Hold your wee for a wii

[friendofjimmyk]

This is just so sad.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/wat....ap/index.html

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Moved over to Check It Out . . . more apropo

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That reminds me of our campers for the PS3 when it first came out.

When I left the store at 7, one hour before opening, I heard one of them say really loud "They better open the doors pretty soon, because I have to take a piss!"

[Necromancer]

I read online today that a lady died from 'water intoxication' from doing that.

[Rapscallion]

The other problem that they obviously didn't know about is that drinking and passing too much water will reduce the amount of electrolytes in your blood. An actor over here nearly killed himself in intensive rehearsals by drinking too much water, though I think he was more sweating it out.

I feel for the children.

Rapscallion

[Lace Neil Singer]

Also, remember all those deaths from Extascy? Wasn't the drug that killed those teens, it was drinking too much water.

[stormtreader]

I thought it was because they werent drinking enough water while dancing for hours?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nope; maybe some, but this one publicised death of a girl (can't remember her name, but she was on the front page of practically every English paper) was cuz her brain swelled up after she drank too much water.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I thought it was because they werent drinking enough water while dancing for hours?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyle...ethamphetamine

Actually it's quite a bit of everything. The Wiki article mentions overheating and dehydration as well as muscle damage that oculd cause renal failure. The water intoxication has even been known to occur even if the person isn't drinking water due to the pituitary gland going wonky.

Nasty shit I'lm telling you.

M

[iradney]

apparently a student died during an illegal hazing from water saturation as well. think he'd been forced to drink a few gallons of water over a period of time, and then he was also constantly being splashed and submerged with water.
Very dangerous.
Not to mention that pinching your bladder for a long amount of time can cause health issues later on in life...

[wagegoth]

There will definitely be a lawsuit on this one.

[iradney]

Well, as it is, the radio station has already fired people over this...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16660273/

[Banrion]

I'm sorry, I don't see how the radio station is responsible. No one was forced to do anything against their will. Obviously, no one else died, because they were smart enough to know when to quit. Holding the radio station and the DJ's that ran this contest responsible is like holding McDonald's responsible for the obesity epidemic.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I'm sorry, I don't see how the radio station is responsible.

While no one forced her to drink all that water, it was the radio station's responsibility for putting on a promotion that resulted in her death.

First of all there is the fact of the scarcity of the Wii. We all know that there is precious little some people will do to get thier hands on one. I for one am using the "Wait till my tax refund hits the bank and then buy one when they're not scarce anymore" ploy. The radio station used the fervor about the damn things in order to get people to come out and do the public display that amounts to cheap advertising for them. One $250 Wii is cheaper than other forms of self promotion.

Secondly, the radio station didn't research the promo stund fully. They should have asked a doctor (likely a cheap or even free call) to find out if there was anything that could have gone wrong with the stunt. A doctor friend of mine informs me that if they wanted to do that contest a little more safely then they should have used Gatorade (or other electrolyte replacing drink) instead. That way the kidneys would have filtered out the extra water and would have had the ability to regulate the electrolyte balance better. If there was too much then the kidneys would pass it into the urine, and it wouldn't get too low since they would be drinking more.

Plus Gatorade tends to make you go more so people would hit critical limits on holding the urine much sooner and would drop out of the contest in 2/3's the time.

He also said that it still wasn't a good idea to do a contest, but drinking all that much liquid as Gatorade would have kept her alive.

While the station didn't hold a gun to her head and make her play, a good lawyer can take those points above and sue the pants off the station without breaking a sweat.

Hell if they can sue for a burglar who broke into your house, tripped and broke a leg and win...this would be a piece of cake for them.

Mongo

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I just saw on the news where they were told by a nurse that this was a very dangerous stunt that could result in deaths. Their reaction was "Well, they sign wavers, so so what?"

As stupid as it is, people trust what they see on tv or hear on the radio. They especially trust DJ's. Some people don't realize that it might be a bad idea, even if their favorite DJ says to do it. They figure "Oh, it must be okay. I heard so and so on the radio say it."

Yes, it's amazingly stupid. But people do it, and the radio station ought to know this. They have a certain amount of responsibility in this.