Darwin 1, CA woman 0

[CKent]

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."

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[Engineer]

Previous discussion. 🙂

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Engineer
Previous discussion. 🙂

I'd say something about ambiguous thread titles, but I'd have to read my own and eat my words 😱

 

[her209]

Pwned!

 

[OrganizedChaos]

she had 3 kids, looks like darwin was late to the game

 

[DrPizza]

A) She already had kids; thus not a Darwin award
B) Probably a majority of people do not realize you can kill yourself from an electrolyte imbalance by drinking enough water in one sitting (The radio station certainly didn't realize this)
C) You're a day late.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I smell a lawsuit.

 

[Rangoric]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
A) She already had kids; thus not a Darwin award
B) Probably a majority of people do not realize you can kill yourself from an electrolyte imbalance by drinking enough water in one sitting (The radio station certainly didn't realize this)
C) You're a day late.

Plus a darwin award requires that the act be obviously stupid or within the realm of common sense.

Stupid because of a little known fact that a small percent of any population knows does not qualify. Especially if it is not presented as dangerous (in the form of a contest).

 

[Perknose]

Water. I never touch the stuff. Kids pee in it, fish swim in it.

-- W.C. Fields