A U.S. teenager has died after consuming too many high-caffeine drinks in a short space of time.
Davis Allen Cripe collapsed at his high school in South Carolina last month. He died less than an hour later.
That morning, the 16-year-old had consumed a latte from McDonald’s, a highly caffeinated energy drink and a large Mountain Dew in just under two hours, coroner Gary Watts recorded, as reported by The Guardian.
The cause of death was said to be a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia.”
Watts said the teenager was considered healthy and that the autopsy showed no sign of an existing undiagnosed heart condition.
“We’re not saying that it was the total amount of caffeine in the system, it was just the way that it was ingested over that short period of time.”
“We’re not trying to speak out totally against caffeine,” Watts noted.
“We believe people need to pay attention to their caffeine intake and how they do it, just as they do with alcohol or cigarettes.”
