Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Anna Wood

Anna Victoria Wood (27 May 1980-24 October 1995) was a schoolgirl from Sydney, Australia who died after taking an ecstasy tablet at a dance party. Her death received attention in the media at the time and sparked a moral panic on drug use among adolescents.

The events prior to Anna's death

On 21 October 1995, Anna with a group of school friends attended an "Apache" dance party at the Phoenician Club on Broadway in Ultimo, Sydney. Anna and her friends had bought ecstasy tablets outside the club prior to entering. At approximately 5am on the morning of the 22nd, Anna began feeling unwell inside the club and was seen rushing to the toilets, where she was found vomiting. Her friends drove her back to one of their homes in Belrose where she was put to bed. Her symptoms not improving, at 10am Anna's parents were informed who called for an ambulance and had Anna taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital. Anna remained in a coma throughout the period and did not regain consciousness; she eventually died on the following Tuesday, the 24th.

The coroner's report

The subsequent coroner's report determined that the cause of death was a cerebral edema caused by water intoxication (hyponatremia) secondary to use of ecstasy (MDMA). Hyponatremia occurs when excessive fluid consumption dilutes sodium levels in the blood supply, leading to water absorption in the body's cells. When too much water is absorbed, the body's cells swell and eventually rupture. Cell swelling in the brain can cause irreparable damage as the human skull leaves little room for expansion inside; furthermore, the brain's functions are disrupted by its swelling, resulting in respiratory arrest among other things - this was what happened in Anna's case. The syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) that occurs in some users of MDMA can also contribute to hyponatremia, as it disrupts the body's normal response of releasing excess water by excretion. The report concluded that excessive water consumption on Anna Wood's part combined with SIADH led to her death, as her body had no way of releasing the excess fluid.

The coroner's report included a statement by Dr John Henry, a physician from the Medical Toxicology Unit at Guy's Hospital that the finding of cerebral edema should not be considered to exonerate MDMA as a contributing factor to Wood's death, partly because Wood would never have consumed the quantity of water required to cause hyponatremia if she had not taken MDMA and also because MDMA aggravates the syndrome.

The coroner recommended improved drug education information stressing the need for immediate medical attention if a user of MDMA became ill under its influence. Dr Henry noted that British recommendations for appropriate water consumption for MDMA users stressed the different needs of users who were dancing strenuously and those who were not.

Moral panic

Anna's death was widely reported in the media and represented a change in how ecstasy and ecstasy-related deaths were covered. Whereas previous ecstasy-related deaths had received minimal media coverage and were reported in the context of crime, delinquency, and secrecy, Anna's death was extensively covered and turned into a warning against illicit drugs in society. It was initially put forward in the media that the ecstasy tablet taken by Anna was probably laced with heroin or morphine - the purported cause of her death - but the coroner's report determined that only MDMA was present in Anna's body.

The initial coverage of the event in question was soon followed by media stories ranging from concerns about drug use in Australian teenagers to attacks on techno music and raves for their corrupting influence on youth. The Phoenician Club in particular was singled out, with calls to have the venue closed down, a move endorsed by the then NSW Premier, Bob Carr. In the event, the club was allowed to continue to run but it had to abandon its Apache dance parties. The death of Anna Wood further fuelled perceptions that drug-taking was a serious problem among Australian teenagers, even though a NSW AMA report from the time established that only 3% of 14-19 year olds had used ecstasy.

The intensity of the media coverage can be explained to a degree by Anna's appearance as an average, middle class, "good girl" whose life had been tragically taken from her. She did not fit the stereotype of the street-living junkie and so was turned into an object of sympathy instead. She was the child that "everyone could relate to and was used as a result as a warning to prevent further moral outrages. Anna's death was sympathetically covered by Bronwyn Donaghy in a book on the event entitled Anna's Story in 1996. It raised similar concerns in the media that drug taking was a problem among youth and argued against drug decriminalisation as a response to Anna's death. While her death renewed calls for a more hardline approach to be taken on drugs in the media and by politicians, critics pointed out that this "zero tolerance" approach may have scared Anna's friends into not taking her immediately to a hospital where her life could have been saved.

Aftermath

The death of Anna Wood nevertheless raised awareness about ecstasy use in the general community, which until that time had been less well known in Australia; her death was purportedly among a handful of fatalities that had occurred since ecstasy use had become common in Australia after 1987. The raised awareness of ecstasy use led to the Australian state governments instituting new laws in the running of dance venues. In NSW, the Code of Practice for Dance Parties was passed in 1997, which made the provision of chill rooms and free water compulsory for clubs to obtain their licence. This was seen as an acknowledgement by governments of the reality of ecstasy use in the dance scene and the need for pragmatic legislation to prevent further deaths. The coroner's report into Anna's death had also recommended public advice on ecstasy use and water intake to avoid further fatalities by water intoxication. The notoriety of Anna's death sees it continue to surface in the public more than ten years since it took place. The last major reference to the event occurred in the 2007 NSW state election, where NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam made reference to the event based on the apparent unhappiness of Anna's family with the actions of the state government following her death.