A 35-year-old Indiana mom sadly lost her life after she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes. Ashley Summers was with her husband and two daughters at Lake Freeman over the 4th of July weekend when the tragic incident occurred.
Here’s what we know about what happened.
- The family had only gone away for a couple of days. Summers’ brother, Devon Miller, told WRTV that the family arrived at the lake on Saturday night and were due to come back on Tuesday. However, on Tuesday morning, he got a call saying something was wrong.
- Ashley Summers had been rushed to the hospital. Miller recalled their sister telling him over the phone that Ashley’s brain had swollen and she was in critical condition. “My sister, Holly, called me, and she was just an absolute wreck. 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,'” he recalled.
- However, it soon dawned on everyone what had gone wrong. According to Summers’ family, she told them earlier in the day that she felt a bit dehydrated and like she had a thirst she just couldn’t quench. She was also a bit lightheaded and had a headache. She ended up dying of water toxicity.
- Ashley Summers drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes. Her brother recalled the extreme amount of water his sister drank and pointed out that it was far too much for her body to process in such a short amount of time. “Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes. 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. That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day,” he said.
- She ended up passing out in her garage. While she made it home okay, she never actually set foot in the house. Instead, she passed out in the garage and was immediately rushed to IU Health Arnett Hospital. Sadly, she never regained consciousness and was eventually pronounced dead.
- Doctors told the family that she died of water toxicity. It was something no one in the family had ever heard of or would have believed was a thing. “It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?” Miller said.
- While it’s rare, water toxicity can happen and when it does, it’s often deadly. Dr. Blake Froberg, a toxicologist with IU health, said that certain people are more at risk of suffering from the condition but that everyone should be careful. “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,” he said. “Make sure that you’re drinking things that have electrolytes and sodium and some potassium.”
- A Venmo has been set up to help Summer’s husband and children. If you want to donate, you can send funds to username @Cody-Summers-16.
