Parents warn teens off energy drinks after 16-year-old son died from drinking too much caffeine

Sean and Heidi Cripe are supporting a bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under the age of 18
Davis Cripes, 16, drank a Mountain Dew, coffee and an energy drink all within 40mins back in April 2017
He suffered from an ineffective heartbeat condition called arrhythmia
‘[Energy drinks] need to be thought of as something dangerous to your health. They could put your life at risk. Use our story. Use Davis,’ said the couple
Adults are supposed to consume no more than 400 milligrams in a day

By Matthew Wright For Dailymail.com

Published: 01:16 BST, 13 April 2018 | Updated: 01:33 BST, 13 April 2018

The South Carolina parents of the 16-year-old boy who drank too much caffeine and died from heart problem are taking their qualms with energy drinks to the State House.

Sean and Heidi Cripe are throwing their support behind a new bill proposed by Representative Leon Howard that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under the age of 18.

In April of 2017, their son Davis drank a Mountain Dew, coffee and an energy drink all within 40 minutes.

Sean and Heidi Cripe are supporting a bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under the age of 18

Sean and Heidi Cripe are supporting a bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under the age of 18 after their son died from drinking too much caffeine

Sean and Heidi Cripe are supporting a bill that would ban the sale of energy drinks to those under the age of 18 after their son died from drinking too much caffeine

He suffered from an ineffective heartbeat condition called arrhythmia

He suffered from an ineffective heartbeat condition called arrhythmia

The 16-year-old drank a Mountain Dew, coffee and an energy drink (stock) all within 40mins back in April 2017

The 16-year-old drank a Mountain Dew, coffee and an energy drink (stock) all within 40mins back in April 2017

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts, at the time, said Davis’s underwent arrhythmia, a cardiac event that causes ineffective heartbeats.

‘Your whole job as a parent is to protect your children and get them to adulthood. When you learn it was something that was legal that took his life, that’s hard to live with. Something we could have protected him from,’ Sean Cripe explained to WACH.

HOW MUCH CAFFEINE IS IN WHAT DAVIS CRIPE HAD TO DRINK?

Large Mountain Dew (24fl oz)

McDonalds McCafe Latte

Standard energy drink

For Howard, his hope is that energy drinks will be treated under the same critical view as alcohol.

Ideally, Howard would move to have the proposal become law by next year.

‘If kids can recognize they’re not good for them because of this legislation, it’ll educate them and make them have healthier choices as they get older,’ said the Midland, South Carolina, couple.

‘[Energy drinks] need to be thought of as something dangerous to your health. They could put your life at risk. Use our story. Use Davis.’

Adults are supposed to consume no more than approximately 400 milligrams in a day, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

That comes out to approximately five cups of coffee per day.

Energy drinks, however, consist of up to 300 milligrams of caffeine.

Assuming Cripe drank a large latte and energy drink, in addition to the large Mountain Dew, he would have had about 434mg.

IS IT COMMON FOR TOO MUCH CAFFEINE TO KILL SOMEONE?

According to CaffeineInformer.com, deaths caused by a person drinking too much career are rare.

The website states fatalities related to energy drinks are even more unlikely, due to the: ‘sheer amount of liquid that would need to be ingested at one time.’

However, the site goes on to state people with pre-existing conditions are more susceptible to potential complications from too much caffeine, and references three incidents of ‘death by energy drink’.

The first took place in Australia, and was studied in 2009. It found a 28-year-old man collapsed after consuming ‘7-8 cans of an unnamed energy drink’ over a span of seven hours.

He died of a fatal cardiac arrest.

Another of the incidents involved a Nigerian man who drank eight cans of Bullet Energy Drink as part of a bet to win $100. After finishing the last can, he ‘became unconscious and was pronounced dead a short time later’.

The third incident cited by the website was about a Japanese man who died after mixing energy drinks with caffeine pills.