USA Because of the heat, boy drinks too much water and ends up hospitalized with brain swelling
The boy is said to have drunk six bottles of water in an hour (symbol image)
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07/13/2023 20:31 2 minutes
A ten year old boy was running and playing in the garden with his cousins. To cool off from the high temperatures, he drank water – so much so that he lost motor coordination and had to be hospitalized.
A 10-year-old boy from South Carolina was taken to the hospital after drinking six bottles of water in one hour. According to media reports, the incident allegedly occurred on July 4, 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.
Water intoxication and dangerous blood values
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 pm and 9:30 pm he reportedly drank six bottles. An hour later, at 10:30 pm, the boy “couldn’t control his head or his arms or anything”, says his father. “His motor functions disappeared.” The ten-year-old is said to have looked almost “as if he was on drugs, drunk or even mentally handicapped”. His parents immediately took him to a children’s hospital.
There, after some tests, doctors discovered that the boy had a dangerously low level of sodium in his blood due to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when the kidneys become overwhelmed with the amount of water entering the body. This sometimes caused the boy’s brain to swell dangerously.
Boy suffers no permanent damage
“[Die Ärzt:innen] gave him something to help him urinate as much as possible to get the fluid out,” his mother said. He was also given sodium and potassium for eight hours to normalize his blood levels.
When his son finally woke up, he reportedly asked for food and asked, “Where am I? What happened?” According to his parents, the 10-year-old boy has now fully recovered and has not suffered any permanent damage.
Sources: “NY Post”, WIS-TV
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