Purveyors of Charged Lemonade, a caffeinated lemonade drink, at Panera Bread, Walnut Creek, California, March 27, 2023.
Smith Collection Gado | Getty Images
Panera Bread has settled with the family of an Ivy League student with a heart attack who died after drinking the highly-caffeinated Charge Lemonade drink.
Sarah Katz, 21, was a University of Pennsylvania student with a heart condition called long QT syndrome type 1 who avoided energy drinks on the advice of her doctors, according to a lawsuit filed last year in Philadelphia.
The lawsuit said Katz bought a Charged Lemonade at a Panera restaurant in September 2022. His roommate and close friend told NBC News he was arrested hours later.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Katz’s parents, was the first of four lawsuits Panera has faced over the drink. A second lawsuit blamed the death of a Florida man and the other two said Charge Lemonade caused permanent heart damage in otherwise healthy people.
Panera announced in May that it would discontinue the drink nationwide.
Elizabeth Crawford, a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm Kline & Specter, PC, which represents the plaintiffs in all four cases, told NBC News Monday morning in her first interview since the settlement that “the matter has been resolved” but said she he was not allowed to share any other details.
Panera did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the development. After learning of Katz’s death, the company said it was “deeply saddened to hear of Sarah Katz’s tragic passing” and vowed to “further investigate the matter.”
Panera Bread Co. restaurant. in the Queens area of ​​New York, US, on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Despite the lawsuits, which refer to Charge Lemonade as a “dangerous energy drink,” Panera said the decision to drop the drink was part of a “recent menu change.”
A wrongful death lawsuit filed after Katz’s death alleges that the charged Lemonade was “served side-by-side with all of Panera’s non-caffeinated and/or low-caffeinated beverages” and advertised as a “plant-based and clean” drink. contains as much caffeine as restaurant black roast coffee. Charge Lemonade also contains guarana extract, another stimulant, and the equivalent of about 30 teaspoons of sugar, the complaint said.
After Katz’s death, Panera made a number of changes, including moving Charged Lemonade behind the counter so it could no longer be self-serve and revising its nutritional information to show how much caffeine was in the drink when served with ice. . It also added prominent signs warning that Charged Lemonade contains caffeine, should be consumed in moderation and is not recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant or nursing women.
Katz’s case was supposed to go to trial this month, and jury selection is expected to be completed this week.