Water Intoxication: Hold your wee for a Wii contest - The sad case of Jennifer Strange

Here is the article we read in class from the New York Times "The Lede" blog. 

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/too-high-a-price-for-a-wii/

Take a look at this short MSNBC news story about Jennifer Strange and her death by hyponatremia.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/ns/us_news-life/

Video on Water Intoxication from YouTube http://youtu.be/MKbW7fFqbCA

This link describes the sports medicine concern with hyponatremia that occurs in athletes who sweat a lot during an event, and then drink large amounts of water. Jennifer was not sweating like an athlete, but her body reacted in a similar way.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/hydrationandfluid/a/Hyponatremia.htm

CBS News also did a story a few days later explaining a bit more about the consequences for the people who worked for the radio station.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/18/national/main2369761.shtml

It turns out that the DJs were joking about a person who died from water intoxication two years prior to their Wii contest... so they knew it was dangerous. The radio station was sued by Jennifer Strange's family and had to pay them quite a bit. The following article from the LA Times newspaper gives the details.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/jury-awards-16-million-in-radio-prank-that-left-sacramentoarea-woman-dead-.html