US Woman Dies After Drinking Too Much Water: All You Need To Know About Water Toxicity

Water intoxication happens when you drink too much water in a short span of time or if excessive water is retained in the kidney due to underlying health conditions.

New Delhi: A 35-year-old woman in the United States reportedly died after she drank too much water in a short period of time. She lost her life due to a condition called water toxicity.

Ashley Summers from Indiana was on a family vacation during the Fourth of July weekend. Summers was with her husband and two young daughters when she felt severely dehydrated and drank four bottles of water in a short span of time, according to a report by New York Post.

“Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes. I mean, an average water bottle is like 16 ounces, so that was 64 ounces (approximately 2 litres) that she drank in the span of 20 minutes. That’s half a gallon,” Devon Miller, Ashley’s older brother, said as per WRTV.

Ashley Summers later returned home and complained of headache and dizziness. She collapsed at her home and was rushed to the hospital. However, the hospital declared her dead due to ‘water toxicity’.

Drinking Too Much Water In Short Span Of Time Can Kill You

Accidental water intoxication has been described as a result of excessive water intake. “My sister, Holly, called me, and she was just an absolute wreck. She was like, ‘Ashley is in the hospital. 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. It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity, it was like this is a thing,” Devon Miller said.

Water intoxication happens when you drink too much water in a short span of time or if excessive water is retained in the kidney due to underlying health conditions.

Dr Blake Froberg, a toxicologist at IU Health Arnett Hospital, said the fatal condition happens when you drink too much water and do not have enough sodium in your body.

“There are certain things that can make someone more at risk for it, but the overall thing that happens is that you have too much water and not enough sodium in your body,” Froberg said.