Audio of "Hold your wee for a Wii" Contest

By now, you have likely heard the story of the unfortunate death by water intoxication of a young mother of three after partaking in a radio contest to drink the most water without having to go to the bathroom. She was attempting to win a game for her children. Below is the story by the Associated Press on January 13, 2007.

If you want to hear the audio of the DJ's from KDND, click here for an excerpt from Sacramento's KDND "Morning Rave" show January 12, 2007.

You decide for yourself if they shoud be held responsible for this most unfortunate death.


Water intoxication blamed in death of Calif. woman who competed radio station drinking contest

Associated Press

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."

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

This is a fabulous book. I read it from cover to cover while traveling to and from Houston this past weekend. Wow. As Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm said, "I tore through Deep Survival like I'd been waiting to read it my whole life."

Yep, that's how I felt too.

Some cool quotes from the book:

"He saw that to lose everything at the edge of such a glorious eternity is far sweeter than to win by plodding through a cautious, painless, and featureless life." (One of my favorites Janis Joplin had already said it best in Me and Bobby McGee when she sang the profound words "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.")

"Ultimately, it is the struggle that keeps one alive. What seems a paradox is simply the act of living: Never stop struggling. Life itself is a paradox, gathering order out of the chaos of matter and energy. When the struggle ceases, we die." (When do you feel most alive? Sitting at your desk at work with all the world's modern conveniences at your fingertips or at the finish line of a tough ultramarathon, a first marathon, a 5k, even a stroke survivor taking those first steps all over again?)

"A survival situation brings out the true, underlying personality. Our survival kit is inside us." (We see this often at Badwater. While Badwater is a relatively controlled environment with help always less than a mile away, this self-imposed survival situation brings out the true, underlying personalities of the runners and crews, even the race staff. Why do some rise above their struggles and other make poor choices? The book attempts to answer this.)

"The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly....For this reason they don't usually take themselves too seriously and are therefore hard to threaten."

"But you must hold onto the plan with a gentle grip and be willing to let it go. Rigid people are dangerous people."

"It is not a lack of fear that separates elite performers from the rest of us. They're afraid too, but not overwhelmed by it. They manage fear. They use it to focus on taking correct action."

"It sounds cruel, but survivors laugh and play, and even in the most horrible situations -- perhaps especially in those situations -- they continue to laugh and play. To deal with reality you must first recognize it as such, and as Siebert and others have pointed out, play puts a person in touch with his environment, while laughter makes the feeling of being threatened manageable." (Doctors and other health care professionals know this all too well!)

This is an excellent book. I can't say I learned much, even with all the references to parts of the brain, but I can say this book brought feelings of affirmation. Check it out for yourself and see what you think. Are you a survivor?

Home from Houston

Whew! It's c-c-cold here back in Spokane!

David and I are back from Houston. A good time was had by all. I met Jeff on Thursday and we worked for 3 days on the Badwater and Western States research. There is now a nice summary of the 2006 Sodium Balance study in the Science Section of the Badwater website. We still have more to do and have set some reasonable deadlines for data analysis and writing up the articles. The Western States CPK-Na study is interesting as well. More to follow!

David ran the marathon and finished in 4:07. It was a nice long training run for him after a tiring 9 days of business in Tucson. I worked with the medical team at the finish line. Jeff, Mark and I were the "lab" running iSTATs on runners. John Cianca, MD (center) is the Medical Director and runs a very well organized medical team. Mark (front) is taking over as Medical Director of the Seattle Marathon this year.



The temperature took a sharp turn downward the night before the marathon. Over the weekend it was predicted to be in the high 70's and there were appropriate warnings for the runners to adjust race plans accordingly (i.e. run slower or be flexible with goals). But then, the temps dropped into the 50's and 60's and the conditions became "ideal" for marathon running. There were large electronic signs on the way to the start line in the morning notifying runners that the conditions that morning were "optimal" and there was a "green flag" to go ahead and "run as planned."



I'm sure the cooler temp was a relief for the runners, but it was definitely a bonus for the medical staff as well because runner casualties increase significantly in the warmer temps. We couldn't have been luckier!

The wet bulb globe temperature readings were taken every hour throughout the race. Here's the apparatus we use to take temperature readings that take humidity into account.



While there was a steady flow of tired and sick runners through the finish line, the numbers were low and there was nothing serious. John runs a very efficient medical tent, and of course, the weather helped this year too!

Congratulations, David!

Bring your dog to work day

So, I made today "Bring Your Dog to Work" Day. (Geez, can you tell I don't have kids??) And ahhh, yes, it's so good to be the boss!

For the most part, Steel stayed in the back office and not in the clinic, but I brought him out for some of my patients' children to play with. Little kids always love the kind of dog that rolls over on its back and exposes its belly for a rub.

This picture was sent to me today by my friend Ian, who is one of the very first ultrarunners I met many years ago when I was living in Chicago. The picture is from Western States last year. Dr. Jeff Lynn and I are collecting consent forms from the runners for our CPK research at the medical check the day before the race. Jeff (from Slippery Rock University in PA) and I are headed to Houston this weekend to meet up with Dr. Joe Chorley to FINALLY analyze some of our data and work on writing up the articles for publication. We have the Western States CPK study and the Badwater fluid and sodium balance study to work on. It is so fun mixing business and pleasure! Unfortunately, I waited too long to register for the marathon and it sold out. David is not a procrastinator though, so he is in. I'll just be doing the research stuff and working the finish line med tent and having FUN, as usual. I'm sure I'll get in some nice WARM WEATHER RUNS too.

Thanks, Ian! We will miss you at Western States this year, but you won't be away for long, I'm certain of it.

An article about Tim's runs

This is a nice article about ultramarathoner Tim and his charity runs, especially for his sister. I've added some additional visual stimuli.

Meet Your Neighbor: Tim Kjenstad
by Ann Lackomar