Monster Beverage Corp. earlier this year advised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that a death of a 14-year-old girl whose parents sued the company last week was allegedly connected to its energy drinks after the media brought the matter to its attention.
"There was never direct contact from the family to the company," Judy Lin Sfetcu said Thursday. "We were made aware of the case earlier this year by reporters, I think it was ABC."
She emphasized Monster doesn't believe its energy drinks were the cause of her death.
Monster reported the death to the FDA because it is required to reveal such "serious adverse events" under federal law within 15 days. If Monster had knowledge of other deaths and failed to report the information to FDA, the company would be subject to criminal penalties under federal law.
Other sources outside Monster have reported additional deaths to FDA in connection with its energy drinks.
Public records released to the mother of the 14-year-old girl who died last year after consuming two drinks reflect five deaths potentially linked to Monster Energy beverages. FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess on Thursday underscored the agency has made no causal connection between the deaths and Monster drinks.
"Right now there is no causal link, there is no evidence those deaths were because of the Monster energy drinks," Burgess said in a brief phone interview.
Burgess confirmed Monster reported one death to the agency. The other four deaths allegedly associated with Monster beverages came from sources outside the company, said Burgess, who noted that was not unusual.
Of the five fatalities potentially linked to the company's beverages, FDA received three reports earlier this year, one in March and two in April, according to the records we obtained from the American Association for Justice. One death report was received in early December 2011 and another in April 2009. The records actually show six deaths, but Burgess said there was a duplicate record.
The symptoms associated with the deaths include loss of consciousness, cardiac arrest, arrhythmia and drug toxicity. It's unclear if the dates of the reports approximately coincide with the actual deaths, and the public data includes scant details on the circumstances surrounding the fatalities.
FDA is investigating those five deaths plus a report of a non-fatal heart attack, though Burgess could give no timeline on completing such probes.
The records were released late last month to Wendy Crossland in response to her Freedom of Information Act request for "adverse event reports" concerning Monster energy drinks from 2002 through the present.
In a lawsuit filed against Monster Beverage Corp. last week, Crossland and Richard Fournier contend their late daughter Anna Fournier wouldn't have downed two 24-ounce Monster energy drinks within a 24-hour period had she known the risks. Anna consumed the caffeine-equivalent of 14 12-ounce cans of Coca-Cola, sending her into cardiac arrest, according to the lawsuit.
In a press release Tuesday, Monster expressed its condolences to Fournier's family but denied responsibility for her death.
"The company monitors consumer communications it receives, is unaware of any fatality anywhere that has been caused by its products, and has never before been the subject of any lawsuit of this nature," stated the company, which has sold roughly eight billion cans of Monster Energy drinks over the last decade.
It was during two trips to the Valley Mall in Hagerstown, Md. that Fournier purchased the Monster beverages. During the evening of December 17, 2011, a few hours after drinking the second beverage, Fournier went into cardiac arrest and was unconscious when emergency responders arrived at her home, according to the lawsuit. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital induced the girl into a coma in order to reduce the swelling of her brain but she never regained consciousness and was taken off life support about a week later, the lawsuit explains.
Fournier's parents now want to hold Corona, Calif.-based Monster accountable for their daughter's death. In the 20-page complaint filed in Riverside's California Superior Court, they allege Monster's drinks are dangerous and that the company failed to warn the public about the potentially lethal risks of excessive amounts of caffeine and similar ingredients including guarana and taurine.
Its drinks are classified as dietary supplements, and FDA doesn't have authority to regulate the amount of caffeine in them. That fact has incensed some lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are worried about the adverse effects of excessive caffeine and similar ingredients contained in such energy drinks.
But Monster contends its energy drinks generally contain half the caffeine from all sources per ounce (10 milligrams) than coffee-house brewed java. "An entire 24-ounce can of Monster Energy® contains about 240 milligrams of caffeine from all sources, which is around 30 percent less than the average caffeine contained in a medium-sized, 16-ounce cup of coffee house brewed coffee," the company said.
