Aussie mum, 41, nearly died after drinking ‘too much’ water

A Queensland woman said she was “slowly drowning herself” with her excessive habit after being told to drink more water.

A Queensland mum has revealed she nearly died after she drank four litres of water a day to “flush out” a cold.

Nina Munro, 41, was told to drink more water to help get rid of her persistent cough and sore throat.

But the excessive amounts of water, combined with medications she was taking to help beat the winter “bugs”, flooded her system and left her with life-threateningly low sodium levels in her blood.

As a result, the mum had a seizure and was rushed to hospital where she remained in intensive care for five days as doctors battled to stabilise her sodium levels.

Mum, 41, was left fighting for her life after being told to ‘drink water’ to help cure a minor cold. Picture: SWNS

“All the doctors said they didn’t know how I survived it,” the government officer said.

“I was slowing drowning myself and I didn’t even know it.

“My husband said I wouldn’t do anything without a glass of water by my side.”

Ms Munro, who described herself as “a super-healthy person”, said her health issues began six weeks before she was admitted to hospital.

Her symptoms started small. She felt slightly under the weather, putting it down to catching a bug from her daughter who is in kindergarten.

But after her daughter came down with pneumonia in May, her sickness ramped up a notch, and the mum developed laryngitis and lost her voice.

She also unknowingly caught a mycoplasma, a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body, including the respiratory tract.

“I also had a cold, earache and a sore throat which I kept going to doctors for,” she said.

“I never felt like I had time to rest with the constant demands of parenting and work.”

She was also on a mixture of different medicines after visiting several doctors about her symptoms. Picture: iStock

‘Perfect storm’

Ms Munro saw five doctors during the six-week period and was given an array of different medications while being told to drink more water.

“I had three lots of steroids, three lots of antibiotics, nasal sprays and Nurofen, which also lowers your sodium – it was a perfect storm,” she explained.

But rather than feeling better, she said she began to feel worse, prompting her to visit a hospital after a workout left her feeling light-headed.

“I left a gym class as I felt I wasn’t moving right,” she said.

“I went to a hospital and they said ‘drink lots of water’ as they thought I was having withdrawals from the steroids.”

The next day she developed a “haze” in front of her eyes and experts again told her to drink more, she claimed.

By June 15, she had been vomiting for three days and had “drank around four litres that day and no food”.

“I just kept thinking I needed to drink all this water to flush it out,” Ms Munro said.

“I’ve always tried to drink at least two litres a day, if not more.”

When she began to feel really unwell, her husband called an ambulance. Picture: SWNS

But noticing something wasn’t right, her husband called an ambulance, and she was rushed to hospital where doctors made the shock discovery.

Ms Munro’s sodium level was 100 milliequivalents per litre (mEq/L) – far below what’s considered normal, which tend to be between 135 and 145.

Sodium levels are considered low if they dip below 135 mEq/L.

She said she was told by doctors the cause of her low sodium level was from drinking too much water combined with medications she had been on for recent minor colds, plus a mycoplasma infection.

Her memory of her time in the ICU is a bit patchy, but the mum counts herself lucky to be alive.

After a brief monitoring period, Ms Munro made a full recovery, and is now back to full health – although she is unable to drive for six months because of her seizure.

Now she only drinks 1.5 litres a day. Picture: SWNS

She also said that her condition may have been caught earlier if she’d been given a blood test during her visits to doctors, as “the blood test would have shown the sodium level as being very low”.

“I think it will take a while to trust that things will be okay,” the mum added.

“It was like my body had a hard reset and had to start up again.”

Now Ms Munro only drinks when she is thirsty and restricts herself to a maximum of around 1.5 litres of water a day.

Australian guidelines recommend adults drink 2.6L of water a day, which is roughly about eight cups.

“The first few days in ICU I couldn’t drink anything and when I left hospital I was on a restricted 1.5L diet and naturally now drink less.

“They told me to drink for thirst only.”