Aug. 4 2023, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
An Indiana mother of two passed away after drinking too much water during a family vacation earlier this summer, RadarOnline.com can sadly report.
Ashley Summers, 35, passed away last month shortly after returning home from a trip to the Lake Freeman reservoir with her husband and two young daughters.
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Summers told her family that she felt like she “couldn’t drink enough water,” according to the New York Post, before collapsing from water intoxication.
She was reportedly rushed to IU Health Arnett Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Doctors informed Summers’ family that the 35-year-old passed away from water toxicity.
“Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes,” Devon Miller, the deceased’s brother, told WRTV. “I mean, an average water bottle is like 16 ounces, so that was 64 ounces that she drank in a span of 20 minutes.”
“That’s half a gallon,” he added. “That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day.”
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Miller also revealed that his 35-year-old sister’s brain started to swell as a result of the large amount of water she consumed at Lake Freeman.
“My sister, Holly, called me, and she was just an absolute wreck,” Miller explained. “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,” he continued. “When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?”
Water toxicity, which can also be referred to as water poisoning or water intoxication, reportedly occurs when too much water is consumed in too short a period of time.
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The rare condition can also occur if a victim’s kidneys retain too much water due to other underlying health conditions.
The majority of victims who suffer from water toxicity reportedly suffer from symptoms such as muscle cramps, soreness, nausea, and headaches.
Dr. Blake Froberg, a toxicologist with IU Health Arnett Hospital, explained that the rare cause of death most often occurs during the summer, if someone works outside, or exercises frequently.
Dr. Froberg also explained that some individuals are “more at risk” to suffer from water toxicity.
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“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,” the toxicologist explained.
He added that it is “important for people to drink things that have electrolytes, sodium, and potassium.”
In a bittersweet development to come following Summers’ sudden death from water toxicity last month, the 35-year-old mother of two – who was an organ donor – was reportedly able to donate her heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and long bone tissue to five organ donation candidates.
Summers’ family revealed that Summers saved five other lives through her organ donations.
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