A woman has tragically died after drinking four bottles of water in 20 minutes - prompting experts to warn people about water toxicity.
Ashley Summers, from Indiana, had been out on Lake Freeman with her husband and children that day, when she began complaining that she was thirsty but didn’t feel able to quench it. Ashley told her family she was feeling lightheaded and had a bit of a headache - but it didn’t seem to be anything serious.
To satisfy her thirst Ashley frank “four bottles of water in 20 minutes”, according to her brother, Devon Miller, 51. "I mean, an average water bottle is like 16 ounces, so that was 64 ounces that she drank in a span of 20 minutes. That’s half a gallon. That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day," Miller said.
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And it proved to be too much at once. Ashley had swelling in the brain and collapsed when she arrived home, never to regain consciousness. Miller recalled his other sister phoning him to inform him Ashley was in hospital. “She was just an absolute wreck,” he recalled. “She has brain swelling, they don’t know what’s causing it, they don’t know what they can do to get it to go down, and it’s not looking good.”
“Her husband Cody told me that on the drive home she had her head in her hands when she leaned over into her lap because she felt dizzy,” Miller told TODAY.com. “She was walking across the garage into the house... passed out and never really woke up.”
And the coroner’s report, released in August, confirmed that Ashley’s official cause of death was Cerebral edema and herniation with anoxic brain injury due to electrolyte imbalance. The doctors had previously informed the family that Ashley died of water toxicity.
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"It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?" said Miller. Dr. Blake Froberg, a toxicologist with IU Health, told WRTV there are “certain things” which can put someone more at risk, but the main cause is that you have “too much water and not enough sodium in your body”.
It usually happens when someone drinks too much water too quickly, but Dr Froberg says it is a rare occurrence. In the summer months, if you work outside or exercise a lot, it is important to hydrate well: “Making sure that you’re drinking things that have electrolytes and sodium and some potassium,” Dr Froberg said. Symptoms of water toxicity include feeling unwell, suffering from muscle cramps and soreness, and headaches.
Miller said of his sister: "She loved being on the water. She loved being on the lake.” Summers has donated her heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and some of her long bone tissue, helping to save five people’s lives despite her tragic death.