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Sipping Danger: A Grieving Mother Exposes the Lethal Risk Behind Energy Drinks

December 17, 2011, was like any other Saturday. I got up around 8 a.m. to get my 11-year-old daughter Jade ready to spend the day with her father. When she left around 9 a.m., my 14-year-old twin son and daughter were still sleeping.

Anais got up around 11 a.m. Her boyfriend was dropping by around noon to spend the day with her. As a high school freshman, this was her first ‘real’ boyfriend. He arrived with McDonald’s chicken nuggets and fries. They ate lunch and watched some TV.

They asked if I could take them to the mall late that afternoon, so they could see a movie. At 4 p.m., Anais’s twin brother Dorian and I dropped Anais and her friend off at the mall. A little over an hour later, Anais asked if I could pick them up because the movie was not available.

Unbeknownst to me, during this time, my daughter had purchased a 24 oz. energy drink from the candy store in the mall. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that evening. Anais and her friend watched ‘1408’ in the family room while I watched a movie in the living room.

Around 8 p.m., Anais’s friend ran down the stairs to tell me something was wrong with Anais. I asked, ‘What do you mean something is wrong with her?’ He said, ‘She just kind of leaned over and exhaled really loudly.’

I figured she just fell asleep. But her friend looked really concerned, so I ran up the stairs. I saw her slumped onto her side on the couch. I sat next to her, tapping her cheek, and calling out her name. ‘Anais, wake up. ANAIS, wake up!!!’ She gasped, and her eyes rolled back. There was a gurgling/gasping sound coming from her throat. At that second, I knew something serious was happening.

Courtesy of Wendy Kline

I immediately moved her to the floor and realized she stopped breathing. I started CPR while dialing 911. I told the dispatcher my daughter stopped breathing and I was performing CPR and begged him to send an ambulance. I was crying and yelling at Anais to hold on! I asked the dispatcher, again and again, if help was on its way. While it seemed like an eternity, EMS arrived about 10 minutes later. I explained to the EMTs that she gasped and lost consciousness, and I suspected an energy drink may have been the cause. There were at least [four] people working on her, and it took them [four] different shocks with the defibrillator to stabilize her.

While they worked on Anais, I questioned her friend about their activities while they were at the mall before this happened. I said, ‘Look, I need to know exactly what you two did today! I promise I will not be angry, I just need you to be honest!’ He swore they didn’t do anything bad except for buying an energy drink. I would never allow my children to have those drinks because I imagined they had a lot of unnecessary chemicals in them.

When we arrived at our hospital, I asked if the energy drink could’ve caused this. The doctor said, ‘It could have, but we aren’t sure…’ After a few hours of getting her stabilized, we flew to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Over the next [two] days, I sat with my coma-induced daughter as she was packed with ice in order to bring her body temp down to 93 degrees. This enables the brain to rest after oxygen deprivation.

After 48 hours, they attempted to bring her out of sedation. But after her blood pressure spiked to an extremely high level and she exhibited seizure-like activity (post-hypoxic myoclonus), they put her back under sedation for another day. In the next couple of days, I watched as my daughter’s heart rate became more erratic, her left lung collapsed, and her seizure-like activity continued.

Courtesy of Wendy Kline

This is when my research began. I was certain the energy drink was the cause of Anais’s cardiac arrest since she had not consumed anything else out of the norm. I interrogated her boyfriend about any drug or alcohol use, and he assured me that none of those kinds of activities had occurred (which her clean toxicology report confirmed).

With my cell phone in hand, I began googling any articles I could find about the effects of energy drinks. Everything I found only cemented my theory. During that week, I discovered that these drinks were not regulated by the FDA, contained enormous amounts of caffeine, and were linked to other cardiac events.

I then started researching some of the other ingredients, like Guarana, Panax ginseng, taurine, etc. Guarana can contain up to almost [three] times the amount of caffeine that is in coffee beans. Energy drink labels showed an ‘energy blend’ amount but did not break that down into caffeine content. Panax ginseng is used to improve thinking, memory, concentration, etc. Sounds like something good for your body, right? Well, Panax ginseng interacts with caffeine and should not be taken together. So, why is this in a highly caffeinated beverage that is available to anyone perusing the aisles of a candy store?!

While at her bedside, the same question replayed in my head. ‘Why is my beautiful daughter laying in a hospital bed hooked up to a bunch of machines?!’ Anais was one of the kindest people I had ever met. She was born with empathy and compassion. When someone was being bullied, she intervened, even if it meant she would be the next target. When a new person at school sat alone in the cafeteria, she would invite them to sit with her.

She had always been an honor student and had just attended her first homecoming dance two months prior. Other than having strep throat a couple of times as a small child and the occasional cold, she was healthy. She had perfect attendance in school for years. I just couldn’t accept that this was happening to her.

WATCH: High School Principal Works Night Jobs to Help Low-Income Students

For some of the students a North Charleston High School, their principal will be remembered for a lifetime because of the impact he had on them. Why? This high school principal works night jobs to help his students.

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