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Woman dies in Radio Stunt to get a Wii

gauchogolfer

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
5
American Riviera
CNN.com

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.
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Here's another link: KCRA

The radio station is at fault here in my opinion. We all know how dangerous extreme amounts of water can be from this incident. The radio station knew the risk of such a contest, but they chose to take it.
 
Wow, that's Strange.

EricNau said:
The radio station knew the risk of such a contest, but they chose to take it.
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But she willingly participated. :confused: Yes, it's just a video game system, and yes, you can get water poison/intoxicated/whatever you want to call it, but she participated.

It's like me watching old episodes of MXC/Takeshi's Castle. Damn those games must hurt, but if they want to participate and get hurt for our amusement, then OK.
 
Abstract said:
But she willingly participated. :confused: Yes, it's just a video game system, and yes, you can get water poison/intoxicated/whatever you want to call it, but she participated.

It's like me watching old episodes of MXC/Takeshi's Castle. Damn those games must hurt, but if they want to participate for our amusement, then OK.
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Then I suppose Matthew Carrington deserved to die as well?

That contest held by the radio station is no different than playing hot potato with a live grenade: someone was bound to die.
 
I'd say there's a difference between hazing someone and doing a stupid stunt like this. But, they should have definitely had medical staff on hand to observe the participants, who could have intervened in case of overdose like this. I do hold the radio station responsible, but the original intent I would surmise not to be the same as the hazers. It's a fine line, I'll grant.
 
I know these phone in shows get a laugh and everything but it is about time that they take responsibility for things like this.

I remeber that a radio station played a prank call on someone a few years ago that led to the recipient almost killing themselves!

I know its all P.C. and eveything but I had to fill out risk assessments if I wanted to wipe my arse at work, surely someone must have thought about that at the radio station. If not they are in the brown and smelly big time.
 
The woman is rather stupid for doing it, the radio station is even dumber for coming up with the idea, and unfortunately it may end up looking bad for Nintendo at no fault of their own. No wonder there is a Darwin award...
 
The idiocy of some people. to paraphrase the late, great Bill Hicks - "It's not like we've lost a cure for cancer here!"
 
Wiitality ?

BBC are carrying this story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6261509.stm

US woman dies after water contest

The contestants started on small bottles and worked up
A Californian woman who took part in a water-drinking contest to win a video game system has died of water intoxication, tests have shown.
Jennifer Strange had taken part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" game run by KDND 107.9 radio in Sacramento, which promised the winner a Nintendo Wii.

A work colleague said Ms Strange had reported her head was hurting hours after the contest and was going home.

Ms Strange, 28, was found dead on Friday at her house in Rancho Cordova.

Health warning

Local assistant coroner Ed Smith said initial tests showed death was "consistent with water intoxication".

Contestants were first given eight ounce (225 millilitre) bottles to drink every 15 minutes.

Contestant James Ybarra told Associated Press news agency: "They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."

Mr Ybarra said he quit after five bottles but remaining contestants started on larger bottles.

"She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids," Mr Ybarra said.

One of Ms Strange's work colleagues, Laura Rios, said: "She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad.

"She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her."

The station said its staff were stunned at the death.
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Remember kiddies wee is more important than wii
 
The body is made up of mostly water, how can drinking to much water kill someone?
It's not like she drowned from lack of oxygen....
 
applelabs said:
The body is made up of mostly water, how can drinking to much water kill someone?
It's not like she drowned from lack of oxygen....
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It's genuine look at wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Body fluids contain electrolytes (particularly sodium compounds, such as sodium chloride) in concentrations that must be held within very narrow limits. Water enters the body orally or intravenously and leaves the body primarily in the urine, sweat and by exhaled water vapour. If water enters the body more quickly than it can be removed, body fluids are diluted and a potentially dangerous shift in electrolyte balance occurs.
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A person with two healthy kidneys can excrete about 1.5 litres (0.39 gallons)[citation needed] of water per hour at maximum filtration (other studies find the limit to be as little as 0.9L/h (0.24 gal)[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.
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I was just reading this...wow water is a real killer.
When I saw this thread I thought you was refering to MK...thought they had some wiiality in there where johnny cage pulls out his wii and.....I'll leave that to your mind.



Bless
 
Well the thing is, drinking water (especially the bottle kind) is not pure water and has many minerals, disbalance in electrolytes can have serious consequences, drinking too much Gatorade can have the same effect, including kidney diseases or death.

You can't be intoxicated with pure water.
 
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