RSSHere We Go, Another Teachable Moment
J.J. Jackson | February 5, 2009
Once again, at the risk of sounding cruel and uncaring, I must use a tragic death as a teachable moment. I do this because it is obvious to me that there are too many people for whom common sense is not a luxury that they have been able to afford as of late.
Now let us look at the case of Chloe Leach with the reminder that while I find her death tragic, I use it to hopefully help others who might be inclined to check their brains at the door and do really dumb things that are obviously dumb.
The Telegraph gives us the story:
Chloe Leach, 21, had drank around four cans of the energy drink and several VKs – a vodka based drink which also contains caffeine – when she suddenly fell to the floor in the Sugarmill club in Hull, East Yorks., on September 30 last year.
Miss Leach, a third-year social work student, of Cottingham, East Yorks., died at the scene despite efforts from staff and paramedics to revive her.
News flash! Large amounts of caffeine are NOT good for you! I would think someone smart enough to get into college would be smart enough to know this, but I guess that is not common sense enough.
Of course this was apparently made enough more dangerous because of a known condition she had:
Miss Leach, who had been diagnosed with epilepsy in 2001 after suffering fits and seizures, was believed to have QT Syndrome – a condition which affects the electric activity in the heart.
She also had an abnormally large heart, and the doctor who carried out the post-mortem felt it was “probable” that the caffeine had raised her QT Syndrome level to “abnormal”.
Dr Ian Scott, a consultant neuropathologist, said: “On the basis of probability, her epilepsy, the QT, her abnormal heart and the the high levels of caffeine found, the most likely cause of death was a cardiac arrhythmia due to underlying QT Syndrome.
“I excluded drugs as a cause – the only drugs she had taken was her anti-epilepsy medication. QT sufferers are prone to sudden arrests, the threat of which may not be detected during normal scans.”
As if ingesting large quantities of any drug (and caffeine is indeed a drug) that affects the heart (in this case heart rate) isn’t bad enough, to do know that you have a heart condition and take a drug like caffeine in such doses is just, well, something I cannot imagine doing.
I only hope that now that I have highlighted this case others will see it and not make similar mistakes.
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