A 10-year-old boy almost died after he consumed six bottles of water in an hour while playing with his friends, which caused his brain to swell.
Ray Jordan was playing outside with his friends on July 4 in Columbia, South Carolina, and was guzzling water due to it being a hot day.
As reported by WIS-TV, after an hour of drinking the water, Ray began demonstrating symptoms that alarmed his family.
"[Ray] couldn't control his head or arms or anything," his father Jeff Jordan told the outlet. "His motor functions were gone."
Earlier in the day, Ray was going "full throttle" with his cousins. "[They were] running circles around the house, a bunch of boys together, jumping on the trampoline," his family explained.
Throughout the day, the 10-year-old was thirsty due to the weather, though his parents were unaware of the amount that he was drinking.
"What we didn't realize how much he had got," Ray's mother Stacy said, adding that they realized that he had consumed six bottles between 08:30PM and 09:30PM.
It was around an hour later when the 10-year-old began throwing up and his parents decided to take action.
Jeff and Stacy rushed Ray to Prisma Health Children's Hospital as he "almost seemed like he was on drugs, drunk, or even mentally handicapped".
Ray Jordan consumed six bottles of water in an hour. Credit: Oscar Wong/GettyFollowing examinations at the hospital, it was concluded that the 10-year-old suffered from water intoxication.
"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 said.
Water intoxication occurs when the kidneys are unable to cope with the volume of water that has been consumed, which results in low sodium levels in the blood.
Thankfully, Ray has made a full recovery following the terrifying ordeal, as his mother revealed that he "miraculously" woke up in the hospital and started questioning where he was.
Sports drinks are an alternative to water that won't dilute sodium levels. Credit: GreenPimp/Getty"It never would have even occurred to us that it was dangerous," Ray's parents said, as they have now turned their attention to raising awareness about the dangers of drinking too much water.
They claim that the ordeal could have been avoided if they had offered sports drinks alongside the water, and this has been echoed by health authorities, who claim that the electrolytes found in sports drinks don't dilute blood sodium levels.
