Adap It was John s first day of college at Richmond

Last updated: 2/22/2023

Adap It was John s first day of college at Richmond University in California With his class schedule in hand he walked across campus to his English class He was feeling a bit nervous but the fact that he made friends with a few other guys in his dorm that had the same English class helped calm him When he got to class he saw his friends and sat next to them They were holding bright orange papers that read Pledge Beta Kappa in bold font across the top John asked one his friends Eric what they were looking at Next week is Rush Week all the sororities and fraternities are handing these out replied Eric We are all planning on rushing for Beta Kappa replied his other friend Sam Eric handed John a pledge paper John read the information listed about Beta Kappa From the flier it seemed that Beta Kappa was active in the community and had several connections to local hospitals for volunteer opportunities which interested John who had already declared his major as sports medicine With this information John decided that he would give Rush Week a try On Friday September 3rd John joined his friends and several other new pledges at the Beta Kappa fraternity house They were welcomed into the frat house and given a tour by the president of the fraternity Robert During the tour Robert gave an extensive history of the fraternity citing facts about the house and even mentioning some celebrities and politicians who were once members As the night progressed they got to meet the rest of the members of the fraternity and to John it seemed that all was going well At around 10 pm Robert told the new pledges that he wanted to show them the basement where they would perform the pledging ceremony As they headed to the basement they saw fraternity members collecting the phones of the new pledges It was at this moment that John began to feel uncomfortable and turned to his friend Eric Do you think we should do this asked John Something doesn t feel right he continued Don t worry every fraternity does something They will probably just play a prank on us Eric replied John not fully consoled by Eric started down the stairs When they reached the bottom of the staircase they saw nothing but the unfinished bare walls and concrete floor that surrounded them John heard a sound from the corner and saw Robert standing there Welcome to Hell Week this is where you will be staying for the next few nights pledges We will test your mental and physical stamina to determine who will become a member of Beta Kappa John turned to Eric worried about what was to come Eric reassured John Seriously don t worry the worst they re going to do is make us sleep here in the cold without beds Robert addressed the group again The first test is a physical test Each one of you pledges must perform 200 push ups and 200 sit ups back to back Hesitantly the pledges got on the ground and began exercising Robert continued to shout out rules as the pledges worked they could not have water they could not take a break and they were not allowed to leave to use the restroom If any one of you pledges cannot follow these rules you will be punished continued Robert Robert went into another corner of the basement and came back to the group carrying a hose John wanted out of this hell and looked up the staircase only to see members of the fraternity guarding it It took over an hour for each pledge to finish the exercises Some pledges took breaks which caused Robert to spray each member with the hose It was cold dark and now wet in the basement When the exercises were complete Eric turned to John and sighed relieved This should be it and then we can finally leave Little did they know this was only the start of the night The next phase of the night is the mental test Robert stated to the soaking wet pledges Earlier in the night we did a tour of the house Let s see how many of you can remember what was covered Several fraternity members came down the staircase holding 5 gallon jugs of water Each pledge received one jug Each of you must drink from the jug of water if you answer a question wrong If you finish your jug we will refill it Robert motioned to another fraternity member standing in the room to get the hose The questions were rapid fire the pledges only had seconds to respond or else they had to drink their water During this test John lost all sense of time He had answered many questions incorrectly which caused a fraternity member to refill his jug of water The questions seemed to never end and they became increasingly non related to the fraternity house Confused tired and cold John refused to drink another sip A fraternity member came over to him and shouted at him to chug his water and feeling helpless and confused John did It was at this moment that Eric looked over to see John collapse on the ground John began to shake violently in an apparent seizure Eric shouted for someone to call 911 John was rushed to a nearby hospital and taken to the intensive care unit John had consumed nearly 10 gallons of water over the course of 2 hours As soon as he arrived at the hospital the doctors gave him an IV containing a sodium solution It was too late however Only hours after arriving at the hospital John went into cardiac arrest and died In the autopsy report the medical examiner determined the cause of death as cerebral edema or swelling of the tissue in the brain due to hyponatremia which is water intoxication Analysis Questions 1 What problem did drinking nearly 10 gallons of water create in John s body 2 Define osmosis