A 17-year-old Georgia high school football player has died after drinking too much water during practice last week.
Zyrees Oliver, an accomplished student and athlete at Douglas County High School, drank two gallons of water and two gallons of Gatorade to fight off cramps last Tuesday, according to reports.
Oliver felt better that evening but on Wednesday morning — just hours before he was set to start his first day of his senior year — he collapsed in his Douglasville home and was rushed to hospital.
Doctors said Oliver was brain dead after suffering devastating brain swelling from water intoxication, family members told WSB-TV in Atlanta.
He was taken off life support early Monday morning, after five days in the hospital.
"The water flooded his system and his brain started to swell," his cousin Bryant Stewart explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
While rare, water intoxication is caused when too much water is consumed in a short period of time, diluting other nutrients in the body and putting pressure on the brain. If not treated, it can lead to coma or death.
Oliver's family moved from New Jersey to Georgia a year ago and the young man with a 3.8 GPA quickly settled in with his new surroundings. He regularly shared photos showing him posing in his football uniform on social networking sites, and hoped to play football in college.
His family is now raising money on a gofundme page to fly his body to New Jersey.
An autopsy will be conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to determine the cause of his death.
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