Anais Fournier was hanging out with her friends at the mall on a typical Friday night. She purchased a 24-ounce “Monster” energy drink and quickly drank it. The next day, she had a second 24 ounce serving. Following this Anais’ brain began to swell, she lost consciousness, and doctors were forced to induce a coma to stop the brain swelling… she never regained consciousness and within six days, she was dead. So what happened?
Her death certificate cites “cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity.” Anais suffered from a very common heart condition called mitral valve prolapse, which causes the valves of the heart to malfunction. The condition which about 1 in 20 people have, usually doesn’t cause people any problems.
The caffeine content in the two drinks Anais consumed was equal to about 14 cans of coke. Monster has vehemently denied that two cans of their drink can cause caffeine toxicity – doctors disagree.
The American Academy of Pediatrics claims that not only is the level of caffeine consumed by Anais dangerous to kids as well as adults, but kids in general should not be consuming any levels of caffeine as they are more susceptible to having reactions like the one suffered by Anais.