Dennis Brown, 46, drank three of the highly caffeinated beverages before suffering a cardiac arrest in October, according to the suit.

Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.

Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.

  • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
    142·
    11 months ago

    If any sugar soaked beverage is allowed to be marketed as a health drink, that’s a problem that applies to the entire industry.

    And drinking 90oz is the fault of the consumer, remember how much blowback there was when New York banned selling drinks above a certain volume? The people want to be able to do drink ungodly amounts of soft drink, apparently.

    Only thing I really blame Panera for is not clearly labeling how much caffeine is in a cup, which I also don’t really blame them for because the last time I went to Starbucks or McDonald’s I couldn’t find out which latte had the most caffeine, so that’s standard behavior I guess.

    Push for more required disclosure if you’d like, I’d probably agree, but Panera was not out of line IMO.

    • Clasm@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 months ago

      If it is an industry problem, then this sort of event is usually what snowballs into actual change.

      The tip of this case, I believe, isn’t just the caffeine content, but the fact that it:

      • Wasn’t exactly labeled as a high-caf drink.
      • Was often next to, or in place of, non-caf drinks.
      • Was marketed as part of an unlimited drinks program.

      While the company isn’t required to cater to individuals with very specific tolerances of the simulant, they likely had data available to them that suggests that this outcome was always a possibility, yet they supposedly ran the product until people died.