Woman dies after drinking 2 litres of water in 20 minutes: report

Water toxicity is a condition caused by drinking excessive amounts of water, and can be fatal in the most extreme cases. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A 35-year-old woman in the United States died last month after drinking nearly two litres of water in 20 minutes. Ashley Summers was on a getaway with her family during the Fourth of July weekend.

After touring Lake Freeman in Indiana with her husband and two young daughters, Summers felt very dehydrated.

“Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes,” New York Post quoted her brother Devon Miller as telling 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. That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day.”

On the last day of their break, Summers started feeling light-headed and had a headache. After returning home, she passed out in her garage and never regained consciousness though she was taken to hospital. She reportedly had brain swelling and according to her doctors, she died of water toxicity, WRTV reported.

Water toxicity is a condition caused by drinking excessive amounts of water, and can be fatal in the most extreme cases.

"It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?" her brother told the media outlet.

In death, however, Summers saved five lives by donating her heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and some of her long bone tissue.

A similar incident was reported from Canada recently when a woman was hospitalised after drinking four litres of water for 12 days as part of a viral “75 Hard” social media challenge, which involves drinking a gallon (about four litres) of water regularly for 75 days.

Michelle Fairburn talked about her experience in a TikTok video explaining how drinking excessive amounts of water made her feel unwell. The mother and real estate agent in Toronto suspected she had a case of water poisoning.