A 13-year-old girl who suffered paralysis after drinking energy drinks every day has been warned one more bottle could kill her.
Caitlin Fraser was at Coatbridge High School, North Lanarkshire, when she started suffering stroke-like symptoms, losing sensation in the right side of her body before collapsing.
The talented dancer would regularly purchase a 50p energy drink called ‘Emerge’ from an ice cream van close to the school, and it is believed the caffeine from the drink caused a Hemiplegic Migraine.
Caitlin told the Daily Mirror:
The right side of my face dropped and I was wondering what was going on then two minutes later my full right side had dropped and I had no sensation down my right side.
I was really scared, my friends then told the teacher who went and got a first aider and the school contacted my mum and dad and then phoned an ambulance…I had lots more tests and now I have been diagnosed with sporadic Hemiplegic Migraine.
On my results it came back that it could have been too much caffeine…I used to buy this drink Emerge every day at lunch from the ice cream van which is parked outside school and some shops in the street.
The doctors and consultant said if I drink this again I could end up having a cardiac arrest.
I just want to make people aware of what happened to me, yes it’s very rare, but it can happen to you.
Laura Fraser, Caitlin’s mother, added:
I am not saying that the drinks are entirely responsible but I do think that they are not for children.
I know that hundreds of the kids at Caitlin’s school buy these drinks regularly, they are freely available and cheap and marketed to be colourful and energy packed.
My preference would be for her to drink water – but what can you do? You can’t be with them 24-hours-a-day.
It would be better for shops to put an age limit on selling these drinks to prevent young people from getting their hands on them.
Meanwhile manufacturers of ‘Emerge’, Cott Corporation, have yet to respond to reported requests for comment.
