A toddler in Africa travels to a remote area with no access to clean drinking water. He drinks sewage water and soon develops severe diarrhea and dies 10 days later of cardiac arrest. Explain the possible physiological cause(s) of his death.

Answer:

Drinking sewage water /unclean water may have led to disease like cholera or giardiasis.

These disease are identified by severe diarrhea conditions. Diarrhea is accompanied by excess water loss from water which also leads to loss of potassium leading to condition called hypokalemia.The muscular tissue is very sensitive to hypokalemia and changes excitability and conductivity of cardiac tissue. This condition induces ventricular arrhythmia and causes cardiac arrest.