Water Poisoning: The Tragic Case of Ashley Summers and the Dangers of Excessive Water Consumption

2023-08-07 12:29:00

Too little, like too much, harms the body. What happened with the 35-year-old daughter may come as a shock to many, especially since she died due to excessive drinking of water in a short time.

In a shocking incident, Ashley Summers, a mother of two, died of “water poisoning” after drinking about two liters of water in just twenty minutes.

Ashley was spending the weekend with her husband and their two daughters at Lake Freeman near Monticello, Indiana, and before returning home, she felt dizzy, headache, and symptoms of dehydration, prompting her to drink 4 16-ounce (500-milliliter) bottles of water within 20 minutes. one minute.

According to her family, upon returning home, Ashley passed out in the garage and never woke up, only to be diagnosed with severe brain swelling. Her cells filled with blood, even the brain cells, which stopped the blood flow.

Doctors at Ernst Health Hospital diagnosed her with water intoxication, which is caused by too much water in the body and not enough sodium.

“It was a huge shock, especially when they talked about water poisoning, and I was wondering, ‘Is this what happened?'” her brother, Devon Miller, told WLFITV.

Devon got a call from his devastated sister, Holly, who said, “Ashley is in the hospital with brain swelling. They don’t know what causes it, they don’t know what can be done to make it smaller, and it just doesn’t look good.”

What is water poisoning?

The specialist in family medicine – anti-aging medicine – Dr. Sherine Bazan explained in a previous interview with “An-Nahar” that “water poisoning is a person’s consumption of large amounts of water, which leads to a decrease in sodium levels in the blood,” adding that “one of the reasons for low sodium is due to This leads to the consumption of excessive amounts of water, more than the body needs, so the person suffers from simple and serious symptoms that may threaten life, depending on the low levels of sodium in the body.”

The most prominent of these symptoms:

* Nausea

* dizziness

* Imbalance

These symptoms may progress to a stage where the person loses consciousness, or even has an epileptic seizure.

Al-Bazan stresses that “when severe water poisoning occurs (the dangerous stage when the person enters the hospital for treatment), doctors usually resort to gradually increasing sodium levels, because if levels are restored quickly, this poses a danger to the patient. Therefore, treatment conditions are considered Medically accurate and cannot be underestimated.”

It is true that the case of water poisoning is considered rare and uncommon, but its occurrence is possible, especially in light of the availability of certain conditions or the presence of some risk factors.

Bazan talks about the most important influencing factors that would reduce sodium levels, including:

– Consuming some medicines in the elderly (over 75 years) can lead to a decrease in the level of sodium in the body, which poses a threat to their lives, especially if the patient suffers from an imbalance in water as a result of chronic health diseases, such as heart failure and others.

Doing an intense sporting activity such as a marathon or running for long periods. Excessive sweating and drinking large amounts of water without eating healthy food on a regular basis, or drinking water without minerals and nutrients (sports drink), causes a decrease in the level of sodium in the body, which leads to: dizziness, nausea, confusion, and imbalance. Therefore, athletes resort to consuming drinks containing minerals, to rebalance them in the body.

– Women who suffer from eating disorders (moderate severity or mental disorder) that lead them to consume large amounts of water in an unconsidered manner. Even women who suffer from “Anorexie” resort to water in large quantities to avoid eating, or even resort to a harsh diet that relies on tea and toast for a long time. These fluids cause the body to lose water. (Tea is a diuretic in large quantities) and thus the loss of more minerals in the body, which leads to sodium deficiency in varying degrees (simple, up to a serious stage).

Therefore, water poisoning is one of the reasons for low levels of sodium in the body, in addition to other factors and reasons that contribute to the decrease in this mineral, and this has an effect on the health of a person.

“Treatment of this decline depends on the health status of each person. Therefore, minor symptoms are treated by reducing water consumption and replacing it with foods rich in minerals,” says Specialist Bazan.

She stresses that “prevention is essential for some people (especially athletes) by drinking mineral-rich drinks, rather than just consuming water. Other factors such as the weather, the person’s circumstances, and the body’s need for water must be taken into account.”

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