By Associated Press
4 hours ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - 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 know 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 eight-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 kids."

Silly contest

hopefully they have wii's in heaven - that ding dong, LOL.

oh now I'm upset. How can I go to sleep upset

Tom said:

I call it natural selection.

i would have rather taken part in a "Hold your Wee for a PS3" contest.
water way to go.

Sounds like a darwin award and a lawsuit all rolled up into 1.

The company should at least give the kids a video game system.So sad...

water intoxication sounds silly but is a real threat. Some runners have grown deathly ill after consuming too much water.

ThreadBare said:

Yeah...it's one of those things that you never think like it could actually be bad for you. I mean, we're always told we need to drink more water, but you don't really hear about the bad effects of overdoing it that much until something like this happens. It's like drowning from the inside

sexxydancer said:

somehow I doubt they'll still want it, seeing as their desire for one caused her to enter the contest

Is a video game system really worth dying for?

ThreadBare said:

That sounds interesting....do you know of any examples ? how much water is bad for you, and how can someone possibly drink that much water without feeling sick first? I mean, why would anybody drink more than what´s healthy for him or her ? I once read an article that said that more than one glass per hour wasn´t healthy, except when you´re in the middle of a heavy workout or marathon.

KoolEaze said:

It depends on a lot of factors. Temperature, activity, sodium/potassium intake, bodyweight/muscularity, amount of calories consumed etc etc...

The woman did feel sick (headache), which is when she should have been rushed to the hospital.

lazycrockett said:

Exactly.

hold your Wee for a Wii

Nikster said:

That's a good way to put it. It's like the cells run out of room.

KoolEaze said:

People really need to get educated about this ::
http://chemistry.about.co...rintox.htm

Cold shit, what a stupid thing to DIE over