Panera just pulled its ‘charged’ drinks. For a Monroeville mom, ‘It’s such a relief’
Midday on Tuesday, Lisa Feyes heard that Panera was discontinuing its Charged Lemonade — the same drink that her son had consumed shortly before suffering a cardiac arrest in March.
“I was actually at work when I got the news and I almost cried,” she said. “I’m just so elated. It’s just a relief to know that nobody else is going to have to go through this because of this Panera drink.”
Feyes’ 18-year-old son, Luke Adams, quickly drank a large Panera Charged Lemonade the evening of March 9, before going to see “Dune 2” at the Cinemark movie theater at the Monroeville Mall. During the movie, Luke went into cardiac arrest; his friends yelled for help after one of them noticed that he wasn’t breathing.
His family shared his experience with the Post-Gazette in a story published a week ago as they sought to warn others about the drink.
Adamswas lucky that two nurses and a cardiologist happened to be in the movie theater, and performed CPR on him while his friends tracked down an AED device and called 911. He was shocked twice by the AED machine, which got his heart pumping again. Adams spent nearly a week in Forbes Hospital, and now has a defibrillator implanted in his chest, possibly for the rest of his life.
Panera said Tuesday that the drink will be discontinued, but didn’t say why or give a timeline.
The drink is the subject of two wrongful death lawsuits — one concerning a Penn student who had a heart condition, another of a man in Florida with high blood pressure — and at least one other lawsuit in which a woman blames the drink for causing an irregular heartbeat.
Panera previously listed a large Charged Lemonade as having an estimated 390 milligrams of caffeine. The company later updated its nutrition information to account for ice, listing the 30ounce large size at 237 mg.
As for Adams, he told his mother that while he was gladto see that Panera will no longer sell the drink, “He also said, ‘You know, it still doesn’t fix what happened to me,’ ” said Feyes. “He’s doing very well, but still adjusting to the defibrillator and havingthat in. He’s a strong kid.”
And while Feyes is also thrilled, she wishes the drink had been discontinued sooner — before her family nearly lost Adams.
“I just think it’s a shame that so many people had to be permanently affected or even lose their life because of this stupid drink,” said Feyes. “I’m just thrilled that they are taking it off.”