In the UK, Luke Williamson was in poor health during the first confinement. After a suspicion of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, his family notably advised him to drink plenty of water. Only then, the person concerned followed this recommendation a little too to the letter to the point of risking death.
A simple family recommendation
During the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic , some people panicked greatly. In February 2020, a father took his own life in India , believing he was infected with the coronavirus. He did not want to infect his family. A few weeks later, 300 people died in Iran . They believed that drinking high-resistance alcohol such as methanol could kill the coronavirus in their body. All these people had taken fake news circulating on the Web at face value .
As the Daily Mail explains in an article published on December 29, 2020, the Briton Luke Williamson is meanwhile passed near the end. No fake news in this case, just a simple recommendation from his family. During the first lockdown in the UK in March / April 2020, the man felt his health decline. He had been out of shape for a week and his family advised him to drink plenty of water.
Water poisoning
One evening, Luke Williamson went to take a bath and then collapsed in a bloodbath. His wife Laura was unable to open the bathroom door because it was locked. So she spoke to her husband to keep him awake while waiting for help to arrive 45 minutes later. Eventually unconscious, the man was taken to the emergency room. The problem is simply explained: Luke Williamson drank too much water, at the rate of 4 to 5 liters per day ! He then suffered from water poisoning.
Indeed, the water flushed the sodium out of his body. This is called hyponatremia, a disease caused by a sodium level below 135 millimoles per liter (mmol / L). The symptoms are: swelling of the brain (from which this Briton suffered), lethargy, nausea, seizures and in some cases, coma or even death. While it is very important to hydrate often, it is therefore necessary to be careful about the quantities, at the risk of diluting the sodium that the blood naturally contains .
Supported, Luke Williamson spent no less than three days on life support in intensive care. When he arrived, the doctors made no promises about improving the man’s health. However, the latter still got out and was placed on sick leave for six months . Out of the woods, however, he is still often in the throes of fatigue and slowly resumes his life. He even started working again, but only part-time.
