Did this radio station not consider the implications of their stunt? Via CNN:
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.”
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That’s utterly horrible. And for a Nintendo game.
Water intoxication. Another bad way to die.
Oh geez, that would be a bad way to go….
Bad news for the radio station too, I’m sure they will be sued out of existence and rightly so.
I hope whoever thought up the idea for this contest gets canned – no pun intended.
That town is going to flood from all the drooling lawyers that want that case.
What’s even more amazing is that 2 years ago there was an incident of “death by water” at a fraternity initiation in Chico that was VERY prominently played in The Sacramento Bee. Two fraternity members were convicted of manslaughter. The radio station apparently didn’t remember this…..
I feel terrible for this womans kids. It just goes to show what a mother will do for her children! I would hope the radio station is going to help these children out in the near future……
That is so tragic! I am wondering how much she drank and even more so, how in the world she was able to hold it in??
When I went through Army Airborne Jump School in June-July 1969 we were allowed to drink all the cold water we could drink…..except the water was salted. I suppose that’s already been discredited as well as the salt tablets we had to take during basic training. But I wonder now if the salt water protected us from hyperhydration?
Every year, the Iron Man Triathlon is held where I live, and every year, several dopes would be brought in for severe hyponatremia because of not only the grueling events but also because of pounding down pure water.
I’m live in Sacramento CA. According to different sources, Jennifer Strange drank between 1-3/4 and 2 gallons of water. The crew of the morning radio program that sponsored the contest have been fired. Also, the morning of the contest (before it began), several nurses conferenced-called the radio station, telling them how dangerous their contest was. Their call was aired live on the radio, but to no avail.
You can read multiple articles about it at sacbee dot com. As an aside, the Bee carried an article yesterday about the dangers that athletes face with water intoxication.
Of course the radio station has fired the employees, I sure the station manager knew nothing about the whole thing and is apalled (heavy sarcasm)
I suspect firing the employees was to a) scapegoat them and b)not have to hire attorneys to defend them, which will most likely backfire.
We have at least two lawyer-lurkers here, was firing those involved a good move?