South Carolina boy hospitalized after drinking too much water

A South Carolina boy had to be hospitalized after developing a potentially deadly condition from guzzling six bottles of water in an hour.

Ray Jordan, 10, chugged the overwhelming amount of fluids while playing outside in Columbia during the Fourth of July weekend, WIS-TV reported.

“He ran outside with his cousins and started playing. They were full throttle running circles around the house, a bunch of boys together, jumping on the trampoline,” Ray’s mom, Stacy Jordan, told the outlet.

“[Ray] had gone in and gotten himself some water. What we didn’t realize was how much he got,” she said, noting that he drank six bottles between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.

By 10:30 p.m., Ray “couldn’t control his head or arms or anything,” said the boy’s dad, Jeff Jordan. “His motor functions were gone.”

One of the parents added, “He almost seemed like he was on drugs, drunk, even mentally handicapped at that point.”

The parents rushed their son to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital.

After running several tests, doctors treated Ray for water intoxication, or dangerously low sodium levels in the blood that results when the kidneys are overwhelmed by the amount of water coming into the body.

“They were giving him something to help him urinate as much as possible to get those fluids out because it was swelling around his brain — that was why his head was hurting so much,” Stacy told WIS.

The doctors also spent eight hours giving Ray sodium and potassium to regulate his blood.

Then ”he just woke up, he asked for food, he was like, ‘Where am I? What happened?’ ” Stacy recalled.

Ray has since made a full recovery and has no lingering symptoms, his parents added.

They noted that the experience reminded them of the importance of alternating water with sports drinks, such as Gatorade, on especially hot days, because the electrolytes in the latter don’t dilute the bloodstream.

But while Ray’s family noticed his symptoms and sought help immediately, not all victims are so lucky.

Ashley Summers, a 35-year-old mom of two from Indiana, died July 6 when she suffered brain swelling after drinking four bottles of water in 30 minutes, her brother shared on Facebook last week.

“If she would have drank Gatorade, or took in the water more slowly, she would be alive,” the heartbroken relative wrote. “To all my friends, do a little research on water toxicity. It may save someone’s life.”