Woman drinks 3 gallons of water for wii

Page 1“Water Can Kill?” by Susan D. Hester

by Susan D. Hester Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE

Part I – Three True Stories

Case 1: Jennifer Strange 1,2

Jennifer Strange was a 28-year-old mother of three who entered a radio contest to try to win a Nintendo Wii game system for her children. As part of KDND’s “Hold your wee for a Wii” contest, Jennifer drank bottle after bottle of water for hours without urinating.

Initially, Jennifer seemed to be having fun, joking lightheartedly with the radio hosts and obligingly downing an 8-ounce bottle of water every 15 minutes. As the hours passed, however, she developed a splitting headache and dizziness. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore and ran to the bathroom and vomited.

Jennifer called her boss to say that she was going home for the day because her headache was excruciating and she was too sick for work. Jennifer’s mother found her that afternoon, dead in her home.

Case 2: Cassandra Killpack 3

After a 3 ½-week trial, a jury found Jennete Killpack, 29, guilty of killing her 4-year-old adopted daughter Cassandra by forcing approximately a gallon of water down the girl’s throat in an attempt to discipline her.

A few hours after the “hydro-discipline,” the Killpacks called the paramedics because Cassandra was unresponsive. The paramedics delivered her to the hospital, where she died later that day. Medical investigation found that Cassandra’s brain was swollen and the concentration of sodium in her blood and tissues was far below normal.

Case 3: James McBride 4

James McBride, a 25-year-old police officer, died after a 12-mile bike ride that was part of a training course. Over the course of the ride, James drank roughly three gallons of water that he brought with him in a pack.

During a session that focused on how to dismount a bike, an instructor noticed that McBride looked ill and asked him to sit down. McBride complained of dizziness and nausea, and then vomited. Officers initially thought he might have suffered heat stroke. Unaware that James had already consumed so much water, they gave him more water to cool him down while he sat out of the exercise.

When another officer hurt himself during the exercise, an ambulance was summoned. The paramedics noticed that James was convulsing and continuing to vomit, so they brought him to the hospital. He died in the hospital the next day.

Water Can Kill? Exploring Effects of Osmosis

NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE

Page 2“Water Can Kill?” by Susan D. Hester

Questions 1. What sort of environment (hypertonic, isotonic, hypotonic) does consuming excessive amounts of pure water

create in the body fluid that surrounds your cells? What effect would this have on your cells?

2. What types of symptoms did Jennifer, Cassandra, and James have in common? Which organ or tissue seems to have been most affected?

3. Keeping in mind your answers to questions 1 and 2, what do you think the immediate cause of death was for Jennifer, Cassandra, and James?

4. If you suspected that a patient’s symptoms were caused by the condition suffered by Jennifer, Cassandra, and James, what kinds of test would you run to confirm your suspicions?

5. Once you knew the cause of their symptoms, what kind of emergency treatment might you try for a patient like Cassandra or James if you were the doctor in charge of their care?

6. Why do you think doctors administer a saline solution instead of pure water to dehydrated patients?

References 1. Woman dies after water-drinking contest. MSNBC. January 13, 2007. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

id/16614865/#.TymcFPmwWBg.

2. Jury awards $16 million to family in fatal radio prank. LA Times. October 29, 2009. http://latimesblogs.latimes. com/lanow/2009/10/jury-awards-16-mi