Parents are suing Panera Bread after their daughter, who they say had a heart condition, drank caffeinated lemonade and later died.
The parents of an Ivy League student are suing Panera Bread, alleging that their daughter went into cardiac arrest and died several hours after drinking a „Charged Lemonade“ from the chain.
Sarah Katz, was a 21-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania when she visited a Panera Bread in Philadelphia in September 2022 and ordered the caffeinated beverage, which her parents describe in a lawsuit against Panera as „a dangerous energy drink.“ The lawsuit was first reported by NBC News.
According to the lawsuit, Katz had lived with a heart condition called long QT syndrome type 1 since the age of 5 and stayed away from energy drinks.
„She was very, very vigilant about what she needed to do to keep herself safe,“ her roommate, Victoria Rose Conroy told NBC News.
Conroy said that if Katz has known about the amount of caffeine, „she never would have touched it with a 10-foot pole.“
Katz was under the impression that the Charged Lemonade „was a traditional lemonade and/or electrolyte sports drink,“ as it wasn’t labeled as an energy drink, according the lawsuit.
