from this. And the whole deal with "intoxication" is that the woman may not have known how bad off she was when she kept drinking. You'd think that if all of a sudden you looked like you were more than a few months pregnant some alarms would be going off in your head. That last bottle of water she took might not have been the one that killed her, she could have consumed that long ago.

A stunt where any physical illness could develop should require that some sort of medical personnel be present.

[JohnJr]

Is speed dialing a "stunt?" ;)

-John

[Faerie]

A stunt where any physical illness could develop should require that some sort of medical personnel be present.

I do agree with this. I think the radio station should have had someone standing by or at least offered to take her to the hospital/clinic when they saw that she was really feeling ill.

But again - really... who would think that something like this would kill you if you hadn't heard of water intoxication before?

[montag]

I got water intoxication a couple of years ago, it's no fun. Obviously it didn't kill me though. :D not dead yet.



:D

[Gai-jin]

I wasn't aware water could kill you. However, The DJ's were aware before the contest started, and a caller also pointed this out to them during the contest.

[Makita]

When I read this morning about how they were joking about it and what-not, all I could think was ' Idiots, you knew and could have done something about it'
Just makes it all worse in my mind

[geko29]

Well, two homicide detectives have been assigned to the investigation, and they're trying to determine whether Manslaughter charges are warranted.

[Otto]

I wasn't aware water could kill you.
Well, you could drown. ;)

Everything can kill you if you have too much of it. What makes a thing a poison is really a matter of dosage. :D