Radio Station Fires 10 People over Hold Your Wee for a Wii Death

Those quotes really do put things in perspective. In sounds like the DJs were grossly irresponsible. That they would totally disregard both the caller's warning and the victim's symptoms is appalling.

Hyerthermia / water intoxification really is something very few people know about; we hear so much about the need to stay hydrated, by contrast. File the unfortunate deceased under "not knowing that she didn't know," and the DJs under "knew better but didn't care."

I suspect some people will keep posting that Strange was a "dingbat" and dummy, but they're probably the same sort of people who'll read all the actual facts in the "McDonald's Coffee Lawsuit" case and still call it frivolous. Some people have too much identity invested in their opinions to let facts change their minds. That goes double when the holder of the opinion feels justified in that opinion in insulting people up and down. I mean, who wants to let go of a good excuse to insult dead women and orphaned children?

Bird of Prey said:

Dave, not funny. Really. The woman had kids. She died. You understand? At this moment, her kids are without a mother because she wanted something for them, and was willing to put herself in an embarrassing situation to get it. It's horrible. It's tragic. And it says a lot about a society that is willing to sneer at people for a lousy buck. Please don't join them for a lousy laugh.

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That's what I was saying, BoP. If it had been for something more substantial, or at least a decent gaming system... But stupid is as stupid does. There's noting funny about her death. But it's absurd that there are people this stupid in our society. It's absurd that people do such stupid things. It's absurd that the human body is so frail it can be killed with a glass of water.

Absurdism is a form of comedy.

So this is funny. But as slingblade would say, "funny queer, not funny haha."

Did they also get callers claiming that aliens had abducted them or that Clinton shot JFK?

JennaGlatzer said:

I dunno, M-I... how would you know that you were doing something irresponsible in this case? Assuming that mother had never heard of water intoxication before, how is the onus on her to take "responsibility" for it? If the DJs hadn't considered that there was anything dangerous about the contest, they sure should have had someone verifying the nurse's info immediately when they learned that it could be deadly... and not let the contestants go home without a medical check.

No idea if the contestants heard the caller.

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I'm not making fun of this woman at all. I do feel sorry that this happened to her and her family. As another poster posted - if it were 'normal' for humans to drink that amount of water in that short of time, we'd be doing it on a regular basis. Also, assuming that this woman had listened to these DJs even a few times before, she'd likely have an idea what kind of people she was dealing with (based only on the few quotes I read in this thread attributed to the DJs, I wouldn't believe much of anything they said, and/or participate in any of their contests).

Additionally, if she had to sign a medical release form in order to participate in the contest, perhaps that might have been a clue to the fact that there could be problems....

Should DJs take responsibility for what they do, say, propose on air? Yes. Should they have followed up on the info from the nurse? Yes.

Should people take responsibility for what they do to their own bodies? Yes.

Hopefully, out of this tragedy, some good might arise - in that people hearing this story will at least pause for a moment and consider the risks they take for such small compensation...

Take care all -

AnneMarble said:

...
From the discussions I've seen on-line, this sort of death is more common than you might think. Have any of you heard of people dying from drinking too much water? I think I heard of this happening in a hazing, but I could be remembering wrong.

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I heard many years ago of a man in jail dying from drinking a large amount of water - his religious beliefs led him to think he was washing the demons out of his body or something like that. ISTR the electrolytes and whatnot in the blood get so diluted so much that the body doesn't function.

On a related topic, I recently read a news article about the increasing popularity of eating contests, where the person eating the most of a specific food in a fixed period of time wins. The "professionals" at this can eat huge amounts, something like (I forget, but maybe...) 50 hotdogs in a minute. It seems really irresponsible to have any involvement in such a contest. I can only wonder if the participants are required to sign a disclaimer saying they or their survivors won't sue if they choke or have health problems related to the contest.

Strangely enough, I just went to read this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_eating
which says under "Training:"
Stomach elasticity is usually considered the key to eating success, and competitors commonly train by drinking large amounts of water over a short time to stretch out the stomach. The IFOCE actively discourages training of any sort.

Remember Fox's "Glutton Bowl"?

tourdeforce said:

Remember Fox's "Glutton Bowl"?

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Are you speaking of Bill O'Reilly?

caw

Ha!

No, it was a real show.

People had to eat things like sticks of butter and bowls of mayonaisse.

And that was just the warm up.

I have to say, I don't understand how these people could have not known it was dangerous. It's common sense, surely! You eat and don't poo - you die. You drink and don't wee - you die. How hard's that? For everything that goes in, something has to come out. I'm very sorry for the woman; amazingly sorry for her family, but really - how could you not know it's dangerous?

Last summer our local sheriff department arrested a man and woman child abuse. They stuffed a garden hose down into their nephews mouth and forced him to drink what the doctors estimated a gallon and a half of water in a matter of a few minutes. The 10 year old boy had been taken away from his mother for running away multiple times and his aunt and uncle were given custody. He'd been living with them for 2 months. A passer-by witnessed them in their front yard hitting the boy on the back and shoulders with a plastic bat and forcing him to drink. The citizen dialed 911 and reported it. I took the phone call.

The boy was in a coma when the deputies arrived and spent nearly two months in the hospital...much of that in a coma. He's in a foster home now and doing well, though he did suffer some brain damage. He easily could have died.

Mandy-Jane said:

I have to say, I don't understand how these people could have not known it was dangerous. It's common sense, surely! You eat and don't poo - you die. You drink and don't wee - you die. How hard's that? For everything that goes in, something has to come out. I'm very sorry for the woman; amazingly sorry for her family, but really - how could you not know it's dangerous?

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I don't know. On the surface, it doesn't sound dangerous. On the other hand, if I was doing something that made me feel sick or just awful, I would stop. But when I first saw this thread, I thought, "Oh, that has to be an urban legend or something." I had no idea.

ltd.

Jongfan said:

This condition is called hyponatremia (water overdose).

I recall a Marathon runner a few years ago suffered from this when the temperature was extremely high.

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I'm really surprised more people haven't heard of this. I thought it was pretty common knowledge, but I guess I was wrong. It's an extremely dangerous condition that can affect athletes who sweat profusely and the elderly.

It's one of the reasons that the University of Florida developed Gatorade (for its football players).

If the woman had simply eaten a banana and taken a salt tablet during her water binge, she'd likely still be alive.

I remember reading an article in a British newspaper last year, about a semi-famous man who almost died for drinking too much water. I don't know how much it was he drank, and it wasn't all at once; he just had a habit of drinking several litres of water every day - too much. He survived, but it was a close call.

DrSpork said:

I'm really surprised more people haven't heard of this. I thought it was pretty common knowledge, but I guess I was wrong. It's an extremely dangerous condition that can affect athletes who sweat profusely and the elderly.

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It's also been known to happen to certain obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferers. Some of them have gone into showers, turned on the water, and drank till they died. Not drowning, mind you, just extreme dilution of electrolytes. Ultimately stops the heart.

caw

-

I passed out from drinking too much water...it was a really hot day and the water was ice cold! I gulped down two glasses and fell right to the ground.

Wonder why that hasn't happened with Beer?

My-Immortal said:

Should people take responsibility for what they do to their own bodies? Yes.

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I agree with this. No one forced the woman to participate in the contest.

Well, the radio station fired a bunch of DJ's and their staff. But what about the program director and others? Who gave these morons the go ahead for this contest? Certainly, advertising was aware of it. Unless it was all a spur of the moment thing, but that seems unlikely.

As to culpability, there's plenty of room to spread it around. Aside from the nurse that called in, I don't see anyone mentioned in the story that shouldn't get some blame. But while the lady who died certainly is responsible for her actions, I think it's a little much to saddle her with foreknowledge that she was risking her life. Acting like a fool, sure. Taking a risk of some level, sure. But life or death? I don't think so. But someone at the radio station should have been on top of this. Personally, I think manslaughter charges are in order for those in management who let this happen without having it checked out, first.

While I was aware of the potential for water intoxification, I doubt most people are. However, as pointed out previously, everyone should know that holding in their bladder to an extreme extent is dangerous. If their common sense does not kick in, the discomfort or even pain should make them realize that what they are doing is not good.

And I suppose the real goal of the contest from the perspective of the station was to get the contestants to pee on themselves or... perhaps even on each other.

This type of thing is a circus side show which has, at its very core, the objective of humiliating the participants.

If this woman had peed in her pants or ran out into the hall, pulled her pants down and urinated on the floor, this would have been a funny thread about the... dingbat... that embarrassed herself and the crazy things that people do. Her motivation and the tragic outcome do not change the fact that this was just dumb.

The station certainly is culpable especially since any contest is run thru their legal dept first to make sure their asps are covered. They know that there is the potential for things to go wrong, and they are grossly negligent in sponsoring such a stupid and dangerous competition.

I can also understand that many people would have no idea that drinking excessive amounts of water is dangerous. Water is the most benign substance there is - flavourless, calorie-less and necessary for life, why should they think that something that they drink every day would hurt them? They would also think that they signed up for something that could be potentially embarassing and accept that risk, but the station would not knowingly put them into a physically dangerous situation where they could lose their life.

What a terrible tragedy - the station should be sued into non-existance.

If this radio station is held accoutnable, then every single eating contest in the country needs to be shut down immediately.

Could there be dangerous results from scarfing down hot dogs, apple pies and twinkies?

Absolutely.

If this station is found culpable, then Nathan's hot dog contest should be shut down by law.

And if it is found to be dangerous, then it is the responsibility fo the state to then ban such contests to protect the people.

This morning, a local radio station had a Segway relay race. One of the guys joked, "Now this is perfectly safe, right? We're not gonna get sued?"

- I thought water intoxication was mentioned on this forum a few weeks ago, but maybe I heard it somewhere else.

For some reason, I picture whatever lawyer that signs on for this case as that character Dan Akroyd played on SNL selling the "Human Torch" kid's Halloween costume and the "Bag 'o Broken Glass" fun pack for kids.