Woman dies after Wii contest

All the stories about the damage people have done with flying Wii controllers that I've read over the last few months pale in comparison to the damage for the desire to own a free Wii I read this weekend. A woman in Rancho Cordova, California was found dead at her home after drinking an unspecified amount of water in a radio station contest 'Hold your wee for a Wii'. She complained of a headache and went home only to be found later dead. Preliminary reports suggest that she died as a result of electrolyte imbalance consistent with drinking too much water. Here's a link to one UK press story. There were several over the weekend. Here's a better coverage from a boing boing link. I suggested this story to boing boing as they hadn't posted it when I looked at work, by the time I got home they already had it up there. It's such a tragic story.

Drug related death associated with MDMA (ecstasy) is often the result of electrolyte imbalance from over drinking rather than anything else, like hyperthermia, where too much of a stimulant like cocaine or it's derivative crack or ecstasy results in overheating.