Hold Your Wee for a Wii - Mother of 3 dies

[GraingerGuy]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/water.intox.ap/index.html


SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday.

Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.

"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."

It was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed.

A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith.

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.

Initially, contestants were handed 8-ounce 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. "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 her kids."

So sad! :(

[KIISQueen]

Oh my god! This is soo sad. May god bless her. Hope the kids get the WII after all she did it for her children.

[Jeffbx]

That's crazy - I had never heard of water poisoning until I was training for a marathon. To much water & you throw your body's electrolytes way out of whack & BAM! next thing you know, you're dead. I wonder if they had done Gatorade for every other bottle if she would have been OK - that's what was recommended for long distance running.

[brainsmile]

wow that station is in big trouble.

[Prngr44]

wow that station is in big trouble.

Or they better hope their consent form is rock solid.

[Sirrich3]

Sad story and situation..

[DarkFury]

That's crazy - I had never heard of water poisoning until I was training for a marathon. To much water & you throw your body's electrolytes way out of whack & BAM! next thing you know, you're dead. I wonder if they had done Gatorade for every other bottle if she would have been OK - that's what was recommended for long distance running.
Holy crap...

I never knew that TOO much water was bad for you... Hell, folks is always talkin' about not drinkin' enough water.


Dayuuum... that just sucks. Guess the whole saying "Too much of anything is bad for you" really does apply doesn't it? :2far:

[Jcranmer]

And the fix? The station fires 10 people including the hosts of the show. I'm not sure what's worse, she died to get a Wii, or that they blame/fire 10 people. :disa:

http://www.nbc11.com/news/10762819/detail.html


Edit: Fixed link
- GAM

[DarkFury]

And the fix? The station fires 10 people including the hosts of the show. I'm not sure what's worse, she died to get a Wii, or that they blame/fire 10 people. :disa:

http://www.nbc11.com/news/10762819/detail.html\
Looks like your link is bad (you have an extra character on the end of it... a forward slash).

http://www.nbc11.com/news/10762819/detail.html

[Jcranmer]

Thanks DF and GAM. Didn't catch that.

Just to be clear, I know someone losing their life is worse then 10 people getting fired.

It just bugs me that they fired the hosts and canceled the show.

From what I understand this was a station sponsered contest. It was even on their web page at one point. I'm assuming that someone much higher up would have had to approve it.

Oh course those people may have been included in the 10 that lost their jobs....

[cadetevon]

When the nurse called in they should have ended the contest. Even if they didn't believe the "nurse" that called in, they should have done a quick google search. They would have then found all the different cases out there.

This is so sad.

[Devhux]

Oh my god! This is soo sad. May god bless her. Hope the kids get the WII after all she did it for her children.

Looks like someone else technically won the contest -- and there was no mention if she had given the Wii to the kids of the mother that died.

[mcs328]

I knew too much water can kill you. After the alcohol poisoning was much publicized, frats would haze the new meat by having drink lots of water instead. This way no one got drunk or arrested for drinking under 21. Then someone died of course. I think it was a Law&Order episode too.

[YellowCoffee]

i've heard of this too, but I'm just curious, is it harmful to drink large amounts of liquid after you sweat off a large amount of liquid as well? Sometimes when I play basketball, I'll sweat off a bunch of liquid, and afterwards, I've drinken up to a little over a gallon of water over a 10 minute period. I always figured it was OK because I probably sweated out over half of that. Anybody know?

[Jcranmer]

Well after hearing a couple of short audio clips of the show, I've done a complete 180.

These guys were warned at least 2 different times that this could kill someone. They even went so far as to joke about it. What a bunch of idiots. :gle:

[TofuNinja]

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f259/tofuninja13/michelle_wie_260673c.jpg
Thought a third Wie would be good the the hold your wee for a wii thread :)

Yeah sometimes Radio host to stupid stupid things.

[Jcranmer]

New update: looks like criminal charges may be made.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/17/radio.death.reut/index.html

[Jeffbx]

i've heard of this too, but I'm just curious, is it harmful to drink large amounts of liquid after you sweat off a large amount of liquid as well? Sometimes when I play basketball, I'll sweat off a bunch of liquid, and afterwards, I've drinken up to a little over a gallon of water over a 10 minute period. I always figured it was OK because I probably sweated out over half of that. Anybody know?

Yes, I've heard that this can be damaging as well - the recommendation is to go 50-50 with Gatorade or some other sports drink so it replenishes your sodium & electrolyte levels rather than diluting them. When running LONG distances, like over 12 miles, I used to carry a bottle of each. But I actually found it to be much easier to do glucose shots (http://www.cranksports.com/products/eGel/whybuy-eGel.asp?aid=1321112) about every 4-5 miles.

[iluvmoenia]

That is so sad!!! I know there are other radio stations that make people do the most ridiculous things to win prizes... I often wondered if anyone got hurt doing what the dj's want them to do.... I guess there are casualties.... and all for a video game console.... that's horrible.... :(

[echonrg]

hopefully all this that has occured will allow us to see the stupidity we can find ourselves doing when we wan't something so bad we forget about the consequence. The real sad part is she actually did it for selfless motives. It was done for her three children that now have to grow up without a mother.

[echonrg]

by the way all of the people involved should be held accountable. After all a nurse even called in and warned them not to proceed due to the medical issues. Their remarks were " we had them sign a release form" well I do not believe that that release form should hold up in court. Sadly radio stations protect themselves very well and will probably most likely get away with it

[ShawnLee]

i've heard of this too, but I'm just curious, is it harmful to drink large amounts of liquid after you sweat off a large amount of liquid as well? Sometimes when I play basketball, I'll sweat off a bunch of liquid, and afterwards, I've drinken up to a little over a gallon of water over a 10 minute period. I always figured it was OK because I probably sweated out over half of that. Anybody know?

Yes, I've heard that this can be damaging as well - the recommendation is to go 50-50 with Gatorade or some other sports drink so it replenishes your sodium & electrolyte levels rather than diluting them. When running LONG distances, like over 12 miles, I used to carry a bottle of each. But I actually found it to be much easier to do glucose shots (http://www.cranksports.com/products/eGel/whybuy-eGel.asp?aid=1321112) about every 4-5 miles.Basically what I've been told. It didn't happen when I was in Basic Training, but apparently did when my friend went through it.

The story goes that a recruit from Alaska was so hot in Georgia's summer that he was constantly drinking water. In Basic, we were told to be constantly sucking on our canteens, so I can't even imagine how much more he drank. At any rate, it turns out that he peed and sweat so much water out that his body shut down. Apparently, there weren't enough electrolytes in his system for his body to function, and he sadly died. After that, my friend's class apparently had to take sodium supplements for every few canteens of water they drank.

I suspect that the average person probably won't deal with this outside of a sistuation like this contest, especially with the high sodium diet that the average American eats.

[Kevster]

Since I now live in Sacramento, you can understand that this is a big story here. I have a friend in the radio business here (Shawn from the Shawn and Jeff morning show) and he was very surprised that the radio staff at 107.9 didn't do their homework before coming up with this. A 22-year old college student at Chico State died of this in a highly publicized fraternity hazing incident just last year, so it's not like it is a rare occurence. NPR Linkage (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5012154) A simple google search or listening to the nurses that called in would have avoided this. If there's a criminal negligence case here, I say throw the book at them.

[ski]

I wonder how dangerous (perhaps not as immediately lethal as water) overeating is in the Competitive Eating contests. I mean, those guys probably have to sign wavers that say something to the effect of "hey, I want to push my body to the limit and if my body fails, it's not your fault".

I think I read that men should have 13 cups of water and women 9 cups daily (water in food included). I drink 5 x 16.9oz bottles of water a day at work and figure the rest will be accounted for in food.

[Napoleon54]

I've been in water drinking contests before, never considered it to be a big deal. Last person left who doesn't throw up wins. Usually everybody throws up after 1-2 gallons.

[avlena]

the audio file of the incident. It's difficult to listen to - the DJ's are laughing and making jokes about people dying. If you make it through, about half way the woman who died is talking about how she has a headache, and the intern suggested it was the water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-MBtZXpjY

[gwilks98]

It sounds like the DJs knew what they were getting into and there was a risk of death. It seemed like the contestants knew as well. Criminal case? Probably not: she should have gone to the hospital instead of home. She heard the callers just like the DJs. The DJs even sounded like they were trying to bribe her to stop and clearly said she was drowning.

Shame on them for holding the contest, but I'm blaming the contestant for her own demise. People in this country are quick to blame other people for sponsoring tragic events, but in the end, we're all accountable for our own actions.

She's the grown woman, she chose to sign up for the contest, she chose to sign the release form, she pushed her body to the limit, she ignored the warning signs, she didn't seek medical help when she needed it, and worse, she went home alone where no one could watch her and get her the help she clearly needed. But, yeah, it's the DJs' fault she died. :rolleyes:

It seems like whenever tragedy strikes and someone dies, someone alive has to be (even if unfairly) held accountable.

Use common sense? Let's not be hasty here folks...

[fillup0215]

sad news!!