"In autopsy revealed the teenager, from Hagerstown, Maryland, died of cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity that impeded her heart's ability to pump blood.
The medical examiner also found that she had an inherited disorder that can weaken blood vessels."
When I skimmed the OP's post, I wondered if she might have had any conditions.
Poor thing....
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"Miss Fournier's parents Wendy Crossland and Richard Fournier claim Monster failed to warn about the risks of drinking its products.
Ms Crossland told the Record Herald: 'I was shocked to learn the FDA can regulate caffeine in a can of soda, but not these huge energy drinks.
'With their bright colors and names like Monster, Rockstar, and Full Throttle, these drinks are targeting teenagers with no oversight or accountability. These drinks are death traps for young, developing girls and boys, like my daughter, Anais.'"
I don't quite understand faulting Monster.
The same could be said for coffee and how many adults guzzle that by the gallon every morning? *laugh* A caffeine drink isn't a 'death trap' for boys and girls everywhere.
Stop the melodrama.
'Anais' died --
because she had a disorder of the blood vessels. The child died because she ingested too much of a STIMULANT that stressed her heart to the point of erratic heart beats and (cardiac) arrest...which wouldn't have happened if she didn't hadn't had an inborne abnormality to begin with.
These people are grief-stricken. That's why they're lashing out.
Unfortunately, it's no one's fault. This girl drank two cans of Monster containing 240 mg of caffeine on 'consecutive days'.
That is not a lot.
In the grand scheme of things? 240 mg of caffeine PER DAY is a high intake but not a lethal/dangerous dose, unless you've a prexisting 'condition' that permits you to decrease intake, i.e., cardiovasculr issues or pregnancy (it can increase chances of miscarrying).
...which says a lot about her condition, I think. She could've died drinking 2 Big Gulps of soda. She could've died playing sports. She could've died due to any event that excited her heart to the point of failure.
Thank God (or some other deity) that she wasn't drinking Starbucks or some tea...or the fam would be trying to sue the pants off the makers of Lipton.
Had there been a label on the container, how exactly would the situation be any different? The girl would probably still be drinkin' them...and as far as the mom?
There are posters in this thread who reacted with surprise to find that the girl was drinking that amt of Monsters, I might add. If they - we - knew well enough to have such a kneejerk reaction? Why didn't her parents?
It's a freakin' 'energy drink'.
What the hell else does anyone think's going to be in it but lots of caffeine, flavoring and sugar? What part of the words 'En-er-gy Drink' wouldn't lead a rational person to believe that it might contain more than soda?
But...meh.
Slap a warning label on Monster cans and what's that going to stop?
Nothing. People (some of which who've no business) are still gonna drink it!
- Every restaurant in creation has the nutritional data in plain sight on the menus, at this time. Some have calorie charts staring you in the eyeballs right by the counter where you place your order.
Is it working? I can't tell. People are still fat as hell.
- Obama thought it a good idea to put interest/loan info on CC bill statements to show users the impact of their debt w/ interest...and what's that really going to help? People were aware before. D'you think we became a 'nation of spenders' because some of us simply didn't know better?
...and people actually believe that Healthcare Access will have any affect on Patient Outcome?
Are you new? *laugh*
Lemme tell you something, and this is going to sound incredibly cynical, but...some people?
Some people... are nothing but a bunch of big, stupid animals and they're going to do what they want. Regardless. You simply can't police that sort of thing. I'd argue that it's hardly the govt's place to try.
I'm all about common sense legislation, but all of our resources wasted on micromanaging...to what end? When's it going to stop?
The problem with the public is a severe inability to take personal accountability for anything. Additionally, there's a desire on the parts of plenty to be led about by the nose. People are wayyyy too dependant on the govt.
Let there be a fire in a theater. No doubt that everyone would stay seated and wait for a govt representative to tell them when it's safe to leave the building.
Remember 'Xenadrine'?
There were warning labels on the old diet pill Xenadrine, if any are familiar.
'Do not take if you have X, Y, Z', the label said.
Well, people who had 'X, Y, Z' were taking it... and dropping like flies from dysrhythmias (sp) and HF. This was the year 1999/2000.
I took Xenadrine, too. Wasn't fat. I was in the military at the time. Everyone was taking it and who knows why? We were all in shape, but that's how it is with gym nuts. *laugh*
...but guess what?
They're still living.
I'm still here...because I can follow directions. I can read.
I never took beyond the recommended dose. Actually, I never took anywhere approaching the recommended dose. 4 pills a day? I took 2. I listened to my body. It's all that I needed.
I'll say that Xenadrine is probably the only diet pill on the market that (ever) actually worked. It absolutely killed hunger. It gave energy.
...and you lost weight because of this.
...because of the Ephedra. Ephedra - a natural supplement - made it too dangerous for OTC (over the counter) usage. You can't just throw anything out and expecrt everyone to do the right thing. You've always got to consider the idiots who'll just pop pill after pill like they don't have any d*mned sense. Then, they'll die and their families will turn around and try to sue for 'wrongful death'.
...which is precisely whart occurred. It's ridiculous.
But, imo? Xenadrine shouldn't have been yanked and reformulated. They should've simply made it available 'by prescription'.
Why? It worked. It WAS safe for use. It's just that people who had no business using...were.
Anywho --
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A fair amt of these 'conditions of the heart' are noted when a child is an infant because they can be visualized (in utero) and produce signs (due to structural abnormalities, i.e., holes, closures, closed valves, narrowed valves, etc...)
That girl probably wouldn't have figured out that something was wrong until she came of age and . I'm willing to bet that they would've caught the disorder during pregnancy and put the girl - now a woman - on bedrest.
But, I wonder...if it was an 'inherited' disorder, wouldn't someone in that family have it?
If one of the parents was a carrier, then...why not a sibling or a grandparent..
I'm assuming that 'Anais' didn't play sports? She's a young girl and kids are...active. It's amazing that she could make it to the age of 14... running, jumping and bounding about without incident.
I suppose this situation is similar to these stories of little boys who drop dead during pee-wee football (where it's not heat-stroke related).
Hmm.
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The FDA doesn't regulate the caffeine content of MONSTER, so says the mother? Based on what...?
If that were true, the FDA wouldn't know how many mg's were in a single can to begin with.The FDA reported people had adverse reactions after they consumed Monster Energy Drink, which comes in 24-ounce cans and contain 240 milligrams of caffeine - or seven times the amount of the caffeine in a 12-ounce cola.
*shrug*
Anyway - if you have a cardiovascular condition, i.e., HTN, Heart Failure and the like? You need to actually READ the warning labels and exercise extreme caution or outright back off these 'energy drinks', diet pills, etc...
They stress the heart (by increasing the workload)...and your heart's already not performing optimally.
Either way, people have really got to be careful with these supplement-laden energy drinks. Just because it doesn't come in a drug bottle doesn't mean that it doesn't act like a 'pharmacological agent'. BTW, just because it days 'natural' on the box doesn't mean that you can pop 50 pills a day without incident. It's a drug.
Caffeine is a pharmacological agent.
...and 'herbal' supplements are NOT regulated, standardized or tested for safety, FYI. Meaning, there are no regulations to control how they are made. You don't actually know how much of a 'dose' you're rec'ving.
Of course, everyone blames the FDA.
Well, in their defense?
You can tell people all about these things until you're blue-black in the face. Doesn't matter.
I've seen people on this very site encouraging the use of supplements...with no precautions or considerations for pre-existing medical conditions.
Pharmacology is pretty 'black n white'... which goes to show just how lazy some of these people are.
They don't have understanding. They're not working with 'applied' knowledge.
That's why they 'copy/paste' everything and directing detractors to a 'book of opinons' (not facts) that some random a--s 'doctor' wrote.
Yeah...some 'doctor' whose specialty has nothing to do with anything medical...let alone being in the vicinity of biological science.
Seriously...?
...but what can you do?
*shrug*
These people would argue down those who know better about this matter and most would side with the individual who flat-out doesn't know what the hell they're talking about... because their words are pro-natural...because they're promoting an 'alternative'...because they're rhetoric is anti-western science or... afrocentric?
What's the use?
Best that anyone can do is tell people to do is think (critically) and not be so gullible and easily led.