A twenty-eight-year-old Sydney woman has died after going eleven minutes without water.
Sarah Hayes, who lives in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst, was tragically left stranded for metres without any source of water after forgetting to take her 1.8 litre (60 oz) bottle with her on her way to a nearby cafe.
Friends and family said it was out of character for Hayes to go anywhere without the best part of two kilograms of water. “It must have just been a tragic mistake,” one friend said.
Police said it was a warning to people thinking of taking unnecessary risks. “By the time she realised she’d left her water bottle at home it was too late. She was several hundred metres from home and several hundred metres from the nearest tap – she was in no-man’s land. There was no way she was going to survive,” a police spokesperson said.
He said that people living in large metropolises should think twice before leaving home without adequate water. “People forget that it can sometimes be several minutes’ walk until you’re next able to fill up on water. Calculate what you think you might need, then quadruple it. Then you might have enough to get yourself out of a tricky situation”.
