April 5, 2007
No criminal charges will be filed against a California radio station that hosted an on-air contest which resulted in the death of a 28-year-old mother of three.Last January, KDND-FM Sacramento’s Morning Rave program held a contest called “Hold your Wee for a Wii.” 18 contestants tried to win Nintendo's popular next-gen console by consuming large quantities of water and seeing who could go the longest without a trip to the restroom.
Jennifer Strange (seen at left with her family), who won second place, had joked with the program’s DJs about her distended belly and lightheadedness after reportedly drinking around two gallons of water. Following the contest, she called in sick to work and five hours later was found dead in her home. A post-mortem ruled that Strange died of water intoxication, a condition one caller warned the contest hosts about. (Hear audio clips of the show here.)
The following week, the Morning Rave show was canceled and 10 employees fired, including the DJs.
Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully revealed that prosecutors considered filing charges of involuntary manslaughter but ultimately decided against it. Said Scully:
She knew what the contest involved when she entered it and had the option to stop or discontinue her participation in the contest at any time. There were no observable indications or symptoms that Jennifer Strange was experiencing a serious medical emergency which would have required station employees to seek or administer medical aid to her.
The Strange family has filed a wrongful death suit naming the radio station and several employees as defendants.
Via: The San Francisco Chronicle
-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen
Comments
Well, it appears as a scientific fact that perhaps holding your piss balloon too long can be of great bodily harm! Don't ya think!
If that's the case (and again, I can't back this data up, because I don't remember the source of this info), then I think that's more than enough evidence to show that the DJs were partially responsible for her death.
The fact that the act was dangerous is not in and of itself a defense. Comparing it to motocross or rock climbing is ludicrous - in those, the hazards are clear and obvious to anyone. If the station knew these hazards ahead of time and did not warn the participants sufficiently, they can and probably should be liable, waivers or no.
I'll be watching the civil case carefully, and I expect that the family will prevail (or settle out of court).
For the electrolytes sodium and potassium. If you drink water faster than your body can equalize the amount of sodium in the blood, then the interior of the cells has more sodium than the environment outside. Since cell membranes work through osmosis, there has to be more water inside the cell to equalize the amount of sodium on both sides of the membrane. This makes the cells swell, which puts pressure on the brain in particular, since there's very little space in the skull for swelling.
Potassium is essential in carrying electrical messages between nerve cells. If it's too diluted or there isn't enough, it can cause weakness in muscles and irregularity in the heartbeat.
If you drink a gallon or two of water over the course of a day, there won't be problems. If you drink the same amount in an hour, then you very well could keel over and die, as this case illustrates.
According to reports at the time, the constestants drank water over 15 minute periods, and there's no way of knowing if the woman started the contest dehydrated. Different people have different tolerances.
Should they be criminally charged? I think they should. Involuntary manslaughter, perhaps. But this stupid contest definitely caused the woman's death.
I could not finish a galon before the vomiting started. So in order for this woman to have killed herself she would have had to supress the urge to expell the liquid if she drank it all in one sitting.
I still feel sick (but I am fine... I just never want to see water again) so if this woman forced herself through this you should expect to see her in the Darwin Awards for this year. I have no simpathy for the woman. Her kids though I will feel sorry for.
Yeah, I thought everyone knew that drinking too much of anything could have serious complications. But I guess not, huh? Only thing, though, was I heard her kidney ruptured. Guess I heard wrong; it might have been just a speculation I heard.
It is not easy to kill yourself this way. It is, in fact, incredibly -difficult- and requires great willpower, and the determination to ignore the strong warning signals from your stomach and your body as a whole. The radio station did not specifically encourage ANY dangerous behaviour on the part of any contestant.
The woman decided she wanted to win by a mile, and so pushed herself far beyond the point of common sense, public knowledge, and the Warning Signs Of Her Own Body. The only one responsible for her own death is her.
Ditto.
Seriously, this is something EVERYONE should be aware of- even I knew about it when I was 10 years old- that drinking too much water IS bad for you. It IS negligence and ignorance of a fact that they should have been made aware of. Of course, the "victim" in question should also have known such a thing would be possible, and that alone could put her at fault for her own death, but that doesn't excuse these losers from throwing a contest that could end with peoples unintentional deaths.
However, I do agree with firing the people running the contest especially after the warnings from listeners
Seriously though, someone should go to jail over this, possibly due to that criminal negligence thing that was brought up.
You mean to tell me that people or organizations that haven't done anything illegal can't be found to have done something illegal? This is shocking!