The man who died after binge drinking 17 pints of water

London, July 8 : Andrew Thornton from Bradford wouldn't have realised that downing 17 pints of water to soothe his aching gums would actually prove fatal for him.

Forty four year old Thornton, who had been suffering from gum disease gingivitis for 20 years died of heart attack after downing 17 glasses of water to soothe his aching gums.

During a severe attack he gulped pint after pint over a two-day period and flushed vital chemicals from his system, leading to a heart attack.

Andrew's mother Alice realised something was seriously wrong when he started staggering around and repeatedly vomited. When he collapsed and smashed his head on a cabinet she took him to hospital.

At first doctors were sure he had been drinking.

"But he hadn't touched any alcohol - something was just terribly wrong. He couldn't walk straight and his right arm had gone limp and was hurting," the Mirror quoted Alice as saying.

After the death it was found that sodium levels in his body were a third lower than they should be.

"He claimed drinking water relieved the problems with gum trouble. He'd been drinking a lot of water and vomiting," said pathologist Dr Alan Padwell.

"He had overloaded with water," Padwell added.

Alice said: "It was the biggest shock of my life when he died.

ANI