Who's To Blame?

I've been reading with interest about the death of a Sacramento woman who participated in a local radio show contest to win a Nintendo Wii. It seems the show held a contest named "Hold your wee for a Wii" in which contestants had to drink as much water as possible before having to piss. The deceased later died from hyponatremia or water intoxication, which occurs when the body's sodium level falls below normal. Drinking water dilutes the sodium level in your bloodstream causing your brain to swell and push against the skull, this in turn causes nausea, vomiting, weakness and in some severe cases coma and death.

Apparently, the radio station negelected to warn contestants about the dangers of drinking too much water. As a result 1 person died and 10 people have been fired, including the hosts of the morning show "The Morning Rave", Trish, Maney and Lukas along with "on air personalities" Carter and Fester.

The husband of the 28 year old mother of three is quoted as saying, "She was trying to win something for her family that she thought we would enjoy…. We miss her dearly. She was my girl."

The Nintendo Wii retails for about $250.

Q-Bert - Not worth dying for.

Hopefully a lesson has been learned from all of this. Video games are bad. I didn't get where I am today playing Asteroids. Nelson Mandela didn't bring about the end of apartheid playing Frogger. Boris Becker didn't become the youngest ever winner of the Men' Singles at Wimbledon by staying home playing Pong. And this lady didn't buy the love of her family by dying in a stupid radio station contest to win a fuckin' Wii.

I would hate to be misunderstood. The radio station had a responsibility to inform potential contestants that too much of anything is bad for you, just as the tobacco industry needs to warn the public that inhaling the fumes of burning chemicals increases your chances of a horribly slow painful death. But would this have deterred people from competing? I am sure that the prospect of being loved by the kids and of being hailed supermum appealed just as much as the smooth satisfying sophistication of 20 tabs a day does to my old man. Life is full of choices. I prefer to view such events as part of natural selection. But I'm a cunt.

What of the kids? How do they get through the trauma of losing their Mum? I bet a nice shiny new Nintendo Wii would help take their minds of things. Are you listening KDND-FM?