Ashley Summers, Monticello, Indiana mom dies from drinking too much water after consuming 64 ounces in 20 minutes after feeling dehydrated. Death ruled the result of water toxicity.
A Monticello mother-of-two from Indiana died after drinking roughly 64 ounces of water in just 20 minutes.
Ashley Summers, 35, died from water toxicity – the process of depleting one’s body of electrolytes – following an outing at Lake Freeman over the 4th of July weekend.
How water toxicity can occur
Symptoms of water toxicity include feeling generally unwell as well as having muscle cramps, soreness, nausea and headaches.
On the last day of her trip, the mom of two had told family members that she felt lightheaded and had a headache, symptoms of dehydration and incredibly thirsty. Despite rapidly drinking 64 ounces of fluid, no amount of water could satiate her thirst. Ashley Summers drank the equivalent of four 16oz (500ml) bottles.
When Summers returned home, she collapsed in her garage, having suffered severe brain swelling. The mom of two never regained consciousness.
At the hospital, doctors diagnosed her with water toxicity, also called hyponatremia, which develops as a result of there being too much water in the body and not enough sodium.
When Devon Miller, Ms Summers’ brother, heard of his sister’s condition, he was in disbelief, telling WRTV: ‘It was a big shock to us all. I was just like, this is a thing?’
How does water poisoning occur?
Adding: ‘She just felt like she couldn’t get enough water… When they left the sand bar to when they got to the dock, it was about a 20 minute boat ride … she drank four bottles of water in that 20 minutes. That’s half a gallon. That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day.’
Recalled the brother: ‘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”‘.
Ms Summers never regained consciousness and doctors diagnosed her with water poisoning, or hyponatraemia.
The condition occurs when someone consumed an excessive amount of water in a narrow window of time, which overwhelms the ability of the body’s complex organ systems, primarily the kidneys, to regulate the balance of fluids.
The ultimate goal is to strike an equilibrium between water and electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and chloride, which ensures proper cell function.
Sodium is particularly crucial for its ability to maintain communication between cells via electrical impulses.
Sodium also aids in the absorption of nutrients in the digestive system and the kidneys, which adjusts the amount of water and electrolytes reabsorbed into the bloodstream or excreted through urine.
