Overhydration. Huh?

[pilot fish]

In the Chico frat hazing, it was excessive water intake which caused death. 30 gals of water.

Surviving pledge tells of ordeal
7 to go on trial in fatal Chico hazing

Cecilia Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 4, 2005


Oroville, Butte County -- "Hell Week" was just that for Michael Quintana.

The Chico State University student who survived the bizarre hazing ritual that killed his friend testified Friday that during the final days of rushing Chi Tau, their would-be fraternity brothers controlled what they ate (such as raw onions and garlic), whom they spoke to (no women), what clothes they wore (matching pledge uniforms) and even what they looked at (only other fraternity members' shoes).

Quintana, 20, testified for seven hours during a preliminary hearing, detailing publicly for the first time the alleged humiliation he and 21-year- old Matthew Carrington of Pleasant Hill endured in their effort to become members of the rogue fraternity.

In the end, Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Benson ruled there was sufficient evidence to make four fraternity members stand trial for felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor hazing and three other members for misdemeanor hazing. All have pleaded not guilty.

"They ordered us to work out, what clothes to wear, where to look, where not to look. ... (They) made us roll around in beer on the floor, and do many, many, many push-ups," Quintana testified. "Pretty much activities that you were never meant to accomplish, but to fail."

Quintana and Carrington were the only two pledges rushing the fraternity, which had been expelled from Chico State in 2002 for repeated incidents of violence and alcohol violations. Fraternity members allegedly forced the two young men to stand on one foot atop a bench in the dank basement while drinking and dousing themselves with almost 30 gallons of water during the night of Feb. 1 as fans blasted them with cold air.

"If we spilled the water, they yelled at us, or if we weren't drinking long enough, they yelled at us," Quintana said. "Pretty much they were always looking for something to yell at us about."

The initiation was known as "Hell Week," which others in Chi Tau boasted they had survived and promised Carrington and Quintana they would too. Carrington, however, suffered from hypothermia and collapsed, later dying of water intoxication that caused his brain stem to swell.

Quintana said he wanted to throw in the towel several times during the evening and tried to get Carrington to leave with him but stuck it out when Carrington refused.

"The reason I was still going through it is because I didn't want Matt to be the only one there," he testified. "I knew he wouldn't quit. He wasn't a quitter."

On trial for manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, are Jerry Ming Lim, 25; Gabriel John Maestretti, 22; Carlos Abrille, 22; and John Paul Fickes, 19.

Charged with misdemeanor hazing, which carries a maximum of one year in county jail and a $5,000 fine, are Richard Joseph Hirth, 22; Michael Fernandez, 19; and Trent Stiefvater, 20.

It was not clear Friday how many of the men are students at Chico State University.

Chi Tau had operated as Delta Sigma Phi until 2002, when the house was expelled from Chico State and the Interfraternity Council for serving alcohol to minors. Alcohol was not a factor in Carrington's death.

On Friday, the defendants were dressed in suits and flanked by their lawyers and parents.

"There is no other evidence that any of these people knew that this was a dangerous situation," said Clyde Blackmon, Lim's attorney. The defendants did not know that "drinking water, even copious amounts of water, could lead to the death of a human being."

Carrington's parents -- who have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the fraternity and 10 members, as well as the fraternity's national chapter, Delta Sigma Phi -- audibly sobbed in the courtroom as Quintana detailed the last hours of their son's life.

"My son was just out of it," Carrington's father, Michael, said. "Matt suffered from hypothermia. Hypothermia completely disorients you."

Carrington's hazing began in October, his mother has said, with innocuous stunts such as sending pledges to the beach to trade their shirts with homeless people. Fraternity brothers also videotaped pledges dressed up like prostitutes walking down a street in Southern California, she said.

Quintana said that when Lim, whom authorities identified as the mastermind behind "Hell Week," was kind enough to let him and Carrington sleep in his room one night during the week's initiation -- instead of in concrete holes in the freezing basement of the fraternity house -- he was harassed for being too nice.

At one point the two pledges were forced to do push-ups in raw sewage when the pipes in the fraternity house backed up, Quintana said. Chi Tau members doused them with water as they were forced to lie on their backs, feet in the air, and sing a song called "I'm a Little Cockroach," he recalled.

The two also were forced to eat what fraternity members called a "pledge apple" (a raw onion) and "pledge candy" (raw garlic cloves), Quintana testified.

On the night they were allegedly forced to drink water from five-gallon jugs, the two pledges asked permission to urinate on themselves; when that happened, Quintana said, "we would have to say, 'Sir is peeing.'

"During that week, they pretty much ran every part of your life," Quintana said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic.../MNGCUD3O601.DTL&hw=chico+death&sn=002&sc=587

I sit corrected Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for the info.

 

[pilot fish]

No...it was water... :-(

Learn more about Matching Sites

The Orion Online - Water intoxication caused pledge's death
Water intoxication led to the 2003 death of Psi Epsilon Chi pledge Walter Dean Jennings at Plattsburgh State University of New York, and the hospitalization ...
http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/03/4202e1ef044b1

The Orion Online - H20 hazing harmful to health
Another hazing incident in 2003 involving water intoxication led to the death of a Psi Epsilon Chi pledge at Plattsburgh State University of New York, ...
http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/09/42098170e2e8f

Hazing takes center stage
Jennings, 18, died of water intoxication in March during the last day of a 10-day ... Members of the Plattsburgh State unrecognized fraternity forced him to ...
http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2003/11_2003/111420036.htm

More frat guilty pleas
Two admit hazing in death of Plattsburgh State student ... Jennings, 18, died of water intoxication on March 12, hours after he was taken from the house at ...
http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2003/10_2003/100920031.htm
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Mountain Lake PBS Press Releases
PLATTSBURGH - Former pledge Chris Han recalls the hazing death of Walter Dean ... Care in Burlington where he died of water intoxication later that day. ...
http://www.mountainlake.org/uado/uado-artcle3.asp

Mountain Lake PBS Media Lab
The film traces the tragic steps of Walter Dean Jennings, a Plattsburgh State University freshman, who died of water intoxication. ...
http://www.mountainlake.org/ed/medialab/main2.asp
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Chico Enterprise Record - Local
... highlighted the dangers of water intoxication were 23 members of Chi Tau ... He included water-hazing in his lecture shortly after the Plattsburgh case. ...
http://www.chicoer.com/Stories/0,1413,135%7E25088%7E2703023,00.html

The Saratogian - News - 01/31/2004 - Sentencing postponed for last ...
PLATTSBURGH -- Sentencing of the last of the 11 former Plattsburgh State University ... He died of water intoxication after being forced to drink large ...
http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10896441&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6

Bodybuilding.com Forums - Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill You: Report
PLATTSBURGH — Walter Dean Jennings died of hyponatremia, ... Water intoxication or overhydration occurs when a person swallows enough water to significantly ...
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/archive/index.php/t-82729.html

Chico News and Review - Lead News - February 10, 2005
A similar case happened in 2003 at Plattsburgh State University of New York, ... Water intoxication, or hyponatremia, dilutes the level of sodium in the ...
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/chico/2005-02-10/news.asp

That is the first I'm hearing of this. I think I have this mixed up with a hazing done with liquor at some other college around the same time? Thanks for the links and correction.

 

[paolov]

in world war two, the technique done using water was called "water Torture". this was employed by the japanese imperial troops on filipinos who they wanted to torture. then they may force the water out of your belly ....

 

[GoBlue!]

GoBlue!, you have a true knack for explaining things. I think I understand much better now about electrolyte balance. Thanks!

Can you comment on something? When I was in high school, athletes were urged to take salt (sodium chloride) tablets. That then fell into disfavor and a decade later potasium was what needed to be replenished. Now it seems that sodiun is back in favor. How does the sodium/potasium balance play into this whole thing?

Sweat contains sodium, potassium, and chloride predominantly. There's quite a bit more sodium than potassium in sweat, which corresponds with the relative ratios of the two electrolytes in the blood.

Sodium has a much more direct effect on maintaining total body water volume than potassium does. If I need to volume resuscitate someone quickly, I'm going to give sodium chloride & water.

I wouldn't take tablets of either. The diet provides plenty of both, and combined with sufficient water intake, the kidneys will sort out the rest.

Jim

 

[pilot fish]

Sweat contains sodium, potassium, and chloride predominantly. There's quite a bit more sodium than potassium in sweat, which corresponds with the relative ratios of the two electrolytes in the blood.

Sodium has a much more direct effect on maintaining total body water volume than potassium does. If I need to volume resuscitate someone quickly, I'm going to give sodium chloride & water.

I wouldn't take tablets of either. The diet provides plenty of both, and combined with sufficient water intake, the kidneys will sort out the rest.

Jim

How lucky the board is to have someone like you with such medical knowledge. Jim, what is your feeling about taking a baby aspirin a day for divers? I take one anyway but I especially want to take one, 81 mg, while diving. I think it might thin the blood enough to help nitrogen bubbles to pass a bit better in the blood?

 

[m3830431]

Wouldn't *that* just freak you out.

I have a couple of questions for you, Jim

1) What signs and symptoms arise as you overhydrate? (Amazing the things that can happen to you that you didn't even know about....)

2) How could you back out of that situation without the need for 2600 hungry leeches?

3) I have the impression from your last post that sport drinks would be better for you than water if you are sweating a lot. Is that the case? (I always thought the thing about sport drinks was just a bunch of marketing bulls*it)

R..

Sports drinks also offer additional carbs that are needed to create sugar that fuels the muscles something that just water can not offer.

 

[ChillyWaters]

I'd just thought I'd post this recent case of overhydration in Washington:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001460.html

Note that the guy drank about 11 litres (3 gallons) of water to accomplish this though! I still don't think overhydration is of particular concern to most people. Drinking sports drinks is not necessary for most individuals, and will just make their dentists very happy.

- ChillyWaters

 

[Dectek]

Removed