I could see this on an episode of 1000 ways to die.

JaredXE:
The family does not deserve any money. In no way is it the fault of the radio station, the woman was 28 and had 3 kids, she was a grown adult and made a grown decision.

Fuck frivolious lawsuits.

True, but the grown adults at the Radios Station also made a grown decision; one that, to be honest, was very stupid. Normally I would say the victim was at fault, but the fact that the radio hosted a competition without doing an research into whether drinking potentially fatal amounts of water is dangerous puts the blame on them in my opinion.

Whether it was worth $16 million however, I do not know.

lwm3398:

Heart of Darkness:

Not quite. Your cells burst, but your body won't. Your body just gets sick and dies.

I still wonder why we don't have spontaneously combusting suicide bombers yet. That would be very exciting and dangerous.

What I just put there was a little something known as sarcasm.

I knew you wouldn't 'Explode', but the whole bursting thing just gave me the idea.

And why don't they just combust?

Yes, I know that. However, the Internet is a bad medium for conveying sarcasm.

The one thing that will come out of this? More warning labels on liquids.

My condolences to her family though.

Pretty silly idea for a radio competition, mind you why couldn't they have just done an old "Whirl 'til you hurl" rollercoaster marathon competition to see who gets the console.

Heart of Darkness:

Yes, I know that. However, the Internet is a bad medium for conveying sarcasm.

Yeah, I'll give you that. But who's gonna put /sarcasm after everything?

Not this lazy bastard.

you can buy a wii for that money...

although I fully sympathize for the family.

lwm3398:
Water... Poisoning? What is that and how does someone go about getting it?

IIRC, water can dilute the electrons (at least I think it was electrons) of your body, pretty much causing you to shut down for good. As you might expect, it takes a large quantity of water to get the diluting effect.

Well its obviouse that the radio station didnt look into the bio part of drinking to much water and what it could do to your body and the cells like kill you by over hydration. Some people are just dum

lwm3398:

Heart of Darkness:

Yes, I know that. However, the Internet is a bad medium for conveying sarcasm.

Yeah, I'll give you that. But who's gonna put /sarcasm after everything?

Not this lazy bastard.

Yes. But your cells are still technically exploding. "Explosion" does not necessarily mean "violent" nor "fiery."

Wow, that's really tragic in a strange kind of way. What a horrible way to die, must be a nightmare for the family. I really didn't know something like this could happen when you drink too much water, well now I know. GGGGGG IIIII JOOOEEEEE!

What's up with everyone insulting the woman? I mean I can get behind calling robbers with marker on their face idiots but this is a little above that.

On a slightly less serious note: If she managed to drink 7.5 litres and was only 2nd place...how many people pissed their pants in the radio station during the contest? Cleaning ladies should be filing the charges here.

Most people don't know there is such a thing as water intoxication. I don't think the family could have gotten the 34 mil but I'm sure they could have got 20.

Either way; no amount of money can return those kids mom.

Not many people know that drinking to much water can kill you. When a radio show hosts a contest, most people assume that it has to be safe (otherwise terrible things like this happen). The mother simply didn't know about water poisoning. So when she heard about this contest, she participated in it to get something nice for her family.

She wasn't stupid, she was just ignorant. This really isn't her fault.

So, people haven't yet figured out that water is bad for you in great amounts?

Daft bastards.

This is quite old news. Well about the woman dying, anyway.

I was not aware that one could die by Water Intoxication. *Writes it down on a sheet of paper and hands to an imp* Go try this on the prisoners.

JaredXE:
The family does not deserve any money. In no way is it the fault of the radio station, the woman was 28 and had 3 kids, she was a grown adult and made a grown decision.

Fuck frivolious lawsuits.

Eh, I completely disagree. The radio station was irresponsible and negligent to hold the contest in the first place. All it takes is a 5 minute search on wikipedia to realize that their contest is potentially fatal to any and all who enter.

That was a bad idea and an even worse idea to participate. I guess they deserve the money but that's not to say that the mother isn't partly to blame. I feel pretty bad for them, but it was just a series of stupid ideas.

She died and came second

I'm sorry but that is a fail and a half

thats stupid she decided to do something stupid for a wii even when she could feel something reallly bad was happening

Don't be so quick to judge, my fellow Escapist. I bet even the smartest of us have been willing to do things way more dangerous for a console. She was doing something for her family and I probably would have entered the competition if I had been given the chance.

This is why a lot of radio stations pull the "We cannot be held responsible for any harm that befalls you while participating in this competition." I don't know if that is considered binding, but they could find a way.

This whole contest was a bad idea from both parties though. It should have been obvious to the radio station that holding your urine for an extended period of time could have serious health hazards attached to it. Also, what kind of grown adult participates in this when they should well know the problem with participating?

Signa:
If you can't do it and stay alive, then just gracefully lose. If you find yourself pushing yourself beyond your limits, and overriding your natural sense of preservation, then you don't deserve to live.

she didn't know it was going to kill her, obviously. She felt ill after she drank the water, and even then, i doubt she knew it was going to kill her.

haha. im stunned! Why should they pay money to stupid people?

They should spend it all on 80402 wiis, just to remind themselves that she died trying to get what her family wanted.

lwm3398:
Water... Poisoning? What is that and how does someone go about getting it?

Its to do with a process called osmosis.

Basically, water moves from an area of more water (concentration) to an area of less water, across the membranes of your cells, until they're roughly equal in water concentration.

When you drink water, it basically ends up in your blood, and when its at the right amount, your blood cells, and your tissue/muscle cells stay the right shape due to having enough water inside and outside the cells.

When you get dehydrated, imagine that there's "less" water in your blood, but it HAS to stay equal in amount on both sides, and so the water moves from the cell that it is in, into your blood stream (this includes blood cells). When there's not enough water in the cell, it collapses in on itself, like letting air out of a balloon.

The opposite is true for over hydration, water floods INTO your cells, from your blood, swelling them to the point of breaking (rupturing), like filling a water balloon with so much water it breaks.

To be honest, I don't see why they thought this would be a good competition in the first place, or at least have someone with medical experience on site first. 7.5 litres of water is a HUGE amount in one sitting, it takes common sense to realise water has to go somewhere, and if its not being peed?

Do you guys think we could dial the insensitivity down a little bit?

And it's nice to see the radio station really paying for what they did, even though no amount of money can bring back a lost loved one. Yes, Mrs. Strange may have some part in her own death for not knowing about the dangers of drinking too much water in such a short amount of time, but the radio station is truly the one to blame here. Not only did the DJs ignore the warnings that they were told while on the air, but they also didn't bother giving Mrs. Strange any medical attention when she complained she was feeling ill. That is truly being negligent of others well-being, and those people deserve exactly what they get.

gaming kills!

ban game consoles!

Dude, that's messed up.

Mrs. Strange... Mrs. Strange... Oh my god! Doctor Strange's wife just died?! That's horrible...

Wait... That's not Doctor Strange in the picture... She was cheating on him?! That's even worse!

Eh, that was a bad joke... but moving on to the point at hand. She died, came in second of all things and in the end the family comes out ahead. Ten employees are fired at the radio station, they are now probably labeled Death's Station or something more witty, and they have to pay $16 Million which'll probably bankrupt them at some point... I'd call that fair.

The greater of the idiots isn't the one who decides to go along, it's the one who decides to lead people off the cliff.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to wash my mouth out with soap, that was the worst joke I could ever have come up with...

Well I see the argument for why the family blames the competition people, but..........well, she knew (or should have known) drinking so much can be dangerous when she went in for the competition. The family blame the competition-runners but it wasn't reallllly their fault.

Besides, how a ton of money helps the bereavement of losing her I'll never know =/

I wonder if they ever did get a wii?
This just goes to show, bad puns can, and will, kill.

Khell_Sennet:
This just proves that in America, you can be held liable for other peoples idiocy. Gods help us all.

I remember this story I long time ago. I dont think we should be blaming the mom. It was a stupid contest and not many people know that drinking to much wateris bad.

"sorry your mother is dead, but let us pay for it"

Edit: Seems a large number of people think this was totally the fault of the Mother making bad decisions. I have to ask how many of you thinking that actually knew you could die from drinking to much water before you heard about this.

I did actually. I heard about some girl who died after constantly drinking water for a few hours. Not only is it her fault, the family seems like a bunch of greedy assholes suing the company. "Oh our mother/wife is dead... Oh well, we can still get money out of the situation!" I can't ever imagine ANYONE thinking that holding in your piss is good for you either. She shouldn't have expected death, but seriously, participating in such a contest sounds embarrassing at best. I'd likely piss myself running for the washroom.

Pretty silly idea for a radio competition, mind you why couldn't they have just done an old "Whirl 'til you hurl" rollercoaster marathon competition to see who gets the console.

Then someone would smash their brain against their skull or have a heart-attack. Then their family would sue for millions.