Woman dies after...

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: alexjohnson16
I routinely drink 6-7 12 oz. bottles of water over a 2.5-3.5 hour period each night before I go to bed to work as a natural alarm clock (usually wake up 6-7 hours later having to piss really bad).

Maybe I should stop?

You should be OK, as long as you are not following a low sodium diet or something.

According to the wikipedia article:

A person with two healthy kidneys can excrete about 900ml (0.24 gal)/hr[2]. Consuming as little as 1.8 litres of water (0.48 gal) in a single sitting may prove fatal for a person adhering to a low-sodium diet, or 3 litres (0.79 gallons) for a person on a normal diet. However, this must be modulated by potential water losses via other routes. For example, a person who is perspiring heavily may lose 1 L/hr (0.26 gal) of water through perspiration alone, thereby raising the threshold for water intoxication.

 

[j00fek]

:Q

 

[0roo0roo]

Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wii contest DJs joked that water could kill

A local sheriff now says he's investigating the death of a 28-year-old mother of three who died after a radio station's "Hold your wee for a Wii" contest:

* In an online recording of the show, the DJs can be heard making comments joking about people dying from water intoxication, even discussing a case in Northern California two years ago in which student Matthew Carrington, 21, died after drinking too much water during a fraternity stunt.
* One of the DJs even admitted they maybe should have done some research before the contest.
* One female caller, who identified herself as Eva, also phoned in to warn the radio station that drinking too much water can kill.http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2007/01/djs_joked_that_.html

 

[91TTZ]

People are no longer responsible for their own health. If they die, it's someone else's fault. If you eat McDonald's every day for 20 years and get fat, rent a forklift, haul your fat ass to the nearest rat-infested law firm and sue McDonald's.

This lady had to know that drinking that much water didn't feel right, but she ignored her body's warning signs and did it anyway. It's her fault.

 

[0roo0roo]

well its water, so some people could not know, and frankly the deaths show that to be true. there should be a limit to how far you can exploit the ignorance of others. risking their health like that should be a line in the sand. take their money fine, but killing people and laughing all the while about it isn't kewl.

 

[Shortcut]

op ed piece

of note in the article:

"Originally, the sheriff had said that because the contestants entered under their own free will, there might have been no crime.

But that changed after investigators heard a tape this week of the on-air conversations and how the hosts disregarded the caller's warnings and signs that Strange and other contestants were experiencing symptoms of intoxication. "

If nothing else, the djs were heartless bastards who couldn't be bothered to lift a finger to help those sick contestants out.

 

[CravenTacos]

There will be criminal charges but they'll be pleaded down. There's already a huge precedent for this very thing due to many frats using rigorous exercise/water binging hazing rituals that have led to deaths. The pledges went through it voluntarily just like the radio contestants. Almost all of the frat incidents had criminal filings (which were pleaded down of course), but various civil lawsuits were also filed against the universities, frats, and individuals.

 

[mjrpes3]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
This lady had to know that drinking that much water didn't feel right, but she ignored her body's warning signs and did it anyway. It's her fault.

How was she supposed to know that feeling uncomfortable from drinking too much water was going to kill her? Should we always stop what we're doing the moment we don't feel okay, as it might kill us? I run, so I should stop running the instant I feel uncomfortable? I shouldn't weight lift because it doesn't "feel right", so it just might kill me? This lady probably knew lots of water would make her feel bad and uncomfortable... but did she think it would kill her? I doubt it. Just like many other people in this thread have expressed they had no idea water could kill you. My guess is also that, by the time she felt truly sick, she had already drunk enough water to kill her.

But the big question about "fault" isn't just about who knew what. It's about negligence. As the DJs were taking calls from people who were expressing their concerns about water poisoning, the contestants were sealed away in another room. How can you say it was all "her fault" when she couldn't hear the warnings that were coming in, all while the DJs were making jokes about how they were glad all the contestants had signed their releases? What about after the contest, when she was showing obvious signs of water poisoning? Did she get medical attention? Was it "her fault" that she had gotten herself into a contest where the organizers didn't care if she walked out of the studio sick with water poisoning?

I'm not saying it was all the DJs fault. I doubt they thought anyone would get sick and die. A good part of these types of morning talk shows is to have fun at the advantage of others. Mostly harmless, like when they do things like make crank calls. Hopefully this will be a lesson for these types of shows that you can't just take any 'brilliant' idea--'brilliant' at the expense of others--and expect to pull if off if you don't do at least some research ahead of time of what the consequences might be.