'I drank four litres of water a day - it nearly killed me'

Nina Munro was trying to 'flush out' what she thought was a cold, but it nearly cost her dearly

A mum-of-one nearly lost her life after consuming an excessive amount of water, which led to alarmingly low sodium levels in her blood. Nina Munro, 41, had attempted to "flush out" what she believed was a cold by drinking approximately four litres of water a day.

However, the combination of excessive water intake and her cold and flu medications caused her system to become overwhelmed, resulting in a seizure. Nina, who claims doctors were uncertain about her survival, spent five days in intensive care as medical professionals worked to stabilise her sodium levels.

Now, the government officer only drinks when she feels thirsty, limiting her daily intake to around 1.5 litres. "All the doctors didn't know how I survived it," she said.

"I was slowly 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."

"I think someone was looking out for me. I thought I was a super-healthy person. They wouldn't let me leave [hospital] until my sodium level began to increase."

"I didn't see my daughter for five days, which was so hard. I didn't want her to see me in the state I was in. The first few days in ICU I couldn't drink anything and when I left hospital I was on a restricted 1.5-litre diet and naturally now drink less."

"They told me to drink for thirst only. They were investigating whilst I was in ICU for five days."

Six weeks before being admitted, Nina began to pick up minor coughs and colds and generally started feeling under the weather.

She said: "Our daughter is at kindergarten and she's always coming home with little bugs. She got laryngitis and lost her voice in May, and her daughter had pneumonia - which Nina unknowingly also caught a mycoplasma from.

"I also had a cold, earache and a sore throat, which I kept going to doctors for. I never felt like I had time to rest with the constant demands of parenting and work."

Nina saw five doctors in the six-week period and was given an array of different medications and told to drink more water.

She said: "I had three lots of steroids, three lots of antibiotics, nasal sprays and Nurofen, which also lowers your sodium - it was a perfect storm to lower my sodium."

Nina started to get worse in the days before she was admitted on June 15.

"I left a gym class as I felt I wasn't moving right," she said. "I went to a local 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 told her to drink more, she said. By June 15 she had been vomiting for three days and "drank around four litres that day and no food".

"I just kept thinking I needed to drink all this water to flush it out," she said. "I've always tried to drink at least two litres a day, if not more."

That night her husband called an ambulance, which took her to hospital. Her sodium level was 100 milliequivalents per liter - far below the recommended minmum of 135 - with anything under this considered low.

Nina 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. Nina says her time in ICU was a bit patchy in memory, but knows she is lucky to be alive. After a small monitoring period, Nina, from Queensland, Australia, made a full recovery and is now back to full health - although she is unable to drive for six months because of her seizure.

She said: "I know a blood test would have showed it up straight away. There must be other people out there in the same boat.

"The blood test would have shown the sodium level as being very low so it could have been caught earlier. I think it will take a while to trust that things will be okay. It was like my body had a hard reset and had to start up again."

The NHS recommends people drink six to eight glasses of water and other fluids a day - enough so their urine is a clear pale yellow colour.