A 10-year-old South Carolina boy was taken to hospital after drinking six bottles of water in one hour. According to media reports, the incident is said to have occurred on July 4th, the US National Day.
“He ran outside with his cousins and started playing. They ran around the house,” the 10-year-old’s mother told US broadcaster WIS-TV.
At some point her son is said to have gotten something to drink. “What we didn’t know was how much he drank,” she says. Between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. he would have drunk six bottles. An hour later, at 10:30 p.m., the boy “couldn’t control his head or his arms or anything else,” says his father. “His motor functions were gone.” The ten-year-old is said to have seemed almost “as if he was on drugs, drunk or even mentally handicapped”. His parents immediately took him to a children’s hospital.
After a few tests, the doctors there determined that the boy had a dangerously low level of sodium in his blood as a result of water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when the kidneys are overwhelmed with the amount of water entering the body. At times, this caused the boy’s brain to swell dangerously.
“[The doctors] gave him something to help him urinate as much as possible to get the liquid out,” his mother said. He was also given sodium and potassium for eight hours to normalize his blood levels.
When her son finally woke up, he is said to have asked for food and asked, “Where am I? What happened?” According to his parents, the ten-year-old has now fully recovered and has not sustained any permanent damage.
Sources: NY Post, WIS-TV
