SHOCKINGLY AWFUL: 14-year-old girl dies from consuming legal US drug drinks

The legal US "drug drinks" recieve this year's prize for the shockingly awful!

A US 14-year-old girl has died after drinking just 2 of these US "Monster" brand drug drinks. The drinks contain herbs and synthetic drug compounds, and are legally sold in many stores and even grocery markets.


http://todayhealth.cdn.today.com/_n...r-downing-2-energy-drinks?lite&lite=obnetwork

Teen girl dies of 'caffeine toxicity' after downing 2 energy drinks

By TODAY.com staff

Fourteen-year-old Anais Fournier downed two 24-ounce energy drinks on one December day, while hanging out with her friends at the mall. The next day, the Maryland teenager went into cardiac arrest -- and just six days later, she was dead.(*)

Her family stayed at her bedside as doctors induced a coma to keep the teen's brain from swelling.

"We stayed up all night," says her mother, Wendy Crossland of Hagerstown, Md., told NBC's Tom Costello. "I laid in bed next to her all night long. (*)... We talked to her and stayed with her.

"She never ever regained consciousness and we never got to say goodbye," her mother says.

The official cause of death, according to the teenager's death certificate, was cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity.

Anais and her family knew she had a common heart condition called(*)mitral valve prolapse, which causes one of the heart's valves to malfunction. The condition, which affects up to 1 in 20 Americans, usually doesn't cause people any problems, and the teenager's doctor felt her case posed little health risk.(*)

The day before she went into cardiac arrest, Anais's family says she drank two 24-ounce Monster energy drinks, unwittingly guzzling 480 miligrams of caffeine -- that's nearly five times the limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. To put it another way: By drinking just two large energy drinks, Anais drank as much caffeine as you'd find in(*)about 14 cans of Coke.

Monster tells NBC News,(*)"we vehemently deny that drinking two cans of Monster Energy by itself can cause a death from caffeine toxicity." The company also points out that their beverages contain less caffeine than(*)some of the drinks sold at Starbucks and other coffee shops.

But whatever the source of the caffeine buzz, some health experts question how much of the stuff kids should be drinking -- if they should be drinking it at all.

"Between the caffeine, the sugar, its effects on blood pressure, potential adverse effects, I think it's really difficult to justify a case for children, young adults to be using these substances right now,"(*)Dr. Allen Taylor, chief of cardiology at Georgetown University Hospital, told NBC News.

Emergency rooms across the country have seen a dramatic spike in caffeine overdoses, up from 1,128 in 2005 to 16,055 in 2008 and 13,114 in 2009, according to a recent report by the(*)Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Critics of the energy drink craze have argued that the marketing of the beverages, with names like Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar, seems designed to appeal to teenagers and young adults. Costello spoke to University of Maryland researcher Amelia Arria, who has studied the effects of energy drinks on young people.(*)"Individuals don't really know how much caffeine they're consuming because the label does not require disclosure of caffeine content," Arria says.

The Food and Drug Administration regulates the amount of caffeine in soda, but not in energy drinks -- the latter are considered a dietary supplement, not a food. But the American Beverage Association says it has adopted voluntary policies when it comes to issues like nutritional labeling, and marketing energy drinks toward kids.

Some energy drink makers do label their beverages with warnings.(*)But doctors like Taylor, at Georgetown University, have warnings of their own for concerned parents: "Is your child the one who has a predisposing condition where these could be truly dangerous? Is it worth the call from the emergency room?"

 

Good grief......... how horrible.

What is the deal with these 'energy' drinks anyway?

 

OH NOOOOOOES!!!! Down with the evil USA!!!! I wish I had more time on my hands to find "horrible" stories in the news about your country.

 

I have never said down with the evil USA. I have said "Down with the Evil". Somehow you confused evil and the USA as the same thing.

 

This is how drugs get outlawed, with stories like this. Keep this in mind when you declare the "War on Drugs" a failure. When you legalize a drug, more kids will use it, and more kids will die.

 

One death. How many died to auto accidents today?

 

it's suppose to take 50 cups of coffee (coffee has much more caffeine than coke) to kill ya. there's something else going on here.

 

Caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, while caffeine in Coke is manufactured. What other sh!t is added to Coke during tne manufacturing process?

 

have a read on caffeine. my estimate was way light....and soft drink still use extracted caffeine, from the kola nut. the girl either had serious undiagnosed heart problems or was popping NoDoz with her beverages. assuming it was just 2 cans.

 

Mike,,, what is totally stupid is we don't allow our kids to drink coffee because of health concerns but allow our kids to drink caffeinated sports (and cola drinks) drinks.

 

No healthy 14 yr. old is going to die by drinking two of these. She obviously had another problem.

 

Agreed. Those Monster drinks are literally sweet garbage in a can, but I don't think two will kill you.

 

Yeah, the 14 yr old had a heart condition where one of the valves to heart would malfunction, then all that caffeine in her body didn't help the heart condition any good - obviously.

If that had been my 14 yr old, particularly w/her heart problem, I would have been talking to her about those so-called energy drinks and educating her on the ingredients in them......absolutely nothing good.

 

taurine is produced by the body, it helps regulate blood pressure. presumable, it's used to allow more caffeine without screwing up your heart....but studies have shown there's not enough in these drinks to do anything.

 

cola has a lot less caffeine than coffee, but less than Mt Dew. i drink a lot of Dew growing up and it didn't stunt my growth.

 

Glad you asked that. Let me tell you a little story. When my kids were little, one evening friends came over to visit and the husband was talking about his job - he worked at Reynold's Aluminum. Jack said they had to put a special liner in the Coke Cola cans or the coke would eat the can up..... from that day forward, I made sure my kids NEVER drank coke ......

But then I was never really into sodas anyway. All of it is rotgut stuff....

 

I absolutely agree.... growing kids don't need that crap. Them eating a McD's or BK hamburger is unhealthy enuf for them......

 

I once worked in a restaurant and I saw them put the Cola into one of those drink machines. It's basically a huge bag of syrup (primarily) that has water and carbon added to it for the fizz. Disgusting. All those drinks are like that, even the Nestea- except the juices don't have the carbon.

But for me, I just drink tea after learning they once put cocaine in soda. At that point it's obvious they'll hand you anything they can sell to you.

 

Sweet garbage is right and it killed her.......

 

Actually, Mike - I don't pay any attention to studies or states or whatever. I use my own common sense. I look at the ingredients, most of them I recognize as not being good, the others I'm not familiar w/I will check online and sure enuf, it's not good for you and certainly not for growing kids.....

There is noting healthy or good about any of those drinks. And many of them are addictive and that should say a lot right there.... you're an intelligent guy, I think you know this.....

 

You do know that coca cola does a great job on cleaning up a rusty, corroded battery and does a bang9up job on cleaning your toilet?

And as I said, a friend worked at Reynolds Aluminum where they made all the cans for the sodas and he said they put a special liner in the coke cans to keepthe coke from eating up the cans........

 

Soft drinks are carbonated, carbon is not added to them. Carbonation means being infused with a gas.

 

And you're right ....My youngest daughter had gone thru a bout w/leukemia several yrs ago. She's now cancer-free and I'll tell you, she & I have learned so much about the processed foods and the CRAP that's in it and that includes sodas, etc... You're eating nothing but perservatives, additives, chemicals and a ton of sodium. One health article I read said 4 of the things that are very unhealthy is donuts, instant soups, deep-friend foods and all sodas...

Then a relative took a nutrition course at the college, just for the info and he couldn't believe the CRAP not only in the processed foods in the stores, but in the fast food places. He's only 27, but totally changed his eating habits. No more McD's & BK for that guy......

It's criminal what they put in our foods and drinks and my daughter eats nothing but organic now and says she has been feeling so much better and more energy. And I've really changed my eating to mostly organic also.... more expensive, but certainly worth it....

 

even canned water needs that liner...or it tastes like aluminum.

 

so does club soda.