Hold Your Wee for a Wii ends in Tragedy

[NightOfTheLivingDon]

Apparently this happend on Saturday, but I just caught wind of it yesterday. This is unbeWiivable! Oh man, the puns have to stop...
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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."

It was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed.

A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith.

John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station's owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange's death.

"We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred," he said.

Initially, contestants were handed 8-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.

"They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy," said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland. "They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."

Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. "My bladder couldn't handle it anymore," he added.

After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.

"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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Also, I heard that people kept calling KDND and telling them that the contest was ridiculously unhealthy and a horrible idea. The DJs laughed it off. One even made a joke about making sure the contestants read the part of the waiver they signed saying they couldn't sue in case someone died, to which the other replied "Yeah right, like anyone's going to die in a water drinking contest!"



Chris Friedman,
Systems Analyst
"Get ready for the most ridiculous series of PSAs in history."

[FartinMowler]

I've never heard of water intoxication. How do you get all that water out of a dead body? "Okay everyone stand back"

[kahljorn]

you can die from having too much or too little of anything in the body.

there's already a thread about this in the gaming section.

[Fathom Zero]

Yeah, don't you hear about these mothers making their children drink glasses of water as punishment, only to find them dead later? I hear it called water poisoning, even though the water isn't actually poisoned.

[DehydratedPorkMan]

Wasn't this already a thread?

[Dr. Boogie]

No.

And neither was it mentioned earlier in this thread that there is another thread just like it in the gaming forum.

[kahljorn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication :O

I remember in a health class i had there was a list in the book of every nutrient needed for the body and what the symptoms of underusage and toxicity were like :O I remember salt causes nerve damage and loss of eyesight or something.

[DehydratedPorkMan]

"There is a thread just like this in the gaming forum."

*beats a dead horse*

[Emu]

*replies to this thread*

My question is: Why would you do this over the radio, anyway?

[Preechr]

Y'know, Emu, that's just the right question to be asking.

Why, indeed?

[ScruU2wice]

People on ecstacy are suppose to be prone to water toxicity because they try to drink too much water to cool down.

[Ant10708]

Great fact!

[domoarigato]

I thought the autopsy was yet to be done to find the cause of her death. Not saying the dj's weren't dumbasses for having such a contest in the first place :/

[zeldasbiggestfan]

Sometimes users of marijuana or other substances will consume large quantities of water in order to receive a negative urinalysis test for that substance.

Thats how quite a few of the "stoners" at school got extremely sick and almost died. Nobody is dead yet though.

[DehydratedPorkMan]

There have been dead stoners. They could have gotten hit by a car, but lots of people get hit by cars. They could have gotten shot, but lots of people get shot. But they never overdose (it's almost impossible) and they never go on a drunk-driving rampage. But if they're thirsty as shit, they'd probably drink Gatorade over water for a Wii.

[ScruU2wice]

Originally Posted by domoarigato

I thought the autopsy was yet to be done to find the cause of her death. Not saying the dj's weren't dumbasses for having such a contest in the first place :/

There was a nurse that called in an told them that they were jackasses and someone was gonna get sick, but they ignored her.

[adept_ninja]

im on my wii right now and i didn'thave to hold my pee!!

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

update

Dramatically YouTube is hosting a six minute tape of the now infamous KDND radio competition “hold your wee for a Wii” that resulted in the death of Jennifer Strange in California January 12. An autopsy on Strange showed that the drinking of a large amount of water lead to her experiencing headaches and finally expiring at home.

The Audio is an eerie experience with many conversations between the on air announcers and the now deceased competitor, the excerpts include a female contestant querying the announcers “Can’t you get water poisoning and like, die?”

Joystiq is also running a story that quotes Roger Dryer, lawyer for the family of Strange that has subsequently sued the radio station. He has not ruled out including Nintendo (manufacturers of the Wii game console) in the law suit. Dryer stated that KDND had been “pushing an irresponsible, ill-advised contest”.

If Nintendo were involved directly in the competition they “might” also be named as a defendant in the suit.

KDND subsequently sacked 10 people for their involvement in the ill fated comp.

You can Sue for making good products? Everyone at Sony is safe.