Braylon Curry, a pledge with Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, drank an unknown amount of water from a gallon container early Saturday morning and was hospitalized hours later after becoming dazed and incoherent, Dallas police said.

Authorities said they were continuing their investigation but had not ruled out hazing.

"Preliminarily it would appear so, but until we know the details, we can't make that final judgment," said Jim Caswell, vice president of student affairs.

SMU officials and Dallas police still were trying to determine details of the incident Monday. According to a police report, some alcohol was consumed at the competition but Curry drank only water.

The fraternity, which only this spring was reinstated at SMU after a three-year suspension for hazing, has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, Caswell said.

Caswell said he did not know how many of the fraternity's seven members were at the competition. He refused to discuss specifics on the fraternity's prior hazing incident.

The fraternity's national office in Baltimore declined comment.

"This was a complete surprise and in allowing them to return, there was a complete understanding they would comply with all the policies and their own national policies," Caswell said. "These men certainly, in my opinion, were knowledgeable about their parameters for their return."

The day before the incident, the school held an anti-hazing event on campus and produced a half-page advertisement that defined hazing and outlined its consequences, Caswell said.

Curry, a junior business major, transferred from Austin College to SMU this fall.

Excessive consumption of water can be fatal, causing pulmonary edema, a condition where water enters the lungs, and hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance brought on by excess fluid consumption.

The average person can consume up to 15 liters of water in a 24-hour period, but drinking too much, too quickly can swell brain cells and cause head pressure, said Dr. Greg Blomquist, an emergency room doctor at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

"Lethargy, a feeling of tiredness, confusion, even a stupor or coma in the later stages can occur," he said.

Excessive water consumption was blamed in the March death of Walter Dean Jenning, an 18-year-old college student in New York.

Eleven Psi Epsilon Chi fraternity members at Plattsburgh State University in Plattsburgh, N.Y., were charged in his death after they admitted to forcing either Jennings or fellow pledge Christopher Han to drink excessive amounts of water through a funnel until they vomited.

StangerBanger96 wrote:
you can die from it, its something that affects a lot of endurance runners. They drink too much water and their salt resources deminish or cant keep up with the intake and they essentially drown themselves from the inside out.
did you not see my post explaining what it does? you repeated exactly what I said. n00b!

"It happens when the body’s balance of salt and water become quickly diluted. >>>It affects the production of nerve impulses, and impairs mental processes. <<<Cells take on extra water and expand. As they swell, they put stress on the body’s organs, particularly the brain, which has little room to expand within the skull. Sometimes Hyponatremia is caused by an underlying medical condition."

And, now I have to figure out what I said on the phone last night. oops