“Hold Your Wee” Family Awarded $16M
“Hold Your Wee” Family Awarded $16M
October 30, 2009
The family of Jennifer Strange, a woman who died following a radio station contest that had her drink large quantities of water and attempt to not go to the bathroom in an attempt to win a Nintendo Wii, has been awarded $16.0 million.
The contest was held in 2007 and put on by the Morning Rave show at Sacramento radio station KDND-FM. The 28-year old Strange had taken second place in the contest, but after drinking about two gallons of water during the event, was found dead in her home. A subsequent post-mortem indicated that her death was caused by water intoxication.
While no criminal charges were filed, the radio station fired 10 employees. The payout to the family was the result of a wrongful death suit, which had sought $34.0 million.
Sky News reports that lawyers for the station had “argued that her death was unforeseeable, and her 'contributory negligence' led in part to her death.” A jury deliberated for two weeks before coming out with the decision.
Thanks Phillip and Andrew
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Posted 11/23/09 at 07:56am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yl2vfw6 Here's the link, good for conspiracy theories.
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yl2vfw6 Here's the link, good for conspiracy theories.
Posted 11/23/09 at 07:42am
JDKJ: Leaders never follow. Followers never lead.
JDKJ: Leaders never follow. Followers never lead.
Posted 11/23/09 at 06:48am
DarkSaber: Anyone been following this Hadley Climatic Research Centre server hack story?
DarkSaber: Anyone been following this Hadley Climatic Research Centre server hack story?
Posted 11/22/09 at 11:48pm
ZippyDSMlee: AE:they feeding you well? I am enjoying win7 and heading to bed...uhg I need to get up early and start back to cleaning/painting blahg >< need tog et stuff done befor thanksgiving....
ZippyDSMlee: AE:they feeding you well? I am enjoying win7 and heading to bed...uhg I need to get up early and start back to cleaning/painting blahg >< need tog et stuff done befor thanksgiving....
Posted 11/22/09 at 11:41pm
Andrew Eisen: Just got home from an eight hour recording session at Capitol Records. A lot of fun but damn exhausting.
Andrew Eisen: Just got home from an eight hour recording session at Capitol Records. A lot of fun but damn exhausting.
Posted 11/22/09 at 08:44pm
BearDogg-X: 10 N. O. Who Dat?
BearDogg-X: 10 N. O. Who Dat?
Posted 11/22/09 at 09:45am
ZippyDSMlee: JD:I think doc phill is still sout about the break up with his wife he dose not fill holes as much as make them bigger these day
ZippyDSMlee: JD:I think doc phill is still sout about the break up with his wife he dose not fill holes as much as make them bigger these day
Posted 11/22/09 at 12:06am
JDKJ: You should get Phil McCraken to help you spackle those banisters.
JDKJ: You should get Phil McCraken to help you spackle those banisters.
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:57pm
ZippyDSMlee: Oh in the pirate hunter article I need my song ieda heckled DS,JD,Beemon sic im !!!
ZippyDSMlee: Oh in the pirate hunter article I need my song ieda heckled DS,JD,Beemon sic im !!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:56pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:no I am tried from prepping the banisters for painting , worked on them from 12 to 4 and 6 to 8...after I got back from the store...got up early got ready...blah...been up all day..I need a nap...
ZippyDSMlee: JD:no I am tried from prepping the banisters for painting , worked on them from 12 to 4 and 6 to 8...after I got back from the store...got up early got ready...blah...been up all day..I need a nap...
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:42pm
JDKJ: No. You gonna stay up late tonight soldering?
JDKJ: No. You gonna stay up late tonight soldering?
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:41pm
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:Don't you mean Mctite?
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:Don't you mean Mctite?
Posted 11/21/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: @Zip: Neil, Bob, and Lik McTaint. The McTaint brothers. LOL!!!
JDKJ: @Zip: Neil, Bob, and Lik McTaint. The McTaint brothers. LOL!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:44pm
Flamespeak: I still think military personell, killing other military personell, on a military complex should be handled by military courts.
Flamespeak: I still think military personell, killing other military personell, on a military complex should be handled by military courts.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:43pm
Flamespeak: I could see this a mixture of the two charges rather than just one or the other.
Flamespeak: I could see this a mixture of the two charges rather than just one or the other.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:43pm
Flamespeak: I think this was mainly a person who snapped, but evidence is showing he definitely had strong inlinations to islamic-extremism.
Flamespeak: I think this was mainly a person who snapped, but evidence is showing he definitely had strong inlinations to islamic-extremism.
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:41pm
Flamespeak: People are trying to claim that Hasan's actions were not terrorism. I don't jump on the 'terror train' like others, however
Flamespeak: People are trying to claim that Hasan's actions were not terrorism. I don't jump on the 'terror train' like others, however
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:38pm
mentor07825: Britain certainly does deserve it! And the French! God damn it, it was a hand ball!!!
mentor07825: Britain certainly does deserve it! And the French! God damn it, it was a hand ball!!!
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: mentor07825:Well Brittan dose deserve it....
ZippyDSMlee: mentor07825:Well Brittan dose deserve it....
Posted 11/21/09 at 09:33pm
ZippyDSMlee: Alyric:I don;t hasliburton having to pay back billoins... don;t you love it when the rich roll over the goverment without a care?
ZippyDSMlee: Alyric:I don;t hasliburton having to pay back billoins... don;t you love it when the rich roll over the goverment without a care?
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Comments
"The contest was held in 20007"
Wow, the article is telling the future. Who knew the Wii would be still popular in almost 18000 years.
All jokes aside, I find it odd how the woman's family is getting money for something the woman was not force to do. She wilfully held two gallons of water. It was not like she was held on gun point like Kevin Spacey did in the movie Se7en.
Damn you beat me to it! I want an 18,000 year old wii!
Nintendo sure builds them to last.
"That's not ironic. That's justice."
Yeah, but in 18000 years you wouldn't be able to find an adapter to hook it up to your TV anymore. Didn't Cartman have that problem in an episode of South Park?
Science dammit, you're right!
"That's not ironic. That's justice."
I think one of the reasons would be how foreseeable the results were... i mean, if any doctor could tell you that holding your blader for too long could result in water intoxification, then the radio station should have given some kind of warning. Sure she chose to take part in this contest willfully, but that doesn't mean she was aware of the dangers; had she been aware she might not have entered, or would have given up earlier...
I believe any doctor could tell you that. There was a well-publicized case of a fraternity pledge dying of the same thing during a hazing ritual a number of years back.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_339013010.html
Part of your statement is wrong.
The fact that she held her bladder had little to do with it. This was caused by her kidneys inability to process that much water in that short a period of time. her blood was oversaturated with water.
While the back pressure from her bladder would have slightly affected the outcome, drinking 2 gallons of water in that period of time is what killed her, not the fact that she didn't pee.
Yeah, if it would've been 2 gallons of Gatorade she would've been fine, she had too much water without enough salts/electrolytes to go with it. The opposite of dying from drinking too much salt water.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
I do have to admit that "water intoxication" is unforseeable. The majority of our body is water to begin with, I suppose no one thought what too much water would do.
I guess this is another notch for "Too much of a good thing turns into a bad thing."
It's hardly unforseeable. Surely most people who keep updated to any extent on health issues know that drinking too much water can kill you. Quite a few water intoxication deaths have been in the news in recent years.
That was the radio station's logic behind defending the safety of the contest. "We figure, if the human body contains over 90% water, what's another gallon or two going to hurt?"
They also probably assumed that consuming massive quantities of a "pure" substance like water would be safer than consuming lots of fizzy soft drinks, or fruit juice mixed with lots of crap in it.
Reminds me of something my old chemistry teacher said. Poison is not the substance, it's the dosage. Meaning that anything can be poisonous if you injest enough of it.
----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Woman makes stupid decision, woman dies because of stupid decision, radio station forced to fork over $16M because of woman's stupid decision.
Welcome to America!
And all this over a $250 game console.
And the fact that the radio station's offer is the only thing that put her in the position to be making the stupid decision doesn't matter?
Both sides are at fault- especially considering that several people, including health experts, called the station to tell them that it was irresponsible and dangerous, with the potential for death.
On the other hand- $250, and it was still her decision to compete, regardless of source of invocation. Just because a bunch a people will do a stupid thing for a chance at something nice, doesn't mean that it's not still a stupid thing to do.
The thing is though, how could she know it was a "stupid thing to do"; by which i mean a dangerous... before this case i hadn't heard about such dangers and i imagine the majority of people too would be oblvious to the dangers involded in a contest like this... She decided to compete in a stupid but seemingly innocent contest, not a life risking one
And this probably why the court found in favor of the family... most people wouldn't know the dangers, but the radio station should have and given proper warning
It's not life threatening if you consume electrolytes along with your water. Everyone (well, almost everyone) is taught that it is life threatening to drink too much salt water, as it sucks water from your cells. It makes sense that having too much water without enough salts/electrolytes/minerals would cause your cells to do the opposite: swell up.
If the radio station had a "drink X amount of salt water and hold it in as long as you can," and someone ended up dying, I'd still side with the radio station, because it's a pretty common fact that consuming too much of anything is dangerous for your health.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
No, i don't think most people are taught that... yes most people know it's not healthy to drink salt water, but i doubt they know exactly why; knowing exactly HOW it harms you... Frankly i don't recall a single health class that ever went into such details... as such, people would not know what drinking too much water without the electrolytes would do.
I'm a firm believer in that ignorance is not an excuse for one's own problems- even death. Even common sense would tell a person that drinking too much water would have detrimental health effects- far apart from the obvious discomfort is also the weight of that much water on the stomach.
I learned it in my 9th grade biology class.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
Everyone knows that too much salt water can kill you, but I don't think the average person understands the actual mechanism, or would neccesarily extrapolate from how excessive salt kills to how excessiv water kills even if they did know.
I also think you underestimate the extent to which the general public truly understands that "the dose makes the poison." The idea that you can get sick from an excess of something generally considered as pure, natural, and innocuous as water is rather counterintuitive, and even if a person understood in principle that excess anything can be bad, it doesn't follow that they would have any idea of how much water it actually takes to kill you.
Check out my video game humor and commentary blog, Pointless Side Quest!
So if some outside influence puts you in a position to make a stupid decision, and you make said stupid decision, it's always the outside influence's fault?
Welcome to America! Land of the free, home of the "it's-not-my-fault" excuse.
Now if the radio station truly were warned as people are claiming (and it's not just speculation), it's a different story.
As to the "you're blaming the victim" reaction, it's not like she was run over crossing the street or mugged. She willingly took part in this event. Personally, if I were to partake in some sort of physical event I would look into it a bit first to determine how safe it was.
Finally, as to the award, if this woman couldn't afford to buy her kids a $250, what exactly is it that makes her life worth $16M? Punitive awards have gotten way out of hand.
It wasn't that she couldn't afford it. Recall that back in 2007, the Wii was an incredibly scarce commodity and everybody, gamers and non-gamers, wanted one.
So if some outside influence puts you in a position to make a stupid decision, and you make said stupid decision, it's always the outside influence's fault?
The short answer to that question is: yes. That's what American tort law calls "but for causation." But for the radio station making their offer, she wouldn't have made her decison (irrespective of how stupid a decision it was).
I guess every store is responsible for robbery in America then, right? After all, they wouldn't be robbed if they didn't have the stuff!
All store owners are thieves! sue them!
Straw.
"So if some outside influence puts you in a position to make a stupid decision, and you make said stupid decision, it's always the outside influence's fault?"
Partially theirs partially yours, yes. On a side note this is why the Saw movies irritate me. Because of the stupid faux philosophy that Jigsaw has that makes him believe that he isn't a killer. Because if you put someone in a trap that will crush their head in a vice it is supposedly they who choose death if they don't tear their eye from their head to free themselves.
So in a word: A stupid philosophy.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
she took second place? so why isnt the one who took first place dead? more factors at play maybe?
The sad thing about it was that the 1st-place winner actually wanted the 2nd-place prize, instead of the Wii.
As I recall, the radio station actually had at least one qualified individual call in and warn them of the dangers of water poisoning, and they laughed it off - then proceeded to offer no warning to the contestants.
Likely, that was the crux of the argument that allowed them to win the case. I'm no lawyer, though.
Well, there you go, the radio jocks are stupid. If they won't listen to a doctor, they won't listen to anyone.
I don't see how falsely implying that the contest is completely safe means they were in right in that court case. If anything they would've been guilty for putting their contestants at risk because of hidden dangers they did not warn about. But I'm no lawyer either.
TO be honest this judgement is fair. When you have a corporation who went through such a stunt despite repeated warning by people about this you deserve to go down. And if you wonder how come the winner didn;t died and she did, you have to remember that not all humans are alike.
As for those who are putting the blame on the woman who died you guys are f-ing a-holes. She did that for her kids, she wanted to give her kids something that was hard to get at that moment. Those kids are going to suffer for the lost of their mother and that sucks. I have a son and adore my son, I would do anything to make him hppy and hell I would die for him in a hearbeat and if I was on that same situation I would of gone foward with it. Most (if not all) of the people who participated in that stunt did it for their loved ones and a gutless radio station and two idiotic disc jockeys took advantage of the desperation of some people.
Oh yeah, the radio station was having people drink massive amounts of water because they wanted the contestants to die. Definitely.
...It wasn't meant to be dangerous. It was meant to be funny. It's not that I'm putting "the blame" on the woman, but it isn't the radio station's fault. The radio station (assuming the owners are human) never wanted anyone dead, they just wanted to have a funny competition for viewers to listen to.
And this "repeated warning." If someone called you about a competition you were going to hold, and said that you shouldn't do it because it's dangerous, even if it looks very safe, you'd probably laugh in their face too.
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE THIS 'LISTEN TO MUSIC UNTIL YOU CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE' COMPETITION BECAUSE A COMPETITOR MIGHT DIE!"
Would you believe that?
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
You do realize that people were warning the radio station about this and not her do you. She went trough it without much knowledge about this and according to the court records she was being pressured to drink more water and ended up drinking a whopping two gallons. Two freaking gallos = 256 ounces, that's 16.7lbs of liquids that your body cannot process. When you are pressured to do this the "funny" element is gone. I was glad that the time even Nintendo denounced the station's actions.
Any idiot should have been able to realize that drinking that much water and holding it is a very bad idea. This applies to both the stupid dead woman and the stupid radio station employees. This happened because all the people involved were, in fact, morons.
This is assumign that water intoxication is a well known cause of death, which it of course isn't. She likely assumed she was going to either just need to use the bathroom or her body would take it in as it IS common knowledge the the human body is made up of a lot of water.
And if the station was warned and gave no warning of their own, and pressured contestants to keep drinking, and factoring in that no two peopel are alike, then I don't see what legt the station had to stand on.
Exactly, water intoxication is a not common cause of death and it isn't something you hear often either. Yes holding the bladder is bad for you but she died cause she drank an insane amount of water affecting her nervious system. She felt light headed and her stomach was incredibly bloated and apparently she told an intern about her synthoms and the inter said that it was "normal". That her head was hurting cause her body was trying to make her puke.
Getting struck by lightning isn't a common cause of death either but if a radio station had a "stand in the rain as long as you can" contest we'd all rightfully blame the idiot standing in the rain if he/she got stuck by lightning.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
We'd all rightfully blame the idiot standing in the rain because the dangers of hanging around outside during a thunderstorm are more or less universally known in our society, and thus a person who was struck by lightning in such a situation has no business complaining that someone should have warned him because he couldn't have been expected to know. Knowledge of the fact that rapidly drinking two gallons of water can kill you is not nearly so universal.
Check out my video game humor and commentary blog, Pointless Side Quest!
I vote for darwin award!
Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
On whose part?
And the Wii's price just dropped
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large amounts.
edit: nevermind
Which is why these morning zoo things really need to stop. Most of them are unfunny and childish.
Jesus Christ, and I thought some of the comments over at Joystiq were heartless. A woman is dead. A husband lost a wife and three kids lost a mom.
Do I think death because ignorance is a suitable argument? No, defintely not, but the radio station has a lot of blame in this one.
As others have said, people called in to the station, including a nurse, to tell them that the stunt was dangerous, yet they ignored it. The woman complained during the contest that she was feeling ill, yet they ignored it. They had no kind of medical personel at the contest either, to help if somehing went wrong. They were charged with negligence, which I think is damn fitting in this case. If your going to make people pull off stunts, you better have something to fall back on if something goes wrong.
I'm sure the recording of one of the DJ's on air saying something along the lines of "Wouldn't it be interesting if someone dies?" didn't help their case either.
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http://www.whatnottodo.tk
I think most people of average intelligence and world experience would know about water toxicity. You drink too much water and it kills you. It has happened before and been in the news, well before this case.
The people who put this together were very stupid, but probably didn't have a malicious intent, they were just acting from poor judgement and ignorance.
Sad that a woman lost her life. My heart goes out to the family.
Christ, the amount of false equivalency and strawmanning going on in this thread is retarded.
It is not "intelligence" or "common sense" or "world experience" that derives the "too much water is bad for you" argument. It is something one can only know if it was told to them at some point in time. Hell, the only reason I knew it was because I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who lost a friend to water intoxication way back in high school, and he was able to explain the scientific principles behind it. On intuition, drinking that much water might make someone feel uneasy, but it is extremely counter-intuitive.
Now, did no one think about the woman's thought process? That she may very well have known that too much water might be bad for you, but that she could have also thought that "they wouldn't make me do this if it wasn't safe"? Any and all blame went off the woman the very second the radio station was warned about the dangers of this BY A NURSE, SOMEONE WHO HAS FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WITH MEDICAL ISSUES, and didn't pass that knowledge on. That very second was when they became criminally neglegent.
I am disgusted by anyone who says it's the woman's fault for being stupid, then trying to claim that the situation is exactly like drinking saltwater, or standing in the rainstorm, or drinking antifreeze, or any other shit like that. For fucks sake, equating an obsucre cause of death that relatively few people know about to a cause of death that is well known and taught in schools is logically fallacious. The funniest one I read was the one by Pinworm:
"I guess every store is responsible for robbery in America then, right? After all, they wouldn't be robbed if they didn't have the stuff!"
Sure, if every store that was robbed had a sign that said "entire stock must go, everything is free" and when someone tries to take stuff the owner shoots them. Then the situations are SLIGHTLY closer.
Heh... I was listening to this station 2 years ago... i remember this contest.
I Don't remember any warnings from callers, that must have come later, but I do remember me and my friends talking about how stupid it was and how likely it was one of them would die.
My mispelled condolences go out to the family of the unfortunate contestant.