When truck driver Michael “Mick” Clarke died unexpectedly, his family was baffled. To the best of their knowledge, the 35-year-old healthy young man had no health issues. He was a regular runner, a non-smoker, and wasn’t overweight. Apparently, his death was caused by excessive drinking of popular energy drinks, and his death isn’t the first to be linked to the beverages. According to his mom, Mick probably drank four of the drinks per day to help him stay alert when he was working as a truck driver, and while that doesn’t seem excessive, evidently it was more than his heart could take.
Are four servings of any beverage really excessive? Many soda drinkers drink that many sodas in a day and I certainly have more than four cups of coffee per day. Because of that, it’s hard to imagine that someone can die from drinking an over-the-counter energy drink that is sold everywhere. However, the problem with energy drinks seems to be the combination of high doses of caffeine and sugar. In addition to the energy drinks, Mick’s mother, Shani Clarke, said that he was drinking coffee at home as well. When the coroner examined Mick, he discovered that Mick appeared to have suffered a heart attack that he was never aware of.
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The autopsy revealed that Mick’s cause of death was caffeine toxicity in a person with myocardial scarring, the scarring that was caused by the heart attack that went unnoticed. Shani Clarke said that Mick had complained of digestion just a few weeks before he died, and none of them thought much of it. She also noticed that he seemed to be consuming more of the energy drinks in the weeks leading up to his death. Could it be that he was tired from his heart condition and was, therefore, consuming more energy-inducing beverages? The coroner said that Mark’s indigestion could have been a heart attack in disguise.
Mick’s mother said that when she began putting all of the facts together, it began to make sense. When she saw him cleaning out his car one day, she noticed all of the energy drink cans and said, “I hope you’re not drinking all of them in one go because they can kill you.” Her words would prove to be tragically prophetic, even though she didn’t know it at the time.
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An Australian doctor said that there has been a significant increase in the number of emergency room cases involving caffeine toxicity, and he said that in most cases, the culprit is energy drinks. Because of what happened to her beloved son, Shani Clark started the Caffeine Toxicity Death Awareness Facebook group to try to raise awareness of this dangerous issue.
Featured image: Facebook and Alexas_Fotos, Pixabay
