Panera is being sued for negligence after a customer drank its caffeinated lemonade that allegedly caused him to die from cardiac arrest

David Brown had hypertension and didn’t drink vitality drinks, however the lawsuit mentioned he believed the Panera Charged Lemonade was secure because it was not marketed as an vitality drink. It was provided in the identical place because the restaurant chain’s non-caffeinated or less-caffeinated drinks, in accordance with the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court docket in Delaware, the place Panera Bread Firm is registered.

The lawsuit states that on Oct. 9, Brown had the drink thrice throughout a go to to the Panera Bread Firm location in Fleming Island, Florida. On his stroll house, he suffered cardiac arrest and died a short while later. He had ordered a Panera Charged Lemonade at the least seven occasions over the course of two weeks in September and October, in accordance with the lawsuit.

“Defendants knew or ought to have recognized that the Panera Charged Lemonade, as designed and formulated, as soon as consumed, might injure kids, pregnant and breastfeeding ladies, and folks delicate to caffeine by inflicting catastrophic accidents and/or dying,” the lawsuit mentioned.

Nobody from Panera’s company places of work responded to an inquiry looking for remark Tuesday afternoon.

Brown had a chromosomal deficiency dysfunction, developmental delays, some blurred imaginative and prescient and gentle mental incapacity, the lawsuit mentioned. He had labored for 17 years at Publix Super Markets and would often go to the Panera restaurant after work for meals, as many as thrice every week, as a result of the lawsuit mentioned he felt the chain marketed as being a wholesome various to different eating places.

One other wrongful dying lawsuit was filed in October by the household of 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a College of Pennsylvania scholar with a coronary heart situation who died in September 2022 after consuming the drink, in accordance with media experiences.

The privately-held Panera Bread Firm, which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, operates in 48 U.S. states and Canada.