What Is Water Poisoning?

Drinking an extreme amount of water, in a short time can cause risk to our body, and it may cause the level of salt, or sodium, to drop too low in our blood, and is known as hyponatremia. In some cases it could be very serious, and can be fatal. It is also known as water intoxication, or water poisoning that can cause  fatal disturbance in functions of our brain that results when our body’s electrolytes normal balance, is pushed outside safe limits by overhydration. Consuming too much water in most normal circumstances  is very rare. Almost all deaths affiliated to water intoxication or water poisoning, in normal person, which in most cases are results from water drinking contests in which any participants attempted to consume large amounts of water, or in some cases, from long bouts of exercise during which excessive amounts of fluid were consumed. In some cases, the water cure, is a method of torture, when a person forced a victim to consume excessive amounts of water, can cause water poisoning. Just like any substance, when water is over consumed in short period of time, it can be considered a poison, and even healthy people can have water intoxication, when water is being consumed extreme amount, without giving the body the proper nutrients it needs to be healthy. The most susceptible to water intoxication are the marathon runners if drinking high amount of water while running, and has been identified in marathon runners as an abnormal change hyponatremia ( low sodium concentration in the blood). Both sodium and water content increase is called hypervolemic hyponatremia, the increase in sodium content leads to hypervolemia and water content to hyponatremia. The water and sodium in the body are regulated independently. Some notable cases of people who died from water poisoning.

1) Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol  born Andrew Warhola, born August 6, 1928 died on February 22, 1987 due to water intoxication, was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement also known as pop art. Andy Warhol was openly gay. The family of Warhol, accused the hospital publicly, five years after his death, where he had his gallbladder surgery, and claimed that Warhol died of water intoxication after he was given post-operative fluid intake. According to the autopsy report, Warhol’s weight was 128 lbs when admitted, and had weight 150lbs after surgery following his death, citing as that too much fluid was administered as the evidence for his death.

2) Anna Victoria Wood

A 15-year-old Australian teenager, Anna Wood who died on October 24, 1995,  from water intoxication secondary to use of ecstasy (MDMA). After she collapsed into a coma due to water poisoning or water intoxication, after she taking an ecstasy tablet in a city in Sydney, Australia. Wood’s death was first considered to be the result of a contaminated tablet, but later, it was determined that Wood died from the effects of water intoxication secondary to use of ecstasy.

3)  Leah Betts

Leah Sarah Betts ( born November 1, 1977) was a schoolgirl from Latchingdon in Essex, England. Betts’ case became known for the extensive media coverage and moral panic following her death, 15 days after she turned 18. On 11 November, Leah Betts took an ecstasy tablet, on November 11, 1995, and then drank approximately 7 liters of water in a 90-minute period, after four hours, she slipped into a coma, and never recovered, and later died on November 16 1995.

4) Anthony Andrews

British actor Anthony Andrews,born Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews  is an English actor best known for his role in the 1981 ITV miniseries Brideshead Revisited as Lord Sebastian Flyte, and as Professor Henry Higgins in a stage version of My Fair Lady in 2001, and as Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White. Andrews survived a case of water intoxication in 2003, which the condition is also known as hyponatremia, caused by the dilution of sodium in the body, and has similar symptoms to dehydration, like headaches, nausea and cramp. Andrews lost consciousness and spent three days in intensive care, while performing as Henry Higgins in a musical My Fair Lady, after consuming eight liters of water a day.

5)  Alexa Linboom

Alexa Linboom, is a 5-year-old Tennessee girl from Tennessee, who died from water intoxication, after being forced to drink extreme amount of grape soda and water as a punishment, after Alexa drank her stepmother’s grape drinks. Her father, Randall Vaughn, 41, and stepmother Mary Vaughn, 58, faces murder charges for allegedly punishing Alexa, by forcing her to drink excessive amounts of water and grape soda, that caused her death, according to authorities. Alexa Linboom was allegedly forced to drink much liquid that caused the sodium level in her body to go down and caused her brain to swell. She was rushed to the hospital in 2012 New Years day, and was declared brain dead after two days.

6) Savannah Hardin

2012:  Nine year old, Savannah Hardin from Alabama, died after being forced to run for several hours, and after she was suffering seizures and became unresponsive, a 911 was called. After three days, Hardin died at the hospital, and the cause of death was seizure disorder due to hyponatremia, according to her death certificate. In May 2015, Joyce Hardin, her grandmother was convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for parole.

7) Luana Priscyla Fernandes Soares

On April 28, 2013, Luana Priscyla Fernandes Soares, a 21-year-old Brazilian woman, participated in a competition drinking as many tereré drink, which is very common in Mato Grosso do Sul, and after an hour and a half later, she fell ill and vomited, suffering dizziness according to her husband, Miranda Welton Godoy, age 29. Fernandes Soares was rush to Santa Casa Hospital Complex in Brazil, and died two days later on April 30. This event is a radio contest in Brazil, where her group drank 54 liters or 14 gallons of water mixed with Yerba Mate (a plant used in South America to make a tea-like beverage). One after the contest began, Fernandes Soares collapsed and suffered a stroke during the competition, and died two days later in the hospital.

8)   Lisa Nooij

Lisa Nooij a 20 year-old Dutch student from Amsterdam, died in 2013 from water intoxication four days after using methylenedioxy- methamphetamine (MDMA), which is often used at clubs, festivals and house parties, and is often considered the drug of choice within the young culture.

9)  Zyrees Oliver

In August 2014, Zyrees Oliver, a 17 year-old student, of Douglas County High School, west of Atlanta, complained of cramping during football practice on Tuesday. According to his Aunt Tammy Chavis, Oliver drank two gallons of water and two more gallons of Gatorade. The mother of Oliver picked him up and he later collapsed at home and was airlifted to the hospital. According to Oliver’s kin, the doctors told them Oliver was suffering from a massive swelling around the brain from over-hydration. He was brain dead and was taken out from his life support and later died.

10)  Walker Wilbanks

In August 2014, a Mississippi high school football player Walker Wilbanks, age 17,  died three days after he fell ill during a game because of swelling in his brain possibly triggered by overhydration or due from a severe sodium deficiency known as hyponatremia. According to Dr. Joe Pressler. Dustin Barnes/The Clarion-Ledger, the lack of sodium caused water to leak into Wilbanks’ brain, and causes hyponatremia.