Idiot Drinks So Much Water She Dies

Darwin??! Or some @$$holes at a radio station who took advantage of a woman who happened to want to please her children, but did not have quite enough money to do so!
This cynical "Darwin" argument is getting more and more stupid!

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."
(...)
"I was talking to her and she was a nice lady," Ybarra said. "She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids."
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It's very sad, and frankly, most people probably don't know you can die from drinking too much water.
 
People will do anything if a radio channel offers a prize.

We recently had a case here in Denmark where a radio channel offered a prize if someone would throw a whipped cream cake into the face of another. Five minutes after the prize was announced, a guy walked into a bakery, asked for a cake with whipped cream, and then threw it into the face of the shop-assistent who handed it to him.

I'm happy to say that not only was the "cake-thrower" arrested, but the radio channel was charged as well.

Idiots.
 
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dann said:
Darwin??! Or some @$$holes at a radio station who took advantage of a woman who happened to want to please her children, but did not have quite enough money to do so!
This cynical "Darwin" argument is getting more and more studid!
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She was an idiot. The Darwin prize is well deserved, if she makes the nomination.
 
Lisa Simpson said:
It's very sad, and frankly, most people probably don't know you can die from drinking too much water.
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I agree, particularly when it's part of an organised event - presumably she trusted the radio station to not run a competition that could put her at risk.

I don't think there's anything funny or ironic about this story at all, and the only stupid people are the competition organisers.
 
tkingdoll said:
I agree, particularly when it's part of an organised event - presumably she trusted the radio station to not run a competition that could put her at risk.
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Which would be an idiotic thing to do.
I don't think there's anything funny or ironic about this story at all, and the only stupid people are the competition organisers.
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I don't think there is anything funny about this women being so uneducated, but otherwise....
 
Kewl. Makes the dumb things I do not so bad after all! ;)

Lisa Simpson said:
It's very sad, and frankly, most people probably don't know you can die from drinking too much water.
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I thought that was called "drowning?" One of mankind's basic avoidance instincts? As in, "stay away from the water! You hear me young man? Don't you dare drown or sure as the Pope says Mass on roller skates I'll cut a switch and tan your little 8 yr. old hide!"

And don't, like, totally bore me with the distinction between inhaling water thereby preventing blood oxygenation vs. imbibition resulting in solute dilution of cellular contents and membrane rupture. Yawn.

So, I guess she did it for her kids after all. At least they won't be learning any life lessons from a clueless idiot of a mother. And on the bright side (there's always a bright side) they can sell her car to kick off the "help the orphans" scholarship fund. Should be an easy sell since she apparently didn't ruin the upholstery. ROFLMAO.

And yes, my mother would be appalled at my witty callousness. But she was Scots and had zero sense of humor, anyway.
 
FarmallMTA said:
At least they won't be learning any life lessons from a clueless idiot of a mother.
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And I guess that the other contestants and the listeners who didn't interfere were all either clueless idiots who also deserve to die or cynics who couldn't wait for 'Darwin' to eliminate a few of the idiots?
 
DanishDynamite said:
Which would be an idiotic thing to do.
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No kidding. I'm not aware of any MENSA members who take their investment advice, family planning advice, romance advice, career advice, or any other kind of life advice from wacky morning DJ "Madman" Mike Antony or anybody else from the Q Morning Zoo Crew (ref Onion.com/content/node/29372). To do so would indeed be Darwin Award-bait idiocy.

DanishDynamite said:
I don't think there is anything funny about this women being so uneducated, but otherwise....
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I'm not so sure education helps stupid people. I'm envisioning here, hypothetically mind you, a gaggle of sissy-sport players at an elite southern university hanging out on a Saturday afternoon cooking a bowl and drinking beer and somehow drunkenly coming up with the way wack notion of having a totally bitchin' party with, like, a DJ and maybe a couple of totally gross fat ugly black strippers just for laughs!"

Followed, of course, by high fives and soul daps and cheers all around for coming up with such a great idea.
 
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I think calling the woman stupid is a bit of an assumption.

Was what she did the most brilliant thing? Of course not. But, for what it's worth, I have never heard of water intoxication, in all of my 52 years. And most people, I believe, would assume that a contest held by a local station (radio or TV) would be safe. Hell, I would consider drinking water to be safer than say, seeing how many hot dogs you can eat in a given period of time!

I think the question now is what liability does the station have? Did they do any checking on the possible downsides to their contest? I suspect we'll find out when the lawsuits start.

As for the woman, she was trying to do something for her kids. It was drinking water! Hell, she carried them for 9 months, and then gave them birth! Neither of which I'm sure I would be willing to do! Drinking water should have been as easy as...well drinking water!

I think it's a sad story, and I regret the loss of her life, and the loss to her family and friends.
 
FarmallMTA said:
No kidding. I'm not aware of any MENSA members who take their investment advice, family planning advice, romance advice, career advice, or any other kind of life advice from wacky morning DJ "Madman" Mike Antony or anybody else from the Q Morning Zoo Crew (ref Onion.com/content/node/29372). To do so would indeed be Darwin Award-bait idiocy.
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Indeed it would.

However, I find it is best if Darwin candidates do their idiotic suicide, unassisted.
I'm not so sure education helps stupid people. I'm envisioning here, hypothetically mind you, a gaggle of sissy-sport players at an elite southern university hanging out on a Saturday afternoon cooking a bowl and drinking beer and somehow drunkenly coming up with the way wack notion of having a totally bitchin' party with, like, a DJ and maybe a couple of totally gross fat ugly black strippers just for laughs!"

Followed, of course, by high fives and soul daps and cheers all around for coming up with such a great idea.
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I'm pretty sure education is vital.
 
FarmallMTA said:
I'm envisioning here, hypothetically mind you, a gaggle of sissy-sport players at an elite southern university hanging out on a Saturday afternoon cooking a bowl and drinking beer and somehow drunkenly coming up with the way wack notion of having a totally bitchin' party with, like, a DJ and maybe a couple of totally gross fat ugly black strippers just for laughs!"
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Interesting comparison on bad judgment, but I must ask:

You ever play lacrosse?

There was a very famous NFL great, Jim Brown, who played two sports at Syracuse: Football and Lacrosse. I'd not call lacrosse a sissy sport. FWIW, Brosn was allegedly even better at LaCrosse than at football, though that may be some revisionist from Sports Illustrated sorts.

DR
 
This Guy said:
I think calling the woman stupid is a bit of an assumption.

Was what she did the most brilliant thing? Of course not. But, for what it's worth, I have never heard of water intoxication, in all of my 52 years. And most people, I believe, would assume that a contest held by a local station (radio or TV) would be safe. Hell, I would consider drinking water to be safer than say, seeing how many hot dogs you can eat in a given period of time!

I think the question now is what liability does the station have? Did they do any checking on the possible downsides to their contest? I suspect we'll find out when the lawsuits start.

As for the woman, she was trying to do something for her kids. It was drinking water! Hell, she carried them for 9 months, and then gave them birth! Neither of which I'm sure I would be willing to do! Drinking water should have been as easy as...well drinking water!

I think it's a sad story, and I regret the loss of her life, and the loss to her family and friends.
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I am so sick of people blaming others for their own lack. Jesus Christ, every individual on this planet is constantly being affected by all sorts of external input. It behooves every person to sort the crap from the kernel.
 
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Who said anything about Lacrosse?

Darth Rotor said:
Interesting comparison on bad judgment, but I must ask:

You ever play lacrosse?

There was a very famous NFL great, Jim Brown, who played two sports at Syracuse: Football and Lacrosse. I'd not call lacrosse a sissy sport. FWIW, Brosn was allegedly even better at LaCrosse than at football, though that may be some revisionist from Sports Illustrated sorts.

DR
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LOL. Got some kind of inferiority complex about it?
 
FarmallMTA said:
LOL. Got some kind of inferiority complex about it?
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No, I tried my hand at it freshman year in college (I completely sucked at it, got involved too late in life) and I used to watch the Navy Lacrosse team rather frequently when I was there.

You call lacrosse a sissy sport? You haven't a clue.

DR
 
DanishDynamite said:
I am so sick of people blaming others for their own lack. Jesus Christ, every individual on this planet is constantly being affected by all sorts of external input. It behooves every person to sort the crap from the kernel.
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IMHO when you slip on someone's walkway, on a toy or ice patch that was clearly visible, and you sue, that is blaming someone else for your lack of attention.

If you buy a jug of bleach, and accidental pour it into your coffee water, and die from drinking it, that's your fault.

In MOST cases of product liability that I know of, I side with the manufacture/distributer. This is not a case of someone doing something stupid on their own. It was something (apparently stupid, but it surprises me that the consequences were fatal!) promoted on the air by a radio station! No one hearing that contest advertised appeared to feel there was anything dangerous about it! It's not like she was answering an obscure add in the back of some mostly unread tabloid. It was broadcast on the local airwaves for everyone to hear and evaluate. It would be, again, IMHO normal to expect that such a thing would be safe.

I don't know how prevalent water intoxication is. Based solely on the fact that I have never heard of it, I'm assuming it doesn't happen every day. My question is did the radio station do any checks about the safety of the contestants for the contest they were going to run? If they did, and whomever would be the appropriate reference for such things, gave the OK, then I would consider what happened to the lady a fluke. A sad fluke, but a fluke. If the station did not check to determine if there was the possibility of harm to the contestants, then I think there very well could be a justified liability suit in the wings.

Obviously there are not that many facts available now. Time will tell.
 
Darth Rotor said:
No, I tried my hand at it freshman year in college (I completely sucked at it, got involved too late in life) and I used to watch the Navy Lacrosse team rather frequently when I was there.

You call lacrosse a sissy sport? You haven't a clue.

DR
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Dude, you're arguing in circles with yourself. Nobody said anything about *removes hat, places across heart reverently* lacrosse *spoken with catch in voice, moist doe-eyes, trembling lip and reverence on my worshipful visage*.

Dang! Happy now?
 
This Guy said:
IMHO when you slip on someone's walkway, on a toy or ice patch that was clearly visible, and you sue, that is blaming someone else for your lack of attention.
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Indeed it is and it should be generally discouraged to blame anyone but yourself.
If you buy a jug of bleach, and accidental pour it into your coffee water, and die from drinking it, that's your fault.

In MOST cases of product liability that I know of, I side with the manufacture/distributer. This is not a case of someone doing something stupid on their own. It was something (apparently stupid, but it surprises me that the consequences were fatal!) promoted on the air by a radio station! No one hearing that contest advertised appeared to feel there was anything dangerous about it! It's not like she was answering an obscure add in the back of some mostly unread tabloid. It was broadcast on the local airwaves for everyone to hear and evaluate. It would be, again, IMHO normal to expect that such a thing would be safe.
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It would, IMHO, like everything in life, be up to the individual to assess the pros and cons of following some advice.
I don't know how prevalent water intoxication is. Based solely on the fact that I have never heard of it, I'm assuming it doesn't happen every day. My question is did the radio station do any checks about the safety of the contestants for the contest they were going to run? If they did, and whomever would be the appropriate reference for such things, gave the OK, then I would consider what happened to the lady a fluke. A sad fluke, but a fluke. If the station did not check to determine if there was the possibility of harm to the contestants, then I think there very well could be a justified liability suit in the wings.
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In a perfect world they would have no liability whatsoever. Suppose they had a contest where the first person to kill himself by jumping off a particular bridge, got a prize. So what?
Obviously there are not that many facts available now. Time will tell.
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Time will tell what?
 
JamesM said:
Having already had children, she's not actually removed herself from the gene pool.
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True. But along the lines of the Nature vs. Nurture debate about fitness of offspring, at least now the kids have a chance to be raised by somebody whose IQ exceeds that of your average eggplant.

Nurture now gets its chance to strut its stuff.
 
DanishDynamite said:
SNIP

In a perfect world they would have no liability whatsoever. Suppose they had a contest where the first person to kill himself by jumping off a particular bridge, got a prize. So what?
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Well, at least the possible consequences would be more obvious :)

This contest was not billed as a contest to see who could kill themselves by drinking too much water though. If that was the objective, it should have been stated in the rules ;)

Time will tell what?
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Hopefully, time will tell whether or not the station did any checks on the potential for injury from this contest.

I also consider there is a possibility that this woman had some (perhaps undiagnosed) medical condition that made her death more likely. I suspect we will hear, if such is the case, as time goes on.
 
DanishDynamite said:
Indeed it would.

I'm pretty sure education is vital.
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Nahhhhhh!

Stupid people, having inherently poor reasoning and memory, remain stupid until they die. Then they're stupid corpses. Ignorant people, due to a paucity of facts, figures and examples in their gray matter, manage to off themselves or their potential through sheer lack of knowledge.

Education helps ignorance. Education CAN'T help stupidity. Overriding your basic survival instincts to drink a bazillion gallons of water is stupid. It gets you on "Jackass, the movie" maybe, but you'd still be stupid. Alive or dead.
 
Lisa Simpson said:
It's very sad, and frankly, most people probably don't know you can die from drinking too much water.
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I suspected that when I read about this in local paper. A rather large number of people do not know things of that nature - which is one of the reasons wooism survives - but is also just plain dangerous. On the other... nobody knows everything - why I keep telling my students to learn whatever they have the opportunity to.
 
FarmallMTA said:
Nahhhhhh!

Stupid people, having inherently poor reasoning and memory, remain stupid until they die. Then they're stupid corpses. Ignorant people, due to a paucity of facts, figures and examples in their gray matter, manage to off themselves or their potential through sheer lack of knowledge.

Education helps ignorance. Education CAN'T help stupidity. Overriding your basic survival instincts to drink a bazillion gallons of water is stupid. It gets you on "Jackass, the movie" maybe, but you'd still be stupid. Alive or dead.
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There is much in what you say, but nevertheless education will raise the average. Education will help you not win the Darwin Award.
 
DanishDynamite said:
There is much in what you say, but nevertheless education will raise the average. Education will help you not win the Darwin Award.
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Hmmm. You might have something there. I haven't won it yet. Yet. Maybe the education thing helped. We'll see.

;)
 
This Guy said:
I put my application in last week. Still waiting on the results :crazy:
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The competition is stiff (ha, ha... stiff! get it? Stiff! Oh, boy, I just kill myself! hey there's another one!!!!) and the potter's field is crowded with candidates (get it? potter's field! hoo boy, that's a good 'un!)! Don't hold your breath waiting (ohhhhh, lordy the inner laughter HURTS)!

ROFLMAO!
 
Water intoxication is not widely thought of as a potential problem. I'd call this an accidental death.

What was not accidental is that the radio station, and other people, thought it entertaining and funny to require people to "hold their water". That's torture for monetary gain. Sad, very sad, and somewhat despicable. Also sad is that people were willing to subject themselves to humiliation and pain for a few lousy bucks...although many parents would do anything for their kids, as the unfortunate victim tried to do. I feel bad for her children.

Had the radio station used something like Gatorade instead of water, she might not have died. The problem is not so much "intoxication" as it is sodium depletion.

http://www.alpharubicon.com/med/watertox.html
 
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This Guy said:
Well, at least the possible consequences would be more obvious :)

This contest was not billed as a contest to see who could kill themselves by drinking too much water though. If that was the objective, it should have been stated in the rules ;)
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Are you a lawyer? Or do you just feel that commen sense is overrated?
Hopefully, time will tell whether or not the station did any checks on the potential for injury from this contest.
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Why should they?
I also consider there is a possibility that this woman had some (perhaps undiagnosed) medical condition that made her death more likely. I suspect we will hear, if such is the case, as time goes on.
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Perhaps we will. So what?
 
I really feel for the poor woman's kids. It's bad enough going through life without your mother, but to know she died trying to win you a games console must be awful. :(

I agree with the people who are defending the victim here. The fact that you can die through drinking too much water is not common knowledge, and is certainly not common sense. After all, the competition organisers seemed not to know...
 
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