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Woman Killed In Wii-Related Competition
snuffin writes to tell us that a local radio competition to "hold your wee for a Wii" has ended with a Sacramento woman dead from water poisoning. From the article: "An Associated Press interview with another contestant, named James Ybarra, claimed that contestants were initially given eight ounce bottles of water to drink every fifteen minutes, with larger bottles being used once contestants began to drop out. According to Ybarra, 'They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk.' He described the victim as 'a nice lady' and that 'she was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids.'"
I knew you could drown in the stuff, but dying from drinking too much of it? Wow. Didn't know that.
Before calling the poor woman a lemming/ a candidate for Darwin's award blahblahblah, I got to ask why can't they (the organisers) supply isotonic sports drink in this sort of competition?
Water intoxication is more common than many of us would like to think. It is part of the reason why many marathons now supply sports drink in addition to water. Newbies in many cases either don't drink enough or cannot stop drinking until water drains them from the inside.
It's a bit harsh to call it stupidity; water poisoning isn't that well known.
The radio station is the one holding the contest. Drinking too much water is a non obvious danger. But the radio station is the one who should perform the due dilligance.
Just because we happen to know that water can be dangerous doesn't mean other people do. And certainly expecting a mother of 3 doing a 'contest' that sounds like something fun and silly to expect any danger from the contest is unreasonable.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that generally people, rightly or wrongly, Trust people in charge. Think of the Milgram Experiment as an extreme example. Even though the objectives of the experiment are different, it shows the same underlying principle: people generally listen to people they think are athority figures. And in this case, the contest holders are the athority figures.
Beyond the lawsuit, I would not be shocked to see criminal charges against the people who ran the contest. Their actions directly led to the death of another person.
"The bass, the rock, the mic, the treble. I like my coffee black, just like my metal" - Mindless Self Indulgence
From Wikipedia:
What is this 8th grade English class?
Hey, I have an idea! Let's have a contest where people shoot apples off each other's heads William Tell style! I bet that'd get great ratings!
The cake is a pie
I agree. Most people don't realize that you can die from drinking too much water at once. I was telling my friend about this story, and his response was: "Water? How much did she drink? I have drank 20 beers in a night and not died, and all she drank was water!"
I had to explain to him about alcohol being a diuretic and about excessive water upsetting the electrolyte balance in your blood. Anyway, the point is, I wouldn't say that she is stupid for not knowing this. People aren't generally taught about this problem because it's very unlikely to happen. The only reason that I knew about this was from another similar news story about 8 years ago.
Water poisoning isn't that well known.
Agreed. I seem to recall the bizarre story of an american woman in the seventies and eighties, who happened to have the highest registered IQ in Mensa (her succesor was Marilyn Vos Savant - two females in a row!). This lady, who suffered from manic-depressive disorder, became obsessed with water and made herself force-drink ridiculous amounts of it. She died one day from what was classified as something like 'internal drowning', which is to say, without being submerged in the stuff itself. And she wasn't even trying to hold it in.
It's quite possible that this story may be an urban legend, so if anybody has the facts on had to prove or disprove it, please post!
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty