Lawsuit Claims Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade Led To Teenager’s Cardiac Arrest

A high school senior went into cardiac arrest in March after he drank Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade, according to a lawsuit filed Monday (May 20) in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania.

The complaint claims Luke Adams, 18, purchased a large Charged Lemonade on March 9 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Later that evening, Adams went to a movie theater where a friend heard him making “unusual sounds” before he became unresponsive.

Two nurses and a cardiologist were at the theater, where they performed CPR on the teen and used an automated external defibrillator to shock Adams’ heart, which ultimately saved his life.

Dr. Andrew Pogozelski, who treated Adams at Allegheny Health Network’s Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, said that Adams was fortunate to have the medical professionals nearby.

“This was about as unlucky as you can get for this to happen to an 18-year-old, otherwise healthy person—but about as lucky as you can get for people in the movie theater to know what they were doing.” Pogozelski told NBC News.

Medical notes included in the suit state that “heavy caffeine intake” was identified as the only potential trigger for his cardiac arrest.

The suit was filed two weeks after Panera announced it was discontinuing the beverage. This is the fourth lawsuit filed against the chain. The caffeinated drink allegedly caused two deaths and permanent health problems for one woman.

Charged Lemonade contained caffeine from both coffee and the stimulant guarana extract. According to Panera Bread, a large Charged Lemonade contained up to 302 milligrams of caffeine. The Food and Drug Administration suggests that a healthy adult can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine daily.

Allison Childress, Ph.D., RDN, a registered clinical dietitian and associate professor of nutrition sciences at Texas Tech University, said that the speed at which one consumes caffeine can determine how it affects their body.

“Typically, you’re going to drink a cold lemonade with a meal faster than you might sip a cup of coffee, so you can consume a larger amount of caffeine in a shorter period of time,”  she told Very Well Health.

Panera Bread has not issued a public response to the lawsuit.

This article and feature photo first appeared in Black Enterprise.