1: Jennifer Strange: Jennifer Strange was a 28-year-old mother of three who entered a radio contest to try to win a Nintendo Wii game system for her children. As part of KDND's (FM radio station) “Hold your wee for a Wii" contest, Jennifer drank bottle after bottle of water for hours without urinating. Initially, Jennifer seemed to be having fun, joking lightheartedly with the radio hosts and obligingly downing an 8-ounce bottle of water every 15 minutes. As the hours passed, however, she developed a splitting headache and dizziness. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and ran to the bathroom and vomited. Jennifer called her boss to say that she was going home for the day because her headache was excruciating and she was too sick for work. Jennifer's mother found her that afternoon, dead in her home. 2: James McBride: James McBride, a 25-year-old police officer, died after a 12-mile bike ride that was part of a training course. Over the course of the ride, James drank roughly three gallons of water that he brought with him in a pack. During a session that focused on how to dismount a bike, an instructor noticed that McBride looked ill and asked him to sit down. McBride complained of dizziness and nausea, and then vomited. Officers initially thought he might have suffered heat stroke. Unaware that James had already consumed so much water, they gave him more water to cool him down while he sat out of the exercise. When another officer hurt himself during the exercise, an ambulance was summoned. The paramedics noticed that James was convulsing and continuing to vomit, so they brought him to the hospital. He died in the hospital the next day. Questions: 1. What sort of environment (hypertonic, isotonic, hypotonic) does consuming excessive amounts of pure water create in the body fluid that surrounds your cells? What effect would this have on your cells? 2. What types of symptoms did Jennifer and James have in common? Which organ or tissue seems to have been most affected? 3. Keeping in mind your answers to questions 1 and 2, what do you think the immediate cause of death was for Jennifer and James? 4. If you suspected that a patient's symptoms were caused by the condition suffered by Jennifer and James, what kinds of test would you run to confirm your suspicions? 5. Once you knew the cause of their symptoms, what kind of emergency treatment might you try for a patient like James if you were the doctor in charge of their care?