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Lauren Skerritt played soccer, surfed and went to the gym. She competed in the Spartan Beast, an obstacle course that organizers described as soul-destroying. She was an athletic, healthy 27-year-old.
Then, according to a lawsuit filed this week, she drank Panera Bread's Charged Lemonade.
Hours after consuming 2½ of the cafe-bakery chain's caffeinated lemonade drink One day in April, Skerritt started having heart palpitations. She went to the hospital, where she ended up in the intensive care unit with atrial fibrillation and an irregular heartbeat.
Now Skerritt has ongoing heart problems that require her to take daily medication and cause her life to fall apart, she and her husband alleged in the lawsuit against Panera Bread filed Tuesday in Delaware.
Skerritt's case is the third against Panera over its Charged Lemonade, which contains up to 390 milligrams of caffeine per 30 ounces — four times as much as in a cup of coffee. The allegations raise questions about whether the drink, still sold by Panera, is safe.
Highly caffeinated drinks are popular. How much caffeine is too much?
Two families have claimed that their loved ones died after consuming the soda – a 46-year-old man from Florida and a 21-year-old student from Pennsylvania, both of whom had underlying medical conditions that may have made it unsafe for them to consume too much caffeine to take yourself.
Dennis Brown, a supermarket worker from Florida, suffered a heart attack in October while walking home from Panera, where he drank three sodas. According to his family's lawsuit, Brown, who was disabled, gave up energy drinks because he had high blood pressure.
According to her parents' lawsuit, Sarah Katz, who attended the University of Pennsylvania, suffered cardiac arrest after drinking the soda in September 2022 and later died in the hospital. She had a manageable heart condition that caused her to avoid highly caffeinated drinks.
The lawsuits, all filed by Philadelphia-based Kline & Specter, allege that Panera sells a “disproportionately dangerous” product. They argue that Panera failed to adequately warn consumers about the high caffeine content of its soda, which comes in multiple flavors, and made the drinks readily available for refills by offering them as self-serve drinks and as part of the chain's Unlimited Sip Club have .
The drink contains multiple sources of caffeine, including coffee and guarana extracts, as well as a high amount of sugar. The largest size, the Skerritts claim, contains 124 grams of sugar – more than a 12-ounce Red Bull and a 16-ounce Monster combined.
An occupational therapist living in Rhode Island, Skerritt didn't know she was ordering such a highly caffeinated drink when she chose the lemonade. She had no underlying health conditions, said her attorney, Elizabeth Crawford.
“It clearly shows that this is a dangerous drink,” Crawford said. “A reasonable consumer in a place like Panera Bread, with a drink like soda, with no pre-existing conditions – how would they ever believe the product was unsafe?”
Crawford said she has spoken to other people with similar allegations against Panera's soda and expects to file more lawsuits against the company.
Panera Bread did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Thursday. The company has denied the previous lawsuits. Last month, a spokesman said the company did not believe the Florida man's death was caused by a Panera product.
“We also believe this lawsuit, filed by the same law firm as the previous lawsuit, is without merit. Panera stands firm on the safety of our products,” the spokesperson said in December.
The online menu now labels the drinks as caffeinated, and when a user clicks on the drink, the description reads: “Naturally flavored, plant-based.” Contains caffeine. Use in moderation. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant or breastfeeding women.”
About 400 milligrams of caffeine per day is generally safe for healthy adults, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but how sensitive people are to caffeine can vary widely. If an adult drinks more than one supercharged soda, they would be exceeding the recommended amount.
The day she went to Panera in Greenville, Rhode Island, Skerritt, a vegetarian, saw the soda labeled “plant-based” and selected it based on that, the lawsuit says. That evening she had three heart palpitations as she sat in church.
The next day, she went to the emergency room where her heart rate reached into the 190s and an irregular heartbeat occurred. A few months later she was hospitalized again for atrial fibrillation.
Since then, she has experienced recurring heart palpitations, shortness of breath, tremors, weakness and brain fog, as well as hand tremors. She can no longer play sports like she used to, the lawsuit says.
Skerritt and her husband Christopher were recently married. A big part of their relationship was engaging in physical activities together, such as running the Spartan Beast race, Crawford said.
They also planned to start a family, but they put those plans on hold because Skerrit was told she would have a high-risk pregnancy due to her heart condition.
“Her whole marriage, her plans, everything has changed because she can no longer do the type of physical activity that they used to do,” Crawford said. “This creates a whole new normal for what they thought was going to be their life.”